MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY DAO NGOC TAM AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF MIND MAPPING IN LEARNING VOCABULARY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY DAO NGOC TAM AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND USE OF MIND MAPPING IN LEARNING VOCABULARY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc. LE PHAM HOAI HUONG HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ĐÀO NGỌC TÂM NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC VÀ SỬ DỤNG SƠ ĐỒ TƯ DUY VÀO VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG HUẾ, 2019 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere.
Signed: DAO NGOC TAM Date: 10/ 12/ 2019 i ABSTRACT This study was carried out to investigate EFL students‘ perceptions towards the use of Mind Mapping (MM) in learning vocabulary and the practice of this technique in vocabulary learning process at HUFL. Besides, the study also explored the difficulties faced by the students in using MM to learn vocabulary. The data were collected from 112 EFL students at HUFL through questionnaires, interviews and diaries. Both quantitative and quantitative methods were applied to the data analysis.
The findings of the research reveal that students have positive attitudes towards using MM in learning vocabulary. Besides, they knew how to combine colors, images and line to make the MM more interesting and effective for learning English vocabulary. However, the EFL students did not have much experience in applying MM to learn vocabulary and they always faced some disadvantages of technique such as shortage of time, lack of ability to create interesting mind maps and shortage of space for a large topic of vocabulary. Based on the findings, some practical implications for the students and teachers were made to improve the quality of vocabulary learning process by using MM.
ii Acknowledgement This thesis would not have been possible without the encouragement and whole-hearted assistance of many people. Firstly, I would like to express my deepest to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Pham Hoai Huong, whose encouragement, guidance, and support from the initial to the final level has enabled me to overcome many difficulties and develop my research skills. It is an honor for me to extend my special thanks to all the staff, especially, the teaching staff at Hue College of Foreign Languages.
Without their help and encouragement, I would not have accomplished my thesis. Secondly, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the second-year and third-year students at Hue College of Foreign Languages for their precious help and cooperation during my survey there. Thirdly, I wish to thank my friends who have encouraged me to carry out this thesis and shared with me their materials, ideas as well as useful comments on my research. Finally, millions of thanks go to our beloved family whose financial support and spiritual encouragement contribute a significant part to the completion of the research.
iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship. iii Tables of contents. iv List of tables. vii List of figures.
viii List of abbreviations .1 Rationale for the research .4 Scope of the research .5 Significance of research .6 Structure of the research .1 Overview of mind mapping .2 Theories supporting the concept mind map .1 Knowledge visualization theory .2 Brain science theory .3 Information processing theory .3 Types of mind maps .4 Steps of making mind maps .5 Characteristics of mind maps.6 The difference between mind map and concept maps .7 Advantages and disadvantages of mind maps .1 Advantages of mind maps .2 Disadvantages of mind maps .1 Definition of vocabulary .2 Importance of vocabulary .3 Types of vocabulary.4 Difficulties in learning vocabulary .5 Strategies for learning vocabulary .1 In the world .3 Gaps in the literature .3 Settings and Participants .5 Procedure of the study. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .2 Findings and Discussions .1 EFL students‘ perceptions of the use of MM in learning vocabulary .2 EFL students‘ experience in using MM to learn vocabulary.3 Difficulties encountered by EFL students in using MM to learn vocabulary. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER RESEARCH. EFL students‘ perceptions of using MM in vocabulary learning .2 EFL students‘ use of MM technique in learning vocabulary .3 Difficulties encountered by EFL students in using MM to learn vocabulary .5 Contribution of the study .7 Suggestions for the further research.
P26 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3. The reliability of the questionnaire. One-Sample Statistics of Mean Score of General Attitude Toward MM. One-Sample T- Test of mean score of General attitude toward MM.
Mean scores of EFL students‘ general attitudes toward MM. One-Sample Statistics of EFL students‘ experience on using MM in learning vocabulary. One Sample T- Test of mean score about Experience in using MM in learning vocabulary. Mean scores of EFL students‘ experience in using MM in learning vocabulary .8 EFL students‘ purposes in using MM.
Kinds of mind maps used by EFL students. One-Sample Statistics of mean score of difficulties faced by EFL students in using MM to learn vocabulary. One-Sample T-Test of mean score about. Mean scores of the statements about the difficulties encountered by EFL students in using MM to learn vocabulary.
45 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Network tree about ―Components of ecosystem‖. Event chain about ―Morning routine‖. Circle map about ―Water cycle‖.
