An Empirical Study On The Application Of Mind Map To English Reading Teaching In Rural Junior High Schools

As is known to all,junior high schools' English is the fundamental stage of English learning,its importance is self-evident.While in most rural areas of China,junior high schools' English teachers mostly adopt the cramming teaching method,paying attention to teaching,but neglecting students,thinking.Therefore,most rural junior high school students report that English learning makes them feel inadequate,abstract rote memorization makes it difficult to improve their English reading comprehension ability.Faced with the situation,many scholars at home and abroad are exploring new and effective English teaching methods constantly.In 1960s,Tony Buzan,a British psychologist and educationist,proposed the mind map.It is a visual knowledge representation tool,which combines keywords,graphics and colors.It is also of great significance to enhance people's understanding and divergent thinking ability.There are many discussions on the application of the mind map to English teaching in English education circles at home and abroad already.However,few empirical studies based on this theory were carried out in rural junior high schools in China,so it needs to be tested urgently.Based on the practice of English reading teaching in rural junior high schools,this paper makes an empirical study on the application of the mind map in English reading teaching in rural junior high schools by combining quantitative and qualitative methods.This study aims at the following three questions:1)What effects does the mind map have on the English reading learning of rural junior high school students?2)What effects does the mind map have on the interest,attitude and confidence of rural junior high school students in English reading?3)What effects does the mind map have on the rural junior high school students' overall understanding of reading materials and information acquisition?The study randomly selected two parallel classes with the same average grade as the control class and the experimental class.In the control class,the current English teaching method is used in reading teaching,while in the experimental class,the mind map is used in reading teaching.The experiment lasted sixteen weeks.Sample data was obtained by pre and post-test,questionnaire and interview.The data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 software,using the methods such as reliability analysis,factor analysis,independent sample T test and paired sample T test.The results show that:1)Mind map is more conducive to teachers to present the teaching content effectively and thus help improve rural junior high school students' reading comprehension ability;2)Mind map can improve students' interest,attitude and confidence in English reading;3)Mind map is conducive to rural junior high school students' English reading in understanding materials and information acquisition.