A Study Of The Effects Of Applying Mind Maps To The English Writing Teaching In Junior Middle School

Writing,a kind of way to conduct communication,is regarded as one of the most important abilities that students have to master.Students in junior middle school are in the most fundamental and crucial period.And to achieve the quality-oriented education,it is necessary for students to develop language competence,including language ability,language knowledge,learning strategies as well as positive learning attitude.However,nowadays there are still many problems existing in English teachers' writing teaching and students' writing learning.To improve the efficiency of writing teaching and change the current situation,quite a few teachers dedicate themselves to exploring more effective teaching methods.The mind map,a powerful graphic tool,not only can help learners process information,enhance memory,but also can develop learners' divergent thinking ability and fully dig the potential of their brain.It has attracted many scholars' attention since it was invented by Buzan in 1960s.Many researchers have applied the mind map to the education field.However,the application of the mind map in English writing teaching in junior middle school is still not pervasive.Therefore,this research pays attention to the effects of the application of the mind map in English writing teaching in junior middle school.And this research tries to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the effects of the application of the mind map on junior middle school students' attitude towards English writing?(2)What are the effects of the application of the mind map on junior middle school students' using of writing strategies?(3)What are the effects of the application of the mind map on junior middle school students' English writing scores?This research was conducted in Class 4 Grade 9 in Taizi middle school in Huangshi.34 students were involved and it lasted 3 months.During this research,the mind map was adopted as the writing teaching method.And this research is divided into three parts:1.in the pre-experiment stage,to know students' attitude towards writing and students'using of writing strategies as well as students' writing scores,data is collected through two questionnaires and a test;2.in the while-experiment stage,the mind map is introduced to students and writing classes based on the application of the mind map are conducted many times;3.in the post-experiment stage,to know students' attitude towards writing and students' using of writing strategies as well as students'writing scores after the experiment,a questionnaire survey and a test are conducted.SPSS and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 are adopted to analyze the data collected before and after the experiment.This study found that:1.The application of the mind map in English writing teaching makes a difference to students'attitude towards writing.Students' interest and confidence in writing can be increased after the application of mind map in English writing teaching.3.The frequencies of students' using of writing strategies in the pre-writing stage,in the while writing stage as well as in the post-writing stage all can be increased after the application of the mind map in English writing teaching.2.The application of the mind map in English writing teaching has a positive impact on students' writing scores.Although there are some limitations existing in this research,I still hope that others can get some implication for further study.