(SKKN 2022) using mind map in speaking lessons to improve tinh gia 1 high school’s 10th grade students’ speaking skills

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION &TRAININGTINH GIA I HIGH SCHOOL Minor thesis in education USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA 1 HIGH SCHOOL 10TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SP

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION &TRAINING

TINH GIA I HIGH SCHOOL

Minor thesis in education

USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO

IMPROVE TINH GIA 1 HIGH SCHOOL

10TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

(Áp dụng sơ đồ tư duy trong các giờ học nói nhằm cải thiện kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh khối 10 tại trường THPT Tĩnh Gia 1)

Người thực hiện: LÊ THỊ XUÂN Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Tĩnh Gia 1

Tổ chuyên môn: Tiếng Anh

Thanh Hóa: 2022

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled:

USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA 1 HIGH SCHOOL’S 10 TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

is the result of my own research to improve 10th grade students’ speakingskills at Tinh Gia 1 high school and that, it has not been published or submitted for

any other purposes

Teacher in charge

LÊ THỊ XUÂN

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.

1 4 Research methods of the study 2

2 1 3 Nature of language teaching and speaking teaching 4

2 1 4 Definition of Mind Mapping 5

2 1 5 Technique of making mind maps 6

2 2 1 Students’ difficulties in speaking classes 11

2 2 2 Teachers’ difficulties in speaking classes 11

2 3 1 Advantages of using mind map in teaching speaking 13

2 3 2 Sample lesson plans using mind map strategy 13

In language teaching, the main objective is to prepare students forcommunication in the real world and it is very important for a learner to efficientlyequip himself with four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, togetherwith relatively sufficient background knowledge

In order to achieve the language teaching aims, in our contemporary Englishcurriculum, new learning and teaching approaches are required The newcurriculum advocates process-oriented language learning and teaching approaches,such as experiential learning and cooperative learning: students are encouraged toexperience the language, learn the language by self-discovery, participate indiscussion and negotiation activities It emphasizes the role of positive affectivestates on the part of the students It advocates the task-based approach to languagelearning and teaching, which means learning by doing and by using the language

It incorporates learning strategy development into the classroom instruction.Besides, the new curriculum brings out a lot of changes accompanied with a newvitality At the same time, it sets incomparable challenges for teachers

However, in reality, most of our students, even though start to learn Englishsince the very early year of school (even from the first grade), cannot communicatewith people from English speaking world with confidence From my experience as

a teacher of English at Tinh Gia 1 (TG1) high school for 16 years, I have realizedthe bitterly disappointing truth that after about seven years or more of studying

English, what our students get is almost a “dead” language In other words, many

students who have studied English for many years (7 years ) leave school unable tocommunicate in it

That is why I felt the urge to do research about it and took appropriateactions It is time that great efforts were made by teachers to improve the quality ofEnglish speaking lessons as well as to meet the teaching goals and to help studentsovercome difficulties in expressing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings in English.Therefore, this issue has brought me a great desire to conduct an action research

entitled “Using mind map in speaking lessons to improve Tinh Gia 1 high

cause barriers in English speaking for students at TG1 high school as well as tofind out how mind map strategy can help to tackle these problems With this study,

I hope to make some contribution to improving students’s English speaking skills

1 2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

- Investigating and discovering obstacles or difficulties that both students and teachers have encountered in English speaking lessons at TG1 high schools

- Suggesting some solutions of using mind mapping strategy in the post-speakingactivity (production stage) to address those problems and to help students developpresentation skill in particular, and improve speaking skills in general

1 3 Subject of the study

Within this study, I put focus on teaching speaking by using mind mapping

in the post-speaking task in the tenth-grade classes at TG1 high schools I usedmind mapping as a technique to improve students’ speaking skills in describingthings and people In this research, students’ accuracy, fluency, andcomprehensibility in speaking were assessed From these findings, some samplelesson plans are suggested

The study was conducted on the students of grade 10 at TG1 high schoolwith the current textbook “Tiếng Anh 10”

1 4 Research methods of the study.

