The Application Of Mind Map In The Planning Stage Of Writing In Senior High School

As one of the four basic skills,writing plays a vital role in the process of language learning and truly reflects the ability of language communication.It is obvious that it is of great importance in students' learning.Nevertheless,present English writing teaching in high school is not satisfying.Teachers with traditional writing teaching method ignored the cultivation of students' logic thinking and seldom gave specific guidance during the writing process.At the same time,an increasing number of students suffer from incoherent organization,inappropriate language use or so while writing,and all the problems are related to the activities and training of mind map in the planning stage of English writing.Therefore,trying to stimulate students' writing interest,reset their attitudes and enhance their writing abilities in content,organization and language use,the author resorts to mind map technique and aims to apply mind map teaching method in the planning stage of English writing.Mind map is a graphical diagram that visualizes the process of radioactive thinking.It is a creative tool,like a tree with plenty of branches,linking scattered information or thoughts radically around a central topic through pictures,words and colors.Based on mind map teaching method,the cognitive schema in students' mind will be stimulated,the integration of prior knowledge and new knowledge would be promoted,and the personalized writing would possibly be generated.The research aims to apply mind map in the planning stage of writing in senior high school and tries to improve students' writing abilities.Thus,the research has two questions:Question 1: What is the influence of the application of mind map in the planning stage of writing on students' interest and attitudes?Question 2: What is the significant influence on the writing content,organization and language use of the experimental class by applying mind map in the planning stage of writing?In this study,two questionnaires and two tests were used as research instruments to conduct an empirical study by applying mind map in the planning stage of writing and the subjects of this research are students from two classes of Grade two in No.10 senior high school.Through two and a half months' experiment,the main findings are as following: The mind map teaching method can effectively stimulate students' writing interest and they hold positive attitudes towards mind map;The greatest influence is on the language use part and the least impact is on the organization part.In a word,the content,organization and language use of students' compositions in experimental class are significantly improved by applying mind map in the planning stage of writing.