An Experimental Study On The Application Of The Mind Mapping-based Continuation Task To The Teaching Of English Writing In Senior High School

English writing,as an important English learning skill,has drawn much attention from experts and scholars in the field of English education both at home and abroad.How to help students improve their English writing performance effectively and arouse their writing interest has become increasingly important.The continuation task is an effective method proposed by Professor Wang Chuming（2012）for promoting foreign language teaching and learning.It involves both the input and output of the language with the view to improving the students’ability in using a language effectively.Tony Buzan（1971）first developed the mind mapping,as a kind of visual thinking tool,which can inspire students’inspiration and enhance their interest in English writing.This thesis attempts to make an experimental study to explore whether the application of the mind mapping-based continuation task to the teaching of English writing is effective in senior high school.To be more specific,this study is conducted with the aim to explore the following two research questions:1.Can the application of the mind mapping-based continuation task to the teaching of English writing significantly improve the senior high school students’English writing performance?2.Can the application of the mind mapping-based continuation task to the teaching of English writing help arouse the senior high school students’interest in English writing?Accordingly,the author conducted the 16-week experimental research in a senior high school of Heyuan City in Guangdong Province from September 13^thh to December27^th,2018,which lasted about three months.There are 100 participants selected from the two parallel classes in Grade 10.One class randomly serves as the experimental class（EC）,and the other as the control class（CC）.Before the experiment,a pre-test was taken to find out whether there is a significant difference between the two classes in English writing performance or not.In the English writing class,the mind mapping-based continuation task was applied in the EC,while the continuation task was used in the CC.According to the research results,the following conclusions can be drawn:after applying the mind mapping-based continuation task to the teaching of English writing,the students in the EC have a significant improvement in their English writing performance and their interest in English writing has also been enhanced.It can be concluded that this new method is an effective way to improve the senior high school students’English writing performance.This study also offers some pedagogical implications for the teaching of English writing:firstly,teachers should emphasize the importance of the mind mapping during the process of English writing teaching;secondly,the continual writing topics should be as closely as possible to the students’text book;lastly,it is crucial to find out an effective teaching method which can arouse students’interest in English writing.