An Empirical Study Of Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High Schools Based On The Mind Map

This thesis has studied the vocabulary learning in junior high school English class. Vocabulary is one of the indispensable factors of English, and vocabulary teaching has been a weak part in junior high schools in China for a long time. Students usually meet various difficulties in vocabulary learning, and they memorize English words mechanically. So we have to find an easy way for students to learn vocabulary. Mind map, which is one of the simple visual tools, can help students learn and memorize new words efficiently and easily.Based on the theory Mind Map, the theory of Knowledge Visualization and the theory of Learning Strategies, this thesis has studied the following two questions:1) What effect does the application of mind maps have on promoting the formation of vocabulary learning strategies of students in junior high schools?2) What is the relationship between the vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary test scores of the junior high school students?In this experiment, two parallel classes of grade 7 students in Yong Ding Middle School were chosen as the subjects. The research mainly adopted pre-test and post-test, questionnaires and vocabulary tests as the approaches. The research data are analyzed by applying Reliability Analysis, Factor Analysis, Independent-Samples T-Test, Paired-Samples T-Test and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis.The study discovered that:1) the six strategies--pre-planning, autonomous learning, self-assessment, classification, word formation and association--are closely related to students’vocabulary learning. The strategies of the students in the experimental class, in which the methods of Mind Map adopted have been adopted, have been improved evidently, while those of the students in the control class have not been improved evidently.2) After the experiment, both of the scores of the experimental class and the control class have improved, but students’post-vocabulary test scores from the experimental class are much higher than the sores of the students from the control class. With the aid of Multiple Linear Regression, it is found that the three strategies of pre-planning, classification and association contribute noticeably to students’ final test scores in the experimental class, and the they have predict effect on the students’vocabulary test scores.The author hopes that this study can provide some references for the application of Mind Map in English vocabulary teaching in junior high schools and help to enhance the efficiency of English vocabulary teaching and learning.