Using mind mapping techniques to develop Ly Thuong Kiet high school 11th grade students’ reading text summary skills

Using mind mapping techniques to develop Ly Thuong Kiet high school 11th grade students’ reading text summary skills Nguyễn Thị Thúy Vân Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngàn

Using mind mapping techniques to develop Ly Thuong Kiet high school 11th grade students’

reading text summary skills

Nguyễn Thị Thúy Vân

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English teaching methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Đỗ Bá Quý

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract This study was done aiming at finding out the more useful teaching methods

for improving students’ reading text summary skills, testing the effectiveness of using mind-mapping techniques to develop 11th grade students’ reading text summary skills compared to conventional techniques and investigating the experimental students’ attitudes towards teaching reading text summary through using mind mapping techniques In order to meet the aim of the study, a quasi-experimental research was conducted in two intact 11th grade classes at Ly Thuong Kiet high school in Hai Phong Participants were 80 students (40 students for each class) from class 11B10 and 11B11, 11B10 was labeled the experimental class and 11B11 was the control class The pretest and posttest scores were used to measure both classes’ reading text summary competence before and after the treatment during ten weeks of the second semester of the 2011-2012 academic school year And then the post program questionnaire was designed to get more feedback from experimental students The results of the pretest and posttest scores between the two classes were drawn via the descriptive statistics for Microsoft Excel and the data from questionnaires with 40 experimental students were then synthesized and analyzed The findings of the study showed that using mind-mapping in the post reading stage improved students’ reading text summary skills On this basis, the study recommended some directions for further studies on the similar

issues with reference to the context of high school in Vietnam

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Bài đọc; Lớp 11; Phổ thông trung học;

Biểu đồ tư duy

Content

1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, English is a compulsory subject in the school curriculum in Vietnam, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to

Together with teachers’ help and guidance, students have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate in English successfully Among these four skills, reading skill is an essential skill for further learning Especially, reading text summary skills after reading is very beneficial to students to gain better understanding and memorizing of the text Thus, students can consolidate or reflect upon what has been read and relate it to their own knowledge In addition, reading text summary contributes enormously to develop writing, speaking and listening skills However, reading text summary is not easy for students to do It needs more useful techniques to help students summarize texts easily Because there are still a large number of students having poor reading comprehension not only in rural areas but also in urban ones

As a teacher of Ly Thuong Kiet high school (LTKHS), I find that teaching and learning reading comprehension here still focus on grammar, vocabulary and structures Hence, students always find it difficult to understand the content of the reading text, to find the main idea, synonym or antonym of the words, and general message of the text and most of them lack of motivation to read Beside that, there are still many teachers who seem not to pay enough attention to the importance of teaching reading text summary in post reading stage due to the limited time Consequently, Students can not remember and summarize the text after reading

From the above reasons, I decided to choose: “Using mind-mapping techniques to develop LTK High school 11th grade students’ reading text summary skills” for my thesis of the

MA course to help students read the text effectively and can summarize the text easily

Hopefully, this study will make a small contribution to the application of teaching reading text summary approach in the post reading stage at Vietnamese high schools in general and at LTK high school in Hai Phong in particular

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are to find out the more useful teaching methods for improving students’ reading text summary skills To be more specific, the primary objectives of the study were set up as follows:

- To test the effectiveness of using mind-mapping techniques to develop 11th grade students’ reading text summary skills compared to conventional techniques

- To investigate the experimental students’ attitudes towards teaching reading text summary through using mind mapping technique

3 Research hypothesis and questions

To achieve the aims and objectives, the study was designed to test the hypothesis:

Teaching reading text summary in post reading stage through mind mapping techniques

is more effective to the development of students’ summary skills than the traditional approach

which emphasizes the memorization of words and contents of the reading passage

In order to find out whether the research hypothesis would be accepted or rejected, the following research questions were formulated and to be answered

1 Why is using mind mapping techniques effective to improve students’ reading text summary skills?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards teaching reading text summary in post reading stage through mind mapping techniques after the experimental period?

4 Method of the study

This study was conducted based on quasi-experimental research with pretest, posttest, and questionnaire in order to determine the causal relationship between teaching reading text summary through mind mapping and the enhancement of students’ summary skills

Two groups of students were not chosen randomly, they were two intact groups of students involved in the study, one group was labeled the control group and the other the experimental group

5 Significance of the study

Summarizing the reading text in the textbook series for high schools is presented in a traditional way which often focuses on the sentence based summarization Thus, this study will give an answer to the question whether it is practical to teach reading text summary in the post reading stage through using mind mapping technique in the context of the high school in Vietnam

6 Scope of the study

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that it is possible to teach reading text summary presented in the textbook through mind mapping Because of the time constraint, the researcher could just carry out an experimental research upon a small sample of 11th grade students who were not randomly chosen to a control class and an experimental class, (40 students for each class) at LTK High school The pretest and posttest scores were used to measure both groups’ reading text summary competence before and after the treatment during ten weeks of the second semester of the 2011-2012 academic year The post program questionnaire was designed

to get more feedback from experimental students

7 Organization of the study

The study was divided into three parts which are presented as follows:

Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationale and the aim of the study, hypothesis and

questions, research method, significance, scope as well as organization of the study

Part B is the development, which includes 3 chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the literature relevant to the study which consists of reading, reading

comprehension, summary, and mind mapping techniques based on theoretical and practical

evidence

Chapter 2 presents information about the context of the study, the participants, the

instruments, the data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study that reports and discusses the main findings

according to research matter

Part C is the conclusion that presents the author’s reflection and the outcomes of the study as

well as indicates some limitations of the study, and finally gives some suggestions for further research

References

1 Antonacci, P (1988) Comprehension Strategies for Special Learners Reading for Special

Learners Norwood, NJ: Abex Publishing Corporation

2 Antonacci, P (1991) Students Research for Meaning in the text through semantic mapping

Social Education

3 Brown, H D (2001) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 5th ed, Addison

Wesley Longman, New York

4 Buzan, Tony (2006) Buku Pintar Mind Map untuk Anak : Agar Anak Mudah Menghafal dan

Berkonsentrasi Jakarta PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama

5 Buzan, Tony (2007) Mind Maps for kids: Max Your Memory and Concentration

6 Buzan, Tony (2010) The mind map book: Unlock Your Creativity, Boost Your Memory, Change Your Life 1st ed, BBC Worldwide England

7 Byrne, D (1987) Teaching writing skills England Longman

8 Campbell, D.T and Stanley, J C (1966) Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research Chicago, IL: Rand McNally

9 Cook, T.D & Campbell, D.T (1979) Quasi-experimentation: design and analysis issues for

field settings Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co

10 Coolidge, F L 2000 Statistic: A Gentle Introduction London: SAGE Publication Inc

11 DePorter, Bobbi and Mike Hernacki (2008) Quantum Learning: Membiasakan Belajar

Nyaman dan Menyenangkan Jakarta Kaifa

12 Doff, A (1998) Teaching English: A training Course for Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

13 Effendi, Yusuf (2004) “The Effectiveness of Mind Mapping Technique in Increasing the

Second Year Students’ reading Comprehension at SLTP Negeri 43 Palembang.” Unpublished

Undergraduated Thesis Palembang: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education University of PGRI Palembang

14 Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills Mc Graw-Hill, Inc

15 Gardner, RC (1985) Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The roles of

attitudes and motivation London: Edward Arnold

16 Goodman (1971) Psycholinguistic universals in reading process, in Paul Pimsleur and T.Quinn (eds.) The Psychology of Second Language learning Cambridge University Press

17 Harmer J (1989) The practice of English Language Teaching 1st ed Longman

18 Harmer J (2001) The practice of English Language Teaching 3rd ed Longman

19 Hermalasari, 2008, Teaching Writing Paragraphs by using Mind Mapping Technique to the

Eleventh Students of SMA Negeri 14 Palembang.” Unpublished Undergraduated Thesis

Palembang: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education University of PGRI Palembang

20 Hoàng Văn Vân, Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Nguyễn Thu Phương, Nguyễn Quốc

Tuấn ( 2007) Tiếng Anh 11 Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục, Việt Nam

21 Hofland, C (2007) Mind Mapping in EFL Classroom Fontys Teacher Training College Sittart Fontys Hogestrolen

22 Lewis, M and Hill, J (1992) Practical techniques for language teaching Language

Teaching Publications

23 Marton, F & Booth, S (1997) Learning and Awareness Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

Publishers

24 Murley, Diane (2007) Mind Mapping Complex Information, Law library Journal Vol 99

pp 175-183

25 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology: a Textbook for teachers New York:

Prentice Hall

26 Nunan, D (1992) Research Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

27 Nuttall, C (1982) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language 1st ed Oxford:

Heinemann

28 Nuttall, C (2000) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language 2nd ed Oxford:

Heinemann

29 Paul Emmerson (2010) in the article “Using Mind Map in BE-2010”

30 Roe, Stood & Burns (1987) The Content Areas Houghton Mifflin Company

31 Sarada M (2008) The Complete guide paragraph to essay writing An invaluable aid to

master the art of writing for specific purposes 3rd edition Sterling publishers Rt Ltd, New Delhi

32 Suharsimi Arikunto (1998) Dasar-Dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan (Edisi Revisi) Jakarta:

Bumi Aksara

33 Swales, John M and Christine B Feat (1994) Academic Writing for Graduate Students,

Essential Tasks and Skills Ann Arbor: U Michigan P.105-130

34 Trianto, M.Pd (2009) Mendesain Model Pembelajaran Inovatif: Konsep, Landasan, dan

Implementasinya pada Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Dasar Pendidikan (KTSP) Jakarta Kencana

35 Troyka, L.Q (1995) Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers (4th ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

36 Williams, E (1984) Reading in the Language Classroom New York: Macmillan,