On The Application Of Mind Maps To Junior English Vocabulary Teaching

As we all know, vocabulary is one of the most important foundations for Englishlearning. However, vocabulary learning and memory remains a great obstacle forEnglish learners and educators. During the basic education stage, it is easy forprimary school students to learn English words, and the disparity of their Englishlevel is not obvious. However, the English words in junior middle school tend to bemore difficult and the vocabulary which the students need to master is larger，whichmay make the students who have average or poor basic knowledge of English loseconfidence and interest in learning English. So this period may be a watershed forstudents’ English learning. English vocabulary teaching and learning have alwaysbeen hot topics.Based on the Spreading Activation Model and the theories of KnowledgeVisualization and Constructivism Learning, this thesis aims at applying the mind map(a visual knowledge representation tool) to English vocabulary teaching and learningand tries to find a better way of vocabulary teaching. The author selects two parallelclasses from a junior high school of Jinan as the research objects. The number ofstudents of those two classes is equal, and the disparity of student’s English level is sosmall that can be ignored. During the eight-week experiment, the author has collecteda large amount of relevant data and information by using the method of literatureretrieval, questionnaire investigation and the method of teaching experiment.Meanwhile, with the application of the mind map the author designs a specialdictation in the teaching experiment. Then the author carefully analyzes thequestionnaire and vocabulary dictation by using SPSS for Window20.0and Exceloffice software. From the results the author draws the following conclusions. Firstly,the mind map vocabulary teaching and learning can improve the effect of vocabularymemorizing and the accuracy of spelling. Secondly, this method can not only enhancestudents’ divergent thinking and promote their associative abilities, but also enlargetheir vocabularies. Lastly, through the activities of mind map vocabulary teaching and learning, the student’s ability of learning autonomy as well as the cooperationconsciousness is improved. Meanwhile, it helps them focus on self-learning strategies.To some extent, the mind map not only stimulates the student’s interest in Englishlearning but also improves their vocabulary learning abilities.The research findings will improve and enrich the present teaching methods andmeans of junior English vocabulary teaching. For students, the mind map not onlymakes their vocabulary learning efficiently but also simulates their interests inEnglish study and enriches students’ vocabulary learning strategies. In the end, theauthor looks forward the future research of mind maps on the application of Englishteaching and the development of teachers’professional skills.