VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES **************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY LAN USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BAC GIANG UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY (Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tại trường Đại học Nông-Lâm Bắc Giang) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi-2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES **************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY LAN USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BAC GIANG UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY (Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tại trường Đại học Nông-Lâm Bắc Giang) M. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi-2012 Hanoi-2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration.
iii Table of contents. iv List of abbreviations. vii Lists of tables and figures. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
An overview of mind mapping. Definition of mind mapping. Classifications of mind mapping. Cycle concept map.
Spider concept map. The applications of mind mapping to teaching a foreign language. The applications of mind mapping to teaching vocabulary. The overview of vocabulary.
12 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary. Mind mapping in teaching vocabulary. The advantages of using mind mapping.
Review of related studies worldwide. Review of related studies in Vietnam. 21 CHAPTER 3: USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY 22 TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BUAF AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS. Using mind mapping to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English 22 major students at BUAF.
A brief introduction to BUAF. The teachers of English. The coursebook “New Cutting Edge – Elementary”. How to use MM to teach vocabulary in the coursebook “NCE – 25 Elementary”.
Three chosen vocabulary parts in the coursebook “NCE – 25 Elementary”. How effective is mind mapping in teaching vocabulary to the first year 30 non-English major students at BUAF?. Method of the research. 30 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Data collection instruments. Data analysis procedures. Findings and discussion. The effectiveness of mind mapping technique to teaching 32 vocabulary.
Students’ feedbacks on the application of mind mapping in 34 vocabulary lessons. Major findings of the study. Pedagogical implications and suggestions. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further studies. I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS MM: Mind mapping MMs: Mind maps BUAF: Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry NCE: New Cutting Edge L2: Second language vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 1: Question 1 & 2 in questionnaires and students’ answers 34 Figure 1: Example of mind mapping 5 Figure 2: Network tree of U.S currency 7 Figure 3: Event chain 7 Figure 4: Cycle concept map 8 Figure 5: Spider concept map 9 Figure 6: Mind map on “Transport” 16 Figure 7: Mind map on “Family week away” 16 Figure 8: Why to use mind maps? 18 Figure 9: Mind map on “Transport” 27 Figure 10: Mind mapping on “Drink” 28 Figure 11: Mind mapping on “Food” 28 Figure 12: Mind map on “Film” 29 Figure 13: Students’ interest with the application of mind mapping 35 Figure 14: Do you want to learn vocabulary with MM any longer? 35 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Vocabulary is an important element in second language (L2) acquisition. By learning new words, learners can enhance their listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as improve comprehension and production in L2.
When a person’s vocabulary is limited, he may find himself incompetent in learning English as he cannot make full sense of what he hears or reads. Dellar and Hocking (cited in Thornbury, 2002: 13) states, “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much. You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions. You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words.” Thornbury (2002: 23) also maintains that learners need not only to learn a lot of words, but also to remember them.
The prominent role of vocabulary in second or foreign language learning has been recently recognized by theorists and researchers in the field. Accordingly, numerous approaches, techniques, exercises and practice have been introduced into the field of vocabulary teaching (Hatch & Brown, 1995). It has been suggested that teaching vocabulary should not only consist of teaching specific words but also aim at equipping learners with necessary strategies to expand their vocabulary knowledge (Hulstjin, 1993, cited in Morin & Goebel, 2001). Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001).
One of the strategies in learning vocabulary is how to learn and remember vocabulary effectively. Learning new vocabulary involves storing them first in short-term memory, and then in long-term memory. There are some factors affecting the process of remembering new vocabulary items. They may be the ways to present the words, how frequently they appear or how words are recycled.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Rivers (cited in Thornbury, 2002: 144) states that “vocabulary cannot be taught, it can be presented, explained, included in all kind of activities and experienced in all manner of associations…but it is ultimately learned by the individual.” Moreover, one of the strategies to teach vocabulary is to apply images and review well in a structured way. Mind mapping is believed to be one of the techniques or activities which can be used in teaching and learning vocabulary effectively. For all the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to choose Using mind mapping (MM) to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry (BUAF) as the topic of my MA thesis. Aim of the study The study is aimed at finding the ways to use MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF effectively with the coursebook New Cutting Edge (NCE) – Elementary.
