Abstract

English learning becomes more and more crucial, vocabulary teaching, as the basic and key point of English learning, is also a weak part in contemporary English education. Many students don’t know how to learn new words, especially for those in junior one who are considered as new English learners. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of teaching and learning English words is an urgent problem for both teachers and students to solve.

     Based on the understanding of the mind map and the study of relevant theories, this paper aims to study the following two questions: 1)What’s the relationship between mind mind map and words memorization? 2)How does mind map put impact on vocabulary acquisition?

     In order to confirm the inference, an experiment is going to be put into practice, in which 2 parallel classes of junior one in Yulin middle school in Chengdu are involved in as research objectives. The English level of the two classes is almost the same on the whole. To make comparison between the experimental class and the control class, the author adopts different teaching strategies during the two-month experiment. Meanwhile, by using methods of bibliographic retrieval, questionnaires, experimental research, and interviewing, the author has collected a great number of relevant data and information, and then made a careful inductive analysis. The results show that: 1) The students’ ability of divergent thinking has been improved. 2) Mind map is not only efficient for vocabulary learning and teaching but also for English reading and writing. 3) Mind map, on the one hand, stimulate students’ interest in English, on the other hand, it also enriches students’ vocabulary learning strategies and teachers’ vocabulary teaching method compared with the traditional single way of learning and teaching.

     This paper mainly focuses on the application of Mind Map in junior one vocabulary teaching. The author hopes that this thesis is supposed to make contribution to present junior English vocabulary teaching method enrichment and improvement.

Key Words: Mind Map; Junior Middle School; English Vocabulary Teaching

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-2

1.2 Research Significance-3

1.3 The Structure of the Paper-4

Chapter Two Literature Review-5

2.1 Vocabulary-5

2.2 The Vocabulary Acquisition Theory-5

2.2.1 The Process of English Vocabulary Acquisition-6

2.2.2 The Vocabulary Acquisition Theory and English Vocabulary Teaching-6

2.3 The Researches on English Vocabulary Teaching at Home and Abroad-7

2.4 Current Situation of Vocabulary Teaching-9

2.5The Mind-Map Theory and English Vocabulary Teaching-9

2.5.1 Researches on Mind Map in English Vocabulary Teaching-10

2.5.2The Analysis of Mind Map and English Vocabulary Teaching-11

Chapter Three Methodology-14

3.1 The Hypothesis of the Research-14

3.2 Research Subjects-14

3.3 Research Methods-15

3.3.1 Questionnaire-15

3.3.2 Test-16

3.4 The Process of the Research-16

3.4.1 Applying Mind Map to Vocabulary Teaching in Experimental Class-16

3.4.2 Applying Traditional Method to Vocabulary Teaching in Control Class-17

3.5 Data Collection-17

Chapter Four Findings and Analysis-19

4.1 Analysis of the Questionnaire-19

4.1.1 Analysis of the Questionnaire before Experiment-19

4.1.2 Analysis of the Questionnaire after Experiment-20

4.2 Analysis of the Test-21

4.2.1 Analysis of the Test before Experiment-21

4.2.2 Analysis of the Test after Experiment-22

Chapter Five Conclusion-23

Appendix: Questionnaire-24

Bibliography-26

Acknowledgment-27