An Investigation into Using Mind Mapping Strategy in Developing Speaking Skill for EFL Learners at Foreign Language Centers in Danang City

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES ĐƯỜNG THỊ THÀNH AN INVESTIGATION INTO USING MIND MAPPING STRATEGY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR EFL LEARNERS AT FOREI

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

ĐƯỜNG THỊ THÀNH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO USING MIND MAPPING STRATEGY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR EFL LEARNERS AT FOREIGN LANGUAGE

CENTERS IN DANANG CITY

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATIONAL STUDIES

(A SUMMARY)

Da Nang, 2022

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This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language

Studies, The University of Da Nang

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr , Luu Quy Khuong

Examinar 1: Dr Truong Bach Le

Examiner 2: Assoc Prof Dr , Nguyen Van Long

This thesis was be orally defended at Examining Committee Time: 11th August 2022

Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies

- The University of Da Nang

This thesis is available for purpose of reference at :

-The University of DaNang - The center for Learning Information Resources and Communication

-Center for Information Technology and Learning Resources, University

of Foreign Language Studies- The University of DaNang

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CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Nowadays, many young people tend to spend much time learning a second language, especially English English becomes an important subject in this global era as it promotes education in many countries in the world It is also considered as a foreign language in Vietnam One of the skills that are more likely to be paid more attention to is speaking Egan (1999) argues that among the four language skills, speaking skill is at the heart of second and foreign language learning Actually, it is as important as other skills like reading, writing and listening However, speaking is a good example

to show how well someone does in understanding English By speaking, speakers can express their feelings, experience, desire and perception

Vietnamese students started learning English speaking skill at primary and secondary school They have to spend much time on learning phonics, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation It is the fact that learning how to develop English speaking skills is so important for EFL students However, speaking is a challenging skill for some students They find difficulties to speak in English because English language is different from their mother tongue They have to imitate the voice of native speakers and try to pronounce correctly Moreover, English vocabularies are very diverse as other languages One word may have two to three meanings when we put in different contexts It makes students confused when they do not know how to use it in right forms and situations Especially, children seem to learn new words quickly but it is hard for these words to enter their long-

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term memory The repetition activities do not work for lower students who have little aptitude for languages or lower language acquisition Therefore, the lack of vocabulary leads to trouble in speaking English In addition, problem of some students is generating idea They have difficulties to brainstorm, generate and organize idea when they speak in English For example, sometimes when the teacher asks them to speak in front of the class, they will be confused Students did not know how to answer their teacher’s questions as well as communicate with their classmates naturally Sometimes, they have an idea in their mind but do not know how to express Or maybe, when they have idea but they just produce a few sentences without using correct grammar

In order to help students to solve their problems in speaking English, teachers need to apply appropriate methods Normally, teachers often apply various effective instructional strategies to assist students in learning English One of the methods is mind mapping strategy Anna Buran & Filyukov (2015: 218) state that “Using mind maps in teaching and learning English will be useful for both teachers and students as the amount of information is increasing every second and our brain, which does not work in a linear way that cannot perceive even a small part of it” However, MMS is almost always applied in writing activities while its application in speaking activity is rather limited Moreover, teachers would rather apply mind mapping for high school, university students than for young EFL learners because they think that high school and university students can understand and use MMs effectively

The aforementioned reasons have given me the urge to carry

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out this research paper entitled “An Investigation into Using Mind Mapping Strategy in Developing Speaking Skill for EFL Learners at Foreign Language Centers in Danang City” This

piece of research figures out the perception of EFL learners about the mind mapping strategy The author surveys the difficulties that the EFL learners at Foreign Language Centers faced while they are speaking English and find out the solutions for using mind mapping

to increase student’s ability in speaking English at ELT class

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 AIMS

This study aims to investigate the use of MMS in developing speaking skills for EFL learners in Foreign Language Centre in Danang city; investigates about the learner’s perception about MMS; figures out the difficulties that the EFL learners face while applying MMS and examine learners’ reflection on the benefit of applying MMS in speaking English at EFL classes

1.2.2 OBJECTIVES

The study aims to achieve the following objectives:

- Clarify main concepts about mind maps, mind mapping and mind mapping strategy

- Investigating perception of EFL learners about applying MMS in learning English speaking skill

- Synthesizing, analyzing and evaluating experimental results about applying MMS in teaching and learning lessons of speaking skills directly applying experiment using MMS and not using MMS

- Investigating the difficulties that EFL learners when using MMS in developing their English language speaking skills

- Investigating the learners’ reflection on the benefit of

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2 What are difficulties EFL learners face when using MMS

in developing their English language speaking skill?

3 What are EFL learners’ reflections on the benefits of applying MMS in speaking?

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1.6 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY

The research consists of five chapters as follows

Chapter 1 briefly introduces the rationale, presents the aim

and objectives, research questions, significance, the scope of the study and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 mentions the review of previous studies and the

theoretical foundation for the study and offers definitions of the key terms

Chapter 3 talks about methods that were conducted to figure

out the difficulties that the EFL primary school students face while they are speaking English and finds out the solutions for using mind mapping to increase student’s ability in speaking English at ELT

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class This chapter presents detailed descriptions of the research design, research methods, participants, data collection, data analysis, and the validity and reliability of the study

Chapter 4 reports and discusses the results of the study Chapter 5 is the conclusion of the research, sums up the main

findings, provides some strategies for teachers, presents implications, the limitations of the study, and recommendations for further research are discussed Đại học Đà Nẵng