In order to get the goals of the study, a wide range of data from observationare gathered, questionnaires and sample speaking test results are analyzed .Therefore, all comments, remarks, suggestions, and conclusions provided in thestudy are based on the results of the data analysis

2 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

2 1: Theoretical background

2 1 1 Definition of speaking

As we all know, speaking is a productive skill in two- way process of socialcommunication which includes the use of verbal and non- verbal language toconvey meaning When people have conversation with others, they include theprocess of producing language and receiving massages It can be said that speaking

is one of the most significant elements of communication since it could be used as amedium of social interaction Speaking means conveying the message through thewords of mouth This skill is also called “Oral Skill” or “ Communicative Skill”

English speaking is a very important skill that has to be possessed bystudents in studying English in order to be able to communicate with other peoplefrom different countries In other words, speaking is a tool of communication inconveying ideas, information, and feeling to others It is the most important wayfor a speaker to express himself through a language Formerly, teachers rarelyteach speaking in any classroom However, nowadays the process of speakingactivities has a lot of progress since the teachers try to encourage the students toimprove their speaking ability

In conclusion, speaking is the activity to deliver the information byexpressing it orally, coherently, fluently, and appropriately as an interaction to dosomething, negotiation, solving a particular problem and establishing socialrelationships and friendships The speaking is considered good if the listener andthe speaker understand each other

2 1 2 Components of Speaking

Every skill has a component to fulfill its needs Speaking also needs manycomponents because speaking is the most natural way to communicate Withoutspeaking, people must stay in almost total isolation from any kind of society Formost people, the ability to speak a language is similar to understanding a languagesince speaking is the most basic way of human interaction

In addition, speaking is one of the language arts that are mostly used bypeople from all over the world The art of speaking is very complex, it requires thesimultaneous use of a number of abilities which often develop at different rates.There are generally five components of speaking skill, they are; comprehension,vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and fluency:

Comprehension

Comprehension focused on students’ understanding of conversation and itmeasures how much explanations are required to understand students’ responses.

In other words, it means that if a person can answer or express idea well, it showsthat she or he have a good comprehension

Vocabulary

People cannot communicate effectively or express their ideas both orally and inwritten form if they do not have enough vocabulary since vocabulary means thesuitable articulation which is used to communicate

Grammar

Grammar is needed for students in order to arrange a correct sentence inconversation It is important for students to use a correct structure and appropriategrammatical in speaking The function of grammar is also used to learn the correctway in order to gain expertise in a language in oral and written form

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the way of producing certain sounds In process ofcommunication, students need to be able to pronounce and produce phonemesclearly and correctly in order to avoid misunderstanding They must be able toarticulate words and create the physical sounds that carry the correct meanings

Fluency

The last component in speaking is fluency Riddel (2001) stated that fluency is theability to speak freely without too much stopping and hesitating Similarly, Gower,Harmer (2007) believed that fluency can be thought as the ability to keep speakingspontaneously When students speak fluently, they should be able to get themessage from the speaker resources and the abilities they have learnt, regardless ofgrammatical or other mistakes

2 1 3 Nature of language teaching and speaking teaching

According to H Douglas Brown in Principles of Language Learning and

Teaching, the second edition, "Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning,

enabling the learners to learn, setting the conditions for learning” Foreignlanguage learning, like other subjects, is part of the overall development of allstudents Through learning a foreign language, the students can enrich theirexperience of life, broaden their world vision, and enhance their thinking skills.Language learning is the most effective when students' interest, motivation andattitudes are taken into consideration Therefore, evaluation should be summative,

formative, designed and administered to encourage the learners rather than tofrustrate them It should be carried out in terms of what students can do rather thanwhat they cannot do

In addition, learning a foreign language is a process which requires learners

to integrate many language skills including: Listening, Speaking, Reading andWriting Learners of a second or foreign language can not only read different texts

in different subjects with varying degrees of detail and difficulty but alsocommunicate with native speakers orally It is generally accepted nowadays thatspeaking is a key skill for most students learning a foreign language In short,Speaking skill plays a vital role in teaching and learning a foreign language Thisfact calls for suitable teaching methods to help the students become more active inEnglish speaking lessons

2 1 4 Definitions of Mind Mapping

According to Buzan (2000), mind mapping is the easiest way to bringinformation into the brain, and to bring information out from the brain Mindmapping is the way to take a note which is creative and effective Mind mappingalso can be said to be great for memory to arrange facts and thoughts in such away that the way of brain work involves from the firts It means rememberinginformation by using mind mapping will be easier than using national registrationtechniques Then mind maps are amazing, organizational and creative learningmethod that can improve memory, concentration, communication, creativity, andtime management.Mind mapping is one of techniques which use of whole brains

in learning that can make the students more enjoyable and interested in studyingEnglish

From the explanations of mind mapping above I can conclude that mindmapping is a graphic organizer that can be used to get or to deliver theinformation

Buzan opined that mind mapping is a diagram used to represent words,ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged in radial around a central keyword or idea It is used to generate, visualize, organize, and classify ideas It is

an image-centered diagram that represents meaning or other connectionsbetween portions of information It can be said that mind mapping is aneffective tool to generate idea and draw it into a paper or express it orally Inother words, mind mapping is a graphic organizer in which main idea and sub-

idea are represented as branches from larger branches It is a visual tool thatcan be used to generate ideas, take notes, organize thinking, and developconcepts.

