On The Application Of Mind Mapping To Senior One English Underachievers’ Vocabulary Teaching

As a visual thinking tool,mind mapping links key words or key images to images,colors,symbols,etc.,which is proved to be able to help improve memory and learning efficiency.Therefore,it is widely used as an efficient tool,in teaching of all fields,including English vocabulary teaching.In the past decade,the research perspective on English vocabulary teaching strategies in China has been diversified,ranging from cognitive psychology,context to chunks and so on.There are many researches on the combination of mind mapping and vocabulary teaching,showing that mind mapping can promote students’ vocabulary learning.However,there is little research on the promoting effect of mind mapping on vocabulary learning of English underachievers.Inspired by the famous educationist Tony Buzan,it was in the process of teaching the so-called "left behind" that he summed up the overall structure of mind mapping.Starting from her own teaching practice and interest,the author chose the students with poor English academic performances in New Senior one as her experimental subjects.This paper explores whether the vocabulary teaching based on mind mapping design is beneficial to the vocabulary learning of Senior one English underachievers,where the benefits lie and how these effects are achieved.The main research method adopted in this research was the experimental method,and the research tools included the questionnaire on the knowledge of mind mapping and vocabulary learning strategies of Senior one English underachievers before the experiment,the questionnaire on the acceptance and application effect of mind mapping after the experiment,combined with interviews and vocabulary tests during the experiment.The month long experiment shows that the vocabulary teaching based on mind mapping desian is beneficial to the vocabulary learning of Senior one English underachievers,which is mainly reflected in the promotion of vocabulary memory and interest in vocabulary learning.The main way in which mind mapping exerted its influences is,by making full use of the two significant factors that affect memory——associating and emphasizing,to enable students to use all kinds of meaningful connections,such as lexical forms or word meanings to construct isolated words into lexical radiating vocabulary mind maps.Meanwhile the new vocabulary is processed on a deep level by the brain,thus,the memory effect getting improved.Besides,with various vocabulary learning activities,the vocabulary teaching based on mind mapping encouraged cooperative study,instructed the students to creatively construct the vocabulary map on their own and created a relaxing and mistake-free class atmosphere which took a load off students’ mind and promoted students to take an active part in class learning.As a result of all these factors,Senior one English underachievers’ interest in vocabulary learning is developed.