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW AND

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking is one of the important basic skills in learning English According to Hedge (2003), learning speaking is very important for students Most learners figure out how to understand and speak English before they comprehend how to write and read the language Thus, the spoken English is usually learned first and later followed by other skills like reading and writing skills Speaking is the essential skill of communication and very difficult in nature as it does not only rely on the ability to speak but also includes other varying components such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency and comprehension Those aspects should be well prepared

in order to have good speaking ability

In this part, the writer dealt with the previous researchers applying MMS in teaching English Nurhayati (2010 235) stated

“The learners like and feel more confident using MM in storytelling that facilitate or help them in speaking.” It can be said that in the speaking class, MMS can improve the students’ speaking skills The students do not think that speaking class is hard subject because MM helps them to explore their ideas and experiences Moreover, MMS also has good impact on the students’ writing skills As Aulia Waloyo (2017: 81-82) stated that “mind mapping strategy was effective and successful to improve the students’ ability in writing skills, particularly in terms of gathering ideas for the target topic, and

to facilitate them in learning writing”

Consequently, challenges in EFL instruction may be as a result

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of many cultural and environmental factors, such as the lack of interactive speaking environments, emphasis placed on test scores, and foreign language anxiety (Yen, Hou, & Chang, 2015) Furthermore, applying wrong methods in teaching and learning styles cause many problems and effect to the efficiency of learning Therefore, the present study proposed to employ MMS in teaching EFL learners speaking skill

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 Definition of Speaking

From definition above the writer concludes that speaking is one of four skills of English to express opinion, idea, thought, our feeling and etc to the other people, with speaking the people can communicate each other so, the people especially the students have

to mastery this skill because this is oral skill that very important for second language learners or foreign language learners to communication in their life Without speaking we cannot express what we want to express and it is make people difficult to communicate with other and will caused bad relations

2.2.2 Aspects of Speaking Ability

As we can see, if the learners want to be good at speaking, they have to practice and pay more attention to the elements which deciding the efficiency in communication

2.2.3 Teaching Speaking

Based on explanation above, teaching speaking is an activity

to make students as second language learner or foreign language learner to produce their speech so, they can speak fluently and confidently in front of people or other students

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2.2.4 Learning Speaking Skill

Therefore, applying suitable methods in learning English speaking skill will help EFL leaners save their time and be more fluent in speaking It helps create their learning styles for both class – learning and self-learning

2.2.5 Definition of Mind Maps (MMs)

From the explanation above, a mind map is a diagram for representing tasks, words, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around a central concept or subject using a non-linear graphical layout that allows the user to build an intuitive framework around a central concept It is considered as an instrument in helping learners’ memoring, systematizing and generating the ideas better

Figure 2.1: Examples of MMs 1

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2.2.6 Definition of Mind Mapping (MM)

Mind mapping is a process for developing a visual, non-linear representation of ideas and their relationships (Biktimirov and Nilson 2006)

According to Tony Buzan (2000), Mind mapping is an application that gives us the meaningful information to understand in

2.2.7 The Basic Mind Mapping Steps

2.2.8 Definition of Mind Mapping Strategy

MMS is a useful approach that helps you learn more effectively, improves the way that you record information, and supports and enhances creative problem solving

2.2.9 Main Concept of Mind Mapping Strategy: Drawing Mind Maps

There were some MMs which were made by EFL learners after teachers implemented the MMS in the class

Figure 2.2: Example of Drawing MMs 2 (Taken from student work) Figure 2.3: Example of Drawing MMs 3 (Taken from student work) Figure 2.4: Example of Drawing MMs 4 (Taken from student work)

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2.2.10 The Advantages of Using Mind Mapping Strategy

DePorter and Hernacki (in Abdurrahman, 2008: 172) describe that there are some advantages of using MMS, they are as follows;

1 Flexibility

2 Concentrating on the Topic

3 Increasing Comprehension

4 Enjoyment

2.2.11 The Information of iYes English Center

Iyes English Center was established in 2011 It has become one of the reliable places for English training for children, teenagers, businesses in the locality With many years of experience in the field

of English teaching, iYes always attaches great importance to improving the practical value of the curriculum, while constantly researching and developing new training methods to help students learn, practice more effectively and achieve high results in international certification exams

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CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

The purpose of this research was to find out the effect of using MMS towards students’ speaking skill at English center In order to achieve the aim of this study, the investigation was based on such methods as the quantitative and qualitative methods in which the priority was given to the qualitative with data from questionnaires

Table 3.1 Describe the survey subject as learners Experimental

class Pre-test

Treatment by using mind mapping strategy Post-test

Control class Pre-test

Treatment by using normal methods without mind mapping strategy

Post-test

3.2 DESCRIPTION OF SUBJECT, SAMPLE, PARTICIPANTS AND POPULATION

3.2.1 Subject of the research

3.2.2 Participants and Population

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• In the first step, teacher asked EFL learners to complete the

questionnaire number one (see Appendix 1)

• In the second step, the researcher gave pre-test

• During the course, the researcher conducted the treatment

• Teacher asked EFL learners to complete the questionnaire

number two (see Appendix 2)

• The author provided the post-test

• Teacher asked EFL learners to complete the questionnaire

number three (see Appendix 3)

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

3.6 RESEARCH PROCEDURE

Before implementing the research technique, the author

devised a strategy to ensure that the application ran smoothly

There were three steps in research procedure, they were:

3.6.1 Planning

3.6.2 Application

3.6.3 Reporting

3.6.4 Process of teaching mind mapping

3.6.5 Process of drawing a mind map

3.6.6 The process of developing MMS into speaking

3.7 SUMMARY

There were six sections which were mentioned in this chapter The first section discussed the research methods Those were quantitative and qualitative methods in which the priority was given

to the qualitative with data from questionnaires The second and third sections discussed the description of the sampling of the study and research instruments How data was analyzed and treated referred in

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