An Experimental Study On Using Mind Map In Reading And Writing Class To Improve Junior High School Students’ Writing Achievements

As a way of cultivating the students’ ability to obtain and process information in English,English reading and writing have attracted more and more attention.Reading is a critical way of language input,while writing is an important way of language output.Therefore,reading and writing are closely related in the process of junior high school English learning.But in the actual English teaching process,reading and writing are often separated.Writing cannot attract students’ notice and is not conducive to improving students’ reading and writing level.In recent years,the teaching method of combining reading with writing has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad,and has proved to be an effective writing method.Mind map,as a visual cognitive thinking tool,is also a method of divergent thinking.In the teaching process of English reading and writing,it organizes the knowledge points of English effectively by visual method and forms a complete knowledge structure,so as to help students grasp the reading meaning and understand the writing context.Therefore,based on Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis,Swain’s Comprehensible Output Hypothesis and the theory of Knowledge Visualization,this study refers to previous studies on mind map and the combination of reading and writing,combines the actual situation of the eighth grade English teaching,adopts the quantitative and qualitative research methods,and carries out an experimental study by using mind map in reading and writing to improve students’ writing achievements in junior high school.This study selects two classes from the eighth grade students of Xiamaguan Middle School as the subjects.The two classes are divided into experimental class and control class.The author conducts an eight-week experiment by using experimental research,test,questionnaire and interview methods.Traditional teaching method is used in the control class to teach English reading and writing,while the experimental class uses mind map to teach reading and writing.Through the experiment,the author tries to answer the following three questions: 1.Can students’ writing achievements be improved by using mind map in reading and writing teaching? 2.Can students’ attitude towards writing and writing habit be changed by using mind map in reading and writing? 3.What is the students’ feedback on the application of mind map in the experimental class? The experimental results show that the application of mind map in reading and writing can effectively improve students’ writing performance in comparison with the traditional teaching method of reading and writing in junior high school.Under the framework of mind map,English reading and writing can be better integrated.And using mind map in reading and writing can change students’ attitudes towards writing and their writing habit.In addition,students like and are willing to accept the application of mind map in reading and writing.They believe that this teaching method can improve their writing level.Finally,the thesis points out some limitations and puts forward suggestions for further study.