| Reading has been widely accepted by both teachers and researchers as one of the key factors that influence the rate and success of foreign language learning.For several decades,researchers in education and language learning have recognized the importance of reading for successful second language learning.In recent years,improving students' reading competence has always been an important goal of English teaching.However,plenty of problems still exist in middle school's English reading teaching.For instance,plenty of English teachers still use traditional teaching methods,and they still focus on the analysis of vocabulary and grammar knowledge in the article rather than learning the text as a whole.Therefore,the main ideas of the text,the author's attitude and views are often overlooked.This paper argues that the application of mind mapping in English reading teaching is one of the most essential methods to solve the current problems.The mind map,also known as mental map,is an effective graphic thinking instrument for expressing divergent thinking.The mind map was proposed by British educator Tony Buzan,and now it has been widely used in many countries.Mind mapping combines the left and right brains of the human being to present information,knowledge,tasks,etc.visually.Researches have shown that the mind map helps learning,thinking and memorizing.Therefore,it is necessary to carry out investigation into English reading teaching facilitated by mind maps among junior high school students so as to give English teachers pedagogical implications on how to use mind maps to facilitate their teaching.This paper applies the mind map to English reading teaching,and attempts to verify the effectiveness of mind mapping as a teaching method.In addition,this study also attempts to prove that it can help students improve their reading strategies.This study mainly focuses on the following issues:1.What are the effects of mind mapping on students' reading comprehension in English reading teaching in junior high school?2.To what extent does the teaching method based on mind mapping help to improve the reading strategies?3.What are the difficulties that English teachers are to face and solve in the application of mind mapping to practical teaching? How can mind maps be adopted to enhance students' reading comprehension?Seventy-eight students from Wenfang Middle School in Yingtan City,Jiangxi Province,were selected as subjects for the experiment.The first class of ninth grade is an experimental class with 38 students,where the mind map is applied to teach reading comprehension.The third class of ninth grade is a control class with 40 students,and the teacher still conducts the traditional teaching method to explain reading comprehension in this class.This study adopts the methods of pre-test,post-test,questionnaire and interview.The research process is mainly divided into the following aspects.First,before the experiment,pretesting and questionnaire surveys are conducted among students in the first class and third class of the ninth grade.Then it is analyzed whether the reading ability of the students in the two classes is roughly the same.During the experiment,the teacher applies the mind map to the reading courses of class1 grade 9 to conduct the teaching.After the experiment,the students of the first and third classes of the ninth grade are post-tested,and questionnaires and interviews are conducted among the students in the first class.In addition,the data collected from the experiment are processed and analyzed with SPSS statistical software.Based on the analysis of the results,the following conclusions can be drawn:First of all,mind maps play a positive role in the improvement of junior high school students' English reading ability.Secondly,after applying the mind map in English reading teaching,the students in the experimental class prompt to utilize some reading strategies to obtain some important information and knowledge.Thirdly,the students in the experimental class respond significantly better to the English reading materials than the students in the control class.Fourthly,teachers and students' roles are transformed with mind maps.The teacher is the organizer and guide of the classes,and students can complete and improve the mind map under the guidance ofthe teacher. |
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