Research questions In order to address the aim of the study, the following research questions are raised for exploration: 1. What are the applications of MM to teaching a foreign language in general and teaching vocabulary in particular? 2. How is MM used to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF effectively? The answer to Questions 1 involves a review on the notion of MM and its applications to teaching a foreign language in general and teaching vocabulary in particular. The answer to Question 2 involves a mini-experiment in which I will exploit the insights of MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF, using the coursebook the university is currently using; then in order to get 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com to know how effective MM is to teaching vocabulary, a small research is conducted to obtain the opinions from the students at BUAF.
Scope of the study Given the aim set in 1.2 and the research questions raised above for exploration in 1.3, the study can not cover all aspects of vocabulary teaching and learning. It only focuses on applying the insights of MM to teaching vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF. Significance of the study The study will be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field of English language teaching and learning: students can use MM model to learn vocabulary quickly and more effectively; teachers can understand more about the MM model and use it to teach vocabulary more effectively in their lessons; and researchers will use the study as a reliable source of reference in their research. Organization of the study The study consists of four chapters.
Chapter 1 – Introduction – covers the rationale, the aim, the research question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study. Chapter 2 – Literature review – provides the theoretical background of the study which includes some basic knowledge of MM in general and MM in teaching vocabulary in particular. Besides, some advantages of using MM are also presented. Chapter 3 – Using MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF and its effect – describes the method based on which the study is carried out with the description of participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures and analysis procedure.
It also gives a brief introduction to BUAF, English teachers, students and the coursebook that the university is currently using. Besides, in this chapter, it attempts to describe in detail three places where vocabulary is taught to the first year non-English major students at BUAF, 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com using the coursebook “NCE – Elementary”. Then to arrive at a preliminary confirmation about the usefulness of MM in teaching vocabulary, a questionnaire is designed to obtain students’ opinions. And when there is some doubt about the results of the questionnaire, an informal interview is conducted.
The chapter ends with presenting the findings and a discussion of them. Chapter 4 – Conclusion – summarizes the main issues of the study, points out the limitations of the study, presents the implications for using MM to teach vocabulary and make some suggestions for further research. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. An overview of mind mapping 2.
Definition of mind mapping “Mind mapping” or “Mind Map” was developed by the British psychologist Tony Buzan in the late 1960s in an attempt to help students take notes effectively. Buzan (1993: 1) states in “The mind map book” that “MM is a powerful graphic technique, which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain”. According to McGriff (2000: 9), “MMs are an excellent way to help learners organize knowledge, to empower themselves to better comprehend the key concepts, and principles in lectures, readings, or other instructional materials”. De Porter, Readon and Nourie (1999: 175) states that “MM is a creative note-taking method, which eases us to remember much information”.
The best MM is colorful and used much pictures and symbols; usually like an art.com/Creating-Your-First-Mind-Map) Figure 1: Example of MM With the use of MM in the example above, it can be seen that the learners can better understand the key concept “holiday” with detailed supporting ideas such 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com as where and when to go, where to stay, who to go with and how to go. They can not only organize their existing knowledge systematically but remember more information related to the key concept. In general, MM imitates the thinking process, namely helps us to move from one topic to another topic back and forth, and presents the information through symbols, pictures, emotional meaning and colors, exactly the same as our brains process it. It uses lines, colors, arrows, branches or some ways of showing connections between ideas generated on our mind map.
Our brains can remember things better with visual, colors and pictures and therefore remember the facts and ideas that go with them. Classifications of mind mapping There are many different types of MM. Here are four common types that we can find. They are network tree, event chain, cycle concept map and spider concept map.