思维导图在初中英语阅读教学中的应用

论文总字数：37840字

摘 要

思维导图是东尼·博赞于20世纪60年代提出的一种思维工具，其核心思想就是把形象思维与抽象思维很好地结合起来。在英语阅读教学中巧妙运用思维导图，可以有效培养和激发学生英语阅读兴趣，并提高阅读质量。

本文以对思维导图的研究为基础，分析目前初中英语阅读教学在初中英语教学的地位和作用以及存在的问题，结合具体阅读材料分析如何在初中英语阅读教学中利用思维导图促进英语阅读效果以及加强学生阅读能力的培养，并由此给出思维导图对其他英语教学模块的启示。

关键词：思维导图；初中英语阅读教学；思维工具；英语阅读能力

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Mind Map 2

2.1 Origins and Popularization 2

2.2 Features 3

2.3 Functions 4

2.4 Theoretical Bases 4

3. Status of English Reading Teaching in Junior Middle School 5

3.1 Importance 5

3.2 Problems 6

4. Applications of Mind Map in the Teaching of English Reading in Junior Middle School 7

4.1 In Pre-task Reading 8

4.2 In While-task Reading 10

4.3 In Post-task Reading 16

4.4 In After-class Reading 16

4.5 Enlightenment 17

5. Conclusion 18

Works Cited 20

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of the economy, China has more and more communications with other countries in the world. And as English has become one of the most popular and general languages, English learning and teaching have attracted increasing attention in China. It is in junior middle school that English teaching serves as a bridge which is significant to link the English language knowledge in primary school with that in senior high school. So it is very important for students’ lifelong English education. It is well known that English reading has been always a vital issue of English teaching in junior middle school. However, due to the situation in China where students’ life is largely determined by the scores of examinations, the effects of English reading teaching in junior middle school are not as good as expected though teachers and students have put so many emphases on it.

Therefore it is of great urgency to find better ways to solve the problems and improve the existing English reading teaching in junior middle school, many scholars have done some studies. Tony Buzan advocates in his book Buzan Study Skills Handbook that mind maps are particularly adaptive for reading as they are very useful and effective in gathering and ordering information and recognizing the key trigger words and facts from books, textbooks and so on. Many scholars like Weinstein and Mayer have recognized the significance of the use of concept maps in text comprehension. In their opinions, students who have mastered the ways to read and construct maps are more likely to be good at recognizing the internal connections among concepts in text. Some scholars analyze the applications of mind map in reading from only one perspective, and the findings are thus limited to a certain degree. For example, Chinese scholar Zou Jianjun, from the point of cognitive theory, has claimed in his research that applications of mind map in the teaching of English reading can help students to rearrange the old and new knowledge in the mind and construct knowledge net. By doing these, students can achieve the cognitive capacity to analyze the main idea, logical structure, writing style, writing techniques, social and cultural backgrounds and other aspects of the text.

This thesis will analyze English reading teaching from the perspective of mind map to show the benefits that mind maps bring to the English reading teaching in junior middle school and students’ reading abilities. Mind map is a graphic, networked method of storing, organizing and prioritizing information using key or trigger words and images, each of which will “snap on” specific memories and encourage new thoughts and ideas. (Buzan, 2006: 138). They value the radiant thinking abilities. Junior middle school students are rapidly developing their abstract thinking ability and the imaginary thinking ability is very important for them. So they are in desperate need of a imaginary thinking tool to help them construct the clues and structures of the reading material. Mind map is fortunately a thinking tool to meet this demand as it can vividly organize and present the knowledge by using the characters, symbols and images and at the same time helps students to improve their own reading schema by understanding, memorizing and comparing the reading material. And therefore, students’ reading abilities will be greatly polished.

This thesis will be constructed from the aspects as follows. The first part is the introduction of this thesis. The second is a brief introduction of mind map. The third is a introduction of English reading and an analysis of the situation of English reading teaching in junior middle school. The fourth is how to apply the mind map to the teaching practice and some enlightenment for the other aspects of English teaching. At last, a general conclusion will be drawn.

2. Mind Map

The brain of human beings is similar to an excellent bio-computer which casts any machine in the world into the shade. Mind map, which has been called the “Swiss army knife for the brain”, has been used by more than 250 million people in the whole world and caused an extraordinary brain storm of education, business and other areas.

2.1 Origins and Popularization

The term "mind map" was originally proposed by Tony Buzan, a British popular psychologist and expert on human brain and memory. At the beginning, mind maps were solely used for note-taking. But now, they have become a useful thinking tool adopted in many fields like education, medical science, agriculture, industry and meteorology. Time once commended that Tony Buzan’s contribution to the brain is as great as that of Stephen William Hawking to the universe. In foreign primary and secondary schools, the educational reforms which advocate the use of mind map have been in full swing. UK government has made the mind map a compulsory course for primary and high school students. Nowadays, many educational services in Singapore, Japan, Korea, German and America are beginning to make researches on mind maps. What’s more, a lot of famous universities such as University of Cambridge, Harvard University and The London School of Economics and Political Science are using and teaching mind maps. The studies of mind map appeared in China in 2000 and became booming before long. Since 2007, a great many of theses of mind map covering wild areas have been done and especially applications of mind map in teaching practice enjoys great popularity among the scholars. Growing numbers of educators begin to combine the mind map with teaching practice in order to achieve better teaching effects.

