| English reading is a basic skill in English learning, and is also a vital aspect in English teaching. However, there are some problems in English reading teaching in junior high school. Students are not interested in English reading; teaching methods are not as effective as they are expected and the improvement of students’ reading proficiency has been slow. Therefore, this research tries to explore a new teaching method in English reading based on mind map.Mind map proposed by British educator Tony Buzan has been widely used in many countries since 1970 s. Mind map is an effective thinking model. It can visualize knowledge and human’s thinking process. Mind map is very helpful in organizing information, making the choice, and finding the connection between new information and former information to enhance memory. Therefore, the research attempts to apply mind map to English reading teaching to testify its effectiveness as a teaching means. In addition, the research also tries to confirm that mind map can arouse students’ reading interest.The empirical study focuses on two research questions:1. Does mind map arouse students’ interest in English reading?2. Can the application of mind map improve the students’ reading proficiency?For this research, two classes in Jinzhou No.8 Middle School are chosen as subjects. One is randomly chosen as the Control Class(47 students), the other is the Experimental Class(45 students). The Control Class is taught with the traditional teaching approach. Mind map is taught in the Experimental Class. Questionnaires, interview and tests are used in the experiment.SPSS 13.0 and interview shows the results of the study. Firstly, the application of mind map in English reading class can arouse students’ interest in English reading. Secondly, the application of mind map in English reading class can improve students’ reading achievement. Therefore, mind map is feasible in junior high school English reading teaching. |
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