In order to create a mind-map, people usually start in the middle of thepage to draw the central theme or main idea Then, draw wider in all directions

to create a growing diagram composed of keywords, concepts, facts, andinformation Furthermore, mind-map graphically show ideas in a relationalframework, with the main topic at the center of the paper, major subtopics onbranches derive from the main topic, and sub-subtopics around each major sub-topic Mind map can be created by using paper and pens or using one of severalcomputer applications

Based on the explanation above, mind mapping can ease the students togenerate their mind Besides, teacher can use mind mapping as a strategy inteaching Mind map is easy to create, students can create it on a blank of paperusing pen or pencil What is more, they can use computer to draw a mind map

2 1 5 Technique of Making Mind Map

There are a number of computer applications that can be used to createmind maps on a computer Regardless, to draw a mind map using pen, it isrecommended to use a large sheet of white blank paper and turn it horizontally

in a landscape orientation Pens that are used are in multiple thicknesses colors.The following procedures are presented to describe how to make a paper-penbased mind map:

Step 1: Place the central theme or main idea in the center of the paper We

may find it easier to place our page in landscape orientation, which is easier todraw a mind map

Step 2: Use lines, arrows, branches, and different colors as ways of showing

the connection between the central theme or main idea The relationships areimportant in order to keep the idea related to main topic

Step 3: Avoid creating an artwork Teachers should draw quickly without

major pauses or editing It is important in the first step of mind mapping toconsider every possible idea even those that we are not going to use

Step 4: Choose different colors to symbolize different things The method is

fully up to us, but we should remain consistent so that we can be better indrawing our mind map at a next step

Step 5: Leave some space on our page due to the reason that we can continue

to add to the idea over a period of time If A4 sized paper is small, we may like

to use A3 Below is a mind map model:

Figure 1: A model of Mind map

2 1 6 Types of mind map

According to Buzan, mind maps can be divided into three categoriesaccording to the objectives of using: library mind maps, presentation mind maps,and tunnel timeline mind maps

Type 1: Library Mind Maps

Library mind maps can also be called reference maps This type of mindmaps is mainly used to organize information, so that you can have a clear andvisual understanding of the subject without missing anything out The purpose oflibrary mind maps is to sort and organize the collected information for a betterunderstanding of the subject

When creating a library mind map, first step is to put all the information

together and organize it in a map tree The map will show how each informationlinked to each other and how they can serve the main idea.

This type of mind map can be used for organizing information about aspecific topic in a visual way, here is one example:

Figure 2: Type 1- Library Mind Map

Type 2: Presentation Mind Maps

This type pf mind map is used to present the process of an idea to theaudience Presentation mind maps illustrate the way that the project goes in order

to track the steps Therefore the focus of a presentation mind map is the audienceinstead of the topic How the information should be positioned in the mapdepends on whether the audience can understand it or not If the audience canfollow with the way you are presenting, then the map is well structured Thus,you presentation can be well accepted by the audience This type of mind map

can be used for explaining an activity or a training session.

Here is an example:

Figure 3: Type 2-Tunnel Timeline Mind Map

Type 3: Marketing Plan Mind Map

This type of mind maps are also simplified as planning mind maps, theyare mainly used for project strategy, program plan, or problem solving Thepurpose of this type of mind maps is to visualize success The center(main topic)

of the mind map is the outcome that you pursuit, and each sub-topic represents apath to achieve that outcome You can follow the map to make progress towardsthe success This type of mind maps can be used for planning project strategies orsolving problems Here is an example:

Figure 4: Type 3 - Marketing Plan Mind Map

Mind maps can be a very powerful tool to analysis ideas, build projectplans and solve problems The 3 types of mind maps mentioned above can coveralmost all the mind map types Knowing the features and purposes of each typecan help you achieve the outcome required with mind maps

Based on the three types of mind mapping above, the writer usedpresentation mind maps type because this type is used to present the process of

an idea to the audience and how the information should be positioned on the mapdepends on whether the audience understand it or not So that the writer will askstudents to present the materials by these types

2 2 The factual problems