A Study On The Application Of Thinking Maps To English Reading-to-write Teaching In Senior High School

As a learning activity that develops students’ thinking capacity and language application ability,English writing teaching has always been an important part of English teaching in senior high schools.Previous studies have proved that reading-to-write is an effective method of writing training.However,in practice,how to effectively implement reading activities to practically improve students’ writing competence has become a challenge for teachers.Thinking Maps is a set of visual thought representation tools for learning invented by David Heller（1988）.It consists of eight sub-maps,each of which corresponds to a thinking process.In reading-to-write teaching,students can use Thinking Maps to gain a deeper understanding about the logic and structure of a reading text.Also,they can achieve the goal of reading-towrite by drawing their own Thinking Maps as they write.Therefore,this study applies Thinking Maps to English reading-to-write teaching in senior high school,based on Thinking Maps theory and knowledge visualization theory.The purpose of this study is to explore the following three research questions:（1）What are the effects of reading-to-write teaching with the application of Thinking Maps on senior high school students’ English writing strategies?（2）What are the effects of reading-to-write teaching with the application of Thinking Maps on senior high school students’ English writing proficiency?（Analysis from writing content,language,and organization）（3）What are the students’ attitudes and perceptions towards this teaching model?The research subjects are two parallel classes of a high school in Haicheng,Liaoning Province.The experimental class adopts the reading-to-write teaching with the application of Thinking Maps,while the control class employs the reading-to-write teaching without any training on Thinking Maps.The research instruments comprise the questionnaire,tests,and interview.SPSS 23.0 software is used to analyze the collected data after the experiment.The findings of the study reveal that:（1）Reading-to-write instruction with the application of Thinking Maps is more effective in enhancing high school students’ awareness of using writing strategies.（2）Reading-to-write instruction with the use of Thinking Maps is more effective in improving high school students’ English writing competence.Further analysis shows that students’ improvement in the writing content and organization is significant,while that in the writing language is not significant.（3）Students have positive attitudes and perceptions towards this teaching model.Therefore,it is feasible and effective to apply Thinking Maps to the English reading-to-write teaching in senior high school.