A Study On The Application Of Concept Map Strategy In English Writing Teaching In Junior High School

Writing is not only one of the essential skills in English learning,but also is one of the key points in English teaching.In other words,as a form of language output,writing is one of the criteria to measure a person's comprehensive language application ability.With continuous development and reform of junior high school English teaching,English Curriculum Standards for Nine-Year Compulsory Education(2011 Edition)brings forward explicit and specific requirements and criteria in English writing.However,at present,there still exist some problems in English writing teaching in junior high schools,such as the looseness of writing structure and the lack of discourse awareness and so on.Therefore,it is emergent for teachers to renew their teaching ideologies,explore and absorb new teaching methods and strategies.Concept map,as a strategy,has come into being.Put forward by an American scholar Joseph D.Novak,concept map is a visual tool of representing and organizing knowledge,which can clearly present the logical relationship between concepts.In view of the fact that concept map strategy,to a large extent,is beneficial to help learners acquire new knowledge,review and consolidate old knowledge,this strategy is widely used in the teaching field.On the basis of meaningful learning theory,schema theory and constructivism learning theory,this research aims at exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of concept map strategy in English writing teaching in junior high school.This research mainly focuses on the following three questions.(1)What effects does the application of concept map strategy have on students' interest in English writing?(2)What effects does the application of concept map strategy have on students' English writing performance?(3)What effects does the application of concept map strategy have on students' ability in organizing English writing discourse structure?The experiment lasted for four months is conducted by the researcher in a certain junior high school in Liaoning Province.Two parallel classes with 105 students in Grade Eight are chosen as the research subjects.Of the two classes,one is the experimental class with 52 students,and another is the control class with 53 students.Concept map strategy is applied in the experimental class,while the traditional teaching method is used in the control class.This study adopts questionnaires,tests and interview to collect relevant data and information,and SPSS 23.0 is employed to analyze data.The results of this research are summed up as follows:Firstly,the application of concept map strategy can improve students' interest in English writing.Secondly,the application of concept map strategy can improve students' English writing performance.Thirdly,the application of concept map strategy can improve students' ability in organizing writing discourse structure.In a word,the application of concept mapstrategy in English writing teaching in junior high school is feasible and effective.