Spider map about ―Mind Mapping‖ .5: Differences and similarities between mind maps and concept maps. EFL students‘ response to the item ―MM improves my creativity‖. 38 vii i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a foreign language HUFL : Hue University of Foreign Languages M : Mean MM : Mind mapping SPSS : Statistical Packages for Social Sciences ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research Vocabulary plays a vital part of English language. According to Brown (2002), vocabulary is as a building block and a core component of any language, which indicates how significant it is to learn vocabulary.
Al-Qahtani (2015) further states that without sufficient vocabulary, learners cannot understand others or express their own ideas.4) identifies, ―learners carry around dictionaries and not grammar books‖ because individual words alone can make successful communications in some circumstances, which does not hold true for grammar. Therefore, it is essential for language learners to acquire more productive vocabulary knowledge and to develop their own personal vocabulary learning strategies. To master a language, the learners have to face to a challenging process – vocabulary learning. In fact, most students spend a lot of time studying English vocabulary but the result is not positive because many of them learn new words by rote memorization, which is boring and reduces students‘ enthusiasm for learning.
Thus, it is important to find out an effective tool to help students learn English vocabulary(Ashraf, 2017). One effective method of studying vocabulary is mind mapping. The term Mind Map (MM) originated from the theory of radiant thinking, or the full brain actively thinking of associations driven from a central concept (Buzan & Buzan, 1996). Creating new ideas and problem solving emerge when the mind is allowed to think radiantly or freely.
Therefore, MM is considered an active learning strategy that facilitates the learning process and promotes the mind‘s natural ability to think (Buzan & Buzan, 1996). Recently, many researches on the use of MM have been conducted all over the world into different fields, especially in education and brought positive results. As Liu, Zhao, Ma and Bo (2014, p.17) point out, ―MM has 1 positive effect on teaching and learning and country, usage, subject and achievement can influence the results‖; in another research, Aleksić, Stanković, Papic and Besic (2011, p.337) show that ―students are more motivated to learn through the MM. So, as MM allows visualization of the content, students establish better integration of theoretical and empirical knowledge‖.
It is obvious that MM is one of the most effective techniques used in teaching, particularly in English. In 2011, the application of MM in teaching and learning was piloted at 355 schools in Viet Nam. The result showed that MM helped students have deep understanding about their lesson, connect information logically in their brains and maximize the creativity of each student. Therefore, Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam decided to choose MM as one of five topics that was trained to teachers nationwide.
MM has been used effectively in teaching and learning many subjects such as History, Geography, or Math. In teaching English; however, MM has not been used popularly yet. Teaching vocabulary is considered as a small part in each English lesson, so the teachers hardly have enough time to help students to master this field. This is a challenge for the learners because they cannot remember effectively with deep understanding a long list of words in a short time by traditional learning ways such as learning by heart, doing dictation or reading the words loudly many times.
In this circumstance, MM can be an effective solution to help students learn vocabulary better. Nevertheless, some EFL learners seem not to know or fully understand the necessity and benefits of MM in learning process. In addition, up to now, a few studies have been conducted on MM in vocabulary learning English. Because of these reasons, the research ―An investigation into the perceptions and use of MM in vocabulary learning by EFL students at HUFL‖ was carried out.2 Research aims This study attempts to investigate the EFL students‘ perceptions of the use of MM in learning vocabulary and the practice of this technique in 2 vocabulary learning process at HUFL.
This is also the basic for the suggestions for MM application in learning vocabulary toward EFF students at HUFL.3 Research Questions The research aims to seek answers to the following questions: Question 1: What are EFL students’ perceptions of the use of Mind Mapping in learning vocabulary? Question 2: How do EFL students use Mind Mapping in learning vocabulary? Question 3: What difficulties do EFL students encounter in using Mind Mapping to learn vocabulary? 1.4 Scope of the research The research was limited to HUFL. The main participants were the first year and the second year students whose major is English at this university.5 Significance of research This research is expected to help EFL students at HUFL realize the important role of MM in learning vocabulary. In addition, the significance of this research encourages EFL students to apply effectively and flexibly this technique not only learning vocabulary but also in other language fields such as grammar or writing skill. Besides, it may inspire further research on using MM in learning English in high school and lower secondary school.6 Structure of the research This research paper is composed of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction – Presents the background, the rationale, the aim, the research questions, the scope and the significance, the structure of the thesis.
Chapter 2: Literature Review – Provides key definitions and concepts relating to this study and presents previous research projects relating to the topic. 3 Chapter 3: Research Methodology – Point out the information relating to the methods used in the research such as methodology, participants, and produces of the research and data collection.