2.2 Features

A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added. Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches (Budd, 2004: 34-35). A complete mind map is basically made up of two factors: concepts and the relations between them. It begins with the central concept and then the related ones will be shown on the branches according to their relations.

In general, a mind map has the following four main features:

1. The main topic is focused on a central image.
2. The branches radiate from the central image in multi-direction.
3. A key image or word on the associative line constitutes branches and the less vital theme can also be represented by a branch, but attached to a higher-level branch.
4. Every branch will form a connected nodal point.

And there are also some other features: it is similar to the image of neural networks of the brain; it emphasizes the cooperation of left hemisphere and the right one; it comprises colors, images, symbols and is not limited to the characters.

2.3 Functions

Mind maps are made to encourage individuals’ brain to work in a fast, efficient and natural way. When we use mind maps, the focuses which are clearly on the central diagram along with the key words on the branches accelerate the learners’ memory and understanding of the learning content. As there are various kinds of images and colors in mind map, the brain can be greatly motivated and so as to work more effectively. What’s more, what the mind map present to us is the thinking process instead of the results of thinking, so learners can improve their abilities of radiant thinking and make clear their clues of thoughts. Besides those, with the help of mind map, learners themselves or even others can review the whole thinking process when in need.

2.4 Theoretical Bases

One of the most important theoretical bases of mind map is Brain Science Theory which advocates that the left hemisphere responsible for words, logic, numbers, and so forth and the right hemisphere for space, dimension, association, color and so on. The two sides of brain never work in separation. Only when both of them cooperate with each other can they give full play of the brain. The more the both sides are stimulated at the same time, the more advantages the brain will bring to humans. Mind map, making full use of the both sides of brain, can trigger the potential of the brain and balance the development of it. Another indispensable one is Cognitive Psychology. According to it, learning is a course of processing information. It is impossible for students to master a mass of knowledge within a short time if they do not have time to think or process information. In order to make a mind map, students need to think independently and process the information that they have got in the mind to generalize the key words and the relations between each branches. As a result, students can not only get the information but also store them in the mind for a long time.

3. Status of English Reading Teaching in Junior Middle School

Reading is a psychological course through which the brain processes and understands the meaning of information after the visual perception of language signals. From a large number of studies and researches, W. Grabe drew the conclusion that second language reading should include six basic elements: automatic recognition skills; vocabulary and structure knowledge; formal discourse structure knowledge; world and cultural background knowledge; synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies; metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring reading (Zhong Qiquan amp; Zuo Huanqi, 2001: 157 ).

3.1 Importance

English reading is an essential one of the four important English language skills and for many, it is the most vital one to grasp. A good mastery of English reading is helpful to enhance the improvement of other language skills. English reading is not only one of the most important language skills that students need to master, but also serves as a major way of language input. What’s more, reading is the teaching aim as well as a teaching method of achieving teaching aim. The National English Curriculum provides the detailed descriptions of the five general objectives for level 5 which corresponds to the junior middle school students’ English abilities. As for the requirements of reading, it has the following descriptions: understand the logical relationships between sentences in a paragraph; pick out the main ideas in texts and understand the plots in stories, predicting their development and possible endings; have read materials of over 150000 words besides those in the textbook and so on (Cao Yamin, 2010: 14). Apart from those, in senior high school entrance examinations, English reading test including reading comprehension and task-based reading has a large proportion in the whole English examination. This demands the students to improve their reading abilities.

Junior middle school, which plays the role of connecting the primary school and senior high school, is very important in one’s lifelong English education and thus it has the largest proportion than other parts in the whole English courses. No matter it is from the aspect of requirements of English Curriculum Standard of Compulsory Education or the senior high school entrance examination, the teaching of English reading is significant in junior middle school English teaching.

3.2 Problems

Nowadays, more and more educators and students have been realizing the irreplaceable position of reading in junior middle school English teaching and they have take several actions to strengthen students’ comprehensive reading abilities. But the results are not so pleasant. Some problems are still existing blocking the development of English reading teaching.

Firstly, the majority of the junior middle school English teachers spend their most time and energy in teaching language knowledge like the meaning and the collocation of the new words while neglect the overall understanding of the content of reading material, which prevents the students from getting the ideas of the author in a whole. As a result, the perception of the language material does not have integrity because it has been divided into several fragmented and unsystematic chunks in students’ mind. And when memorizing the reading material, it is not hard to find that students undergo great difficulty because they have to memorize mechanically only with the help of the separated chunks without better methods.

Secondly, the present English teaching ignores the cultivation of students’ reading skills. The kind of teaching process which emphasizes more on structures of words and sentences misleads students to be content with learning the language knowledge points while never thinking about studying language skills. This phenomenon makes students’ understanding of the reading material stay on the literal level and causes students’ failure to get the real intentions of the author.

