A Study On The Application Effects Of Mind Mapping On English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

Writing,as a crucial skill of English learning,integrates vocabulary,grammar,and syntax into one comprehensive part,which examines students' overall language quality.Accordingly,composing a good writing is difficult for senior high school students along with the increasing requirements.For teacher who functioned as a mediator in the classroom teaching,they ought to reflect constantly that how to improve learners' English writing ability and how to help students write a full-length English composition logically in a limited time.Consequently,it is of significance to explore an effective teaching method of writing.Mind map,a visual graphic tool as well as the expression of divergent thinking of human beings,was initially put forward by the distinguished British scholar Tony Buzan in 1960 s.In the process of mind mapping,meaningful texts and relative pictures were well adopted to present,organize and elaborate complicated information logically.Not only can mind map simplify the abstract and implicit knowledge to logical context and distinct photographs,but also can exploit human's brain potential.In this thesis,therefore,an empirical study is conducted to explore the effects on senior high school students' English writing achievement.The study mainly focuses on three questions:(1)What is the current situation of mind mapping in English writing teaching?(2)In what aspects can mind mapping affect students' English writing?(3)what are the possible effects on students of different levels? The research was conducted in Xinxiang No.1 High School.One class was chosen randomly as the subjects,including 54 students.The pre-test and post-test data was collected by using three instruments,namely interview,questionnaire and English writing tests.Then the author adopted comparative experiment method to make a statistical analysis of the writing scores and the questionnaires with the assistant of SPSS.The major research findings can be concluded as follows:(1)For teachers,writing teaching has always been ignored in teaching process.Most of the English teachers do not specially arrange writing activities but pay more attention to reading and grammar classes.According to the interviews,some teachers don't have a deep understanding of mind mapping,and they hardly integrate it with writing teaching.Besides,it is difficult for students to compose a logical writing in limited time,because of the study burden,the lack of effective learning methods and the influence of mother tongue.Some students have never heard of mind mapping as a learning tool,and a few of them only have a slight knowledge about it,let alone the ability of using it.(2)The teaching method of English writing based on mind mapping has many positive effects on students' writing.First of all,the use of mind mapping can stimulate students' interest and confidence in writing.Moreover,mind mapping can help students visualize the knowledge in their brains,construct a clear writing framework,and fully develop students' independent creativity.Secondly,after a period of teaching practice,students become more logical in composition organization and language expression,and their writing ability is improved accordingly.(3)This writing teaching model can effectively improve the students' overall writing scores.However,the positive effect of this mode on middle level students is relatively more significant than that of the high-score students.That is to say,this kind of writing teaching method is suitable for most students,especially those at the middle level.