An Empirical Study On The Application Of Mind Mapping To The Teaching Of Summary Writing In Senior High School

Summary writing is a novel form of writing of high school studen ts under the background of the curriculum reform in high school.Students are required to write a summary of the content of an essay within 360 words according to the essay provided,which is required to cover the main points of the essay.Summary writing is a process from reading to writing.Regarding it difficult,students generally lack the correct writing methods or skills,so how to cultivate students’ ability to write a summary has been a big concern for EFL teachers.Mind mapping,invented by Tony Bu zan in the 1960 s,is a visual chart,a holistic thinking tool that can be applied to most fields of cognitive functions,especially in memory,creation,learning and all forms of thinking.In recent years,there have been studies of the application of mind map in English teaching,mainly exploring its role in memorizing English words and reading comprehension.This study adopts qualitative and quantitative research techniques to explore whether the application of mind mapping in teaching can improve student s’ ability of summary writing,enhance their interest in summary writing and change their attitude towards summary writing.This empirical research is conducted in Grade Two in a high school in Ningbo.The participants are students from two classes of the same English proficiency and writing ability,of which one is experimental class and the other is control class.Data are collected through questionnaires,writing tests,and interviews,then quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis are carried out.The research shows: 1)The use of mind map in the teaching of summary writing can stimulate students’ interest in summary writing and improve their confidence.2)The use of mind map in the teaching of summary writing can enhance student’s writing ability of summary by means of helping students to analyze and understand the context of the article and find the main points,helping clarify the thinking and organize the framework of outline in summary writing,as well as enhancing students’ ability to associate key words and expressions and to express main points;3)While using a mind map for teaching summary writing,EFL teachers should take advantage of characteristics of the mind map and combine it with other teaching methods.Teachers should also attach great importance to cooperative learning in the form of interaction between students as well as the interaction between teachers and students.In this way,they can better guide students from reading to writing.Therefore,the application of mind mapping in the teaching of summary writing can play a positive role in summary writing and it is a valuable teaching tool and means worth trying.