Thirdly, English reading teaching in junior middle school cannot meet the requirements of the National English Curriculum that help students to develop the comprehensive language application ability. When studying the new English knowledge, students cannot make full use of the relevant schema in the mind and fail to master the knowledge as effectively as possible.

In respect to the problems discussed above, it is easy to find that at present, junior middle school students have difficulty in language transition and English reading teaching focuses little on the understanding of the reading material and the development of language abilities while much on the memorization of segmentary language knowledge points.

4. Applications of Mind Map in the Teaching of English Reading in Junior Middle School

Mind map is a visualized network of the knowledge elements constructed on the basis of the relevant relations. It is a graphic thinking tool used to express radiant and imaginary thinking and is also the outward manifestation of the diagram of thoughts in the mind. Junior middle school students are developing their imaginary thinking ability, so mind map will be of great use when used in the English reading teaching in junior middle English classes. What’s more, the applications of mind maps in the practice of English reading teaching in junior middle school will be successful in influencing junior middle school students’ cognitive structure and teaching them to master the reading methods by offering a concrete and efficient visual schema tool.

The National English Curriculum Standards advocates task-based language teaching in the teaching practice to develop students’ comprehensive language application ability. It requests the teachers to use the task-based teaching methods as much as possible and avoid the teaching methods that merely aim to impart the English language knowledge. In task-based language teaching practice, teachers design the teaching and learning activities corresponding to students’ abilities and thus students’ minds are kept active and the language learning process becomes growingly independent and automatic. As the meaningful tasks have close relationships with students’ daily life, they have something to say and therefore look forward to taking part in them. Besides, it is good to cultivate students’ ability to analyze and solve problems as well as to improve their intelligence levels which can result in their greater confidence and motivation to learn English.

Nowadays, the teaching of reading is the core of every unit of junior middle school English textbooks. More and more junior middle English teachers have been employing the task-based teaching method in the reading teaching process. Generally speaking, the task-based reading includes three parts: pre-task reading, while-task reading and post-task reading. The great benefits that mind maps bring to the reading teaching will be illustrated with the help of the analysis of the three parts of the teaching design of the reading material Hollywood’s all-time best -Audrey Hepburn taken from Fun With English 8B. In order not to waste time in class, when preparing the lessons, the teacher will have made a mind map of the text to make each step of applications of mind map in the teaching process clear. And also the teacher needs to make the teaching materials like pictures in good preparations and print out them beforehand if necessary.

4.1 In Pre-task Reading

This part plays the role of introducing the topic of the text. It is very important because it intends to arouse students’ interest of the topic and if it fails this purpose, students may lose concentration on the lessons. So tasks in this part must start with topics that are familiar or interesting to students and make them desirable to express their opinions. The design of the pre-task reading of the text Hollywood’s all-time best -Audrey Hepburn is as follows:

Step1: Have a revision of the comic strip by asking students: What place does Eddie think he should be? Students will answer Hollywood

Step2: Show some pictures of Hollywood and then ask students: What occurs to you when you hear or see the word “Hollywood”? Students may answer films, famous, Los Angeles, superstars, Oscar and so on

Step3: Can you name some superstars in Hollywood?

Step4: If some students mention Audrey Hepburn, this step will be omitted. If not, the teacher will introduce the topic of Audrey Hepburn by saying his or her favorite superstar in Hollywood.

Step5: Play a video clip of about one minute acted by Audrey Hepburn and then ask what do you know about her?

In this process, a mind map will serve as a brainstorming tool to visualize the students’ the whole thinking process in the mind. After having a revision of the comic strip that students have learnt in former class, the word “Hollywood” will be introduced in the first step. Then the teacher will show some pictures of it and choose one of them as the central part of the mind map. In the second step, being shown the pictures, students’ interest has been aroused. Making the most of human imagination to think out as much as possible when see or hear an item is the key step to start a mind map. So students will be asked to express their ideas when they see the word “Hollywood”. Junior middle school students have very active thinking and don’t like their minds to be limited, so this step is very interesting for them as they can express whatever in their mind without limitation and everyone is given the chance to participate in the teaching and learning process. By this step, the central part and the first-level branch has been done (shown in Picture 1).

In order to introduce the topic of Audrey Hepburn, the teacher will further ask students to have association. By asking students to name some superstars of the Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn will be introduced. And Audrey Hepburn’s great beauty in the video clip will inspire students desire to know more about her. What’s more, one feature of mind map is that its branches can be drawn in different colors by imagination to show the characteristic of the key words. In this part of mind map, branches can be made in various colors as when mentioning the superstars, people cannot help thinking of their colorful life. And the mind map of the pre-task reading process has already done (shown in Picture 2).

By drawing the mind map, the topic is introduced gradually and naturally. The whole thinking process in the brain is presented visually on the paper and students can have a clear vision of it. In this part of English reading teaching, a mind map can also vividly show the combination of the new knowledge and the old one as the topic is usually introduced by what the students have known. Besides, the colorful branches that are drawn with students’ imagination will make the learning process more exciting.

Picture 1

Picture 2

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