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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN LAN HUONG USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HIEP HOA HIGH SCHOOL NUM

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HIEP HOA HIGH SCHOOL NUMBER 1

(Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để tăng cường khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng: Nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Hiệp Hoà số 1)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN – 2018

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH AT HIEP HOA HIGH SCHOOL NO.1

(Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để tăng cường khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng: Nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Hiệp Hoà số 1)

M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Dr Pham Lan Anh

THAI NGUYEN – 2018

iii

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare that this research report entitled “Using mind mapping technique

to enhance students' vocabulary retention: An action research at Hiep Hoa high school number one” has been composed by myself, and describes my own

work, unless otherwise acknowledged in the text I confirm that this work issubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master at ThaiNguyen University This work has not been and will not be submitted for any otherdegree at any other institution of higher education

Author’s Signature:

Nguyễn Lan Hương

Approved bySUPERVISOR

Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D.

Date: December 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deepappreciation to my supervisor, Phạm Lan Anh Ph.D, for her helpful and timelyencouragement as well as her insightful comments on my work from the beginning

to the end of the study Without these, the thesis could not have been completed

Secondly, the completion of this thesis would not have been possiblewithout the cooperation from forty students of 11A9 class at Hiep Hoa high schoolnumber one who have been willing to participate in the study I am very grateful

to all of them for providing detailed information for the analysis of the study

I would also acknowledge my great gratitude to all the lecturers at School ofForeign Languages - Thai Nguyen University for their valuable lectures, whichhave contributed to lay the foundation for this thesis

Thirdly, I take this opportunity to show my gratitude to my colleagues andfriends for their great help and comments Without their help, this study could nothave been fulfilled

Last but not least, I must express my gratitude to my beloved family - myparents, my husband and my sons whose support and encouragement have alwaysbeen a great deal of strength that has helped me to complete this thesis

ABTRACT

The main objective of this action research was to solve the problem ofstudents’ poor memorization of the taught vocabulary by utilizing mind maps Theresearcher then evaluated the effectiveness of using mind mapping technique toenhance students' vocabulary retention and explored the student’s attitude towardthe teaching and learning vocabulary with this technique Based on the aims, fortygrade-

11-students studying English in class 11A9 at Hiep Hoa High school number onetook part in the study Pre-tests, post-tests, questionnaires and interviews werechosen to be the data collection instruments to find out the effects of mind mappingtechnique on students’ memory in vocabulary learning after the intervention Theresearcher as the teacher wanted to apply mind mapping technique to increasestudents’ potentials in retaining the taught vocabulary In this study, the reseacheradopted Nunan’s action research procedure The procedure included 7 steps namelyinitiation, preliminary investigation, hypotheses, intervention, evaluation,dissemination and follow-up The results from the pre-tests and post-tests were used

to discover the effects of mind mapping technique on students’ vocabulary mastery.The mean scores were determined to compare the differences between the pre-testand post-test Paired sample t-test was used to verify the statistical difference of thefindings and measure students’s long-term retention of the words taught during theintervention.The results from the questionnaires and interviews were used to helpthe researcher to clarify the students’ attitude towards mind mapping technique invocabulary learning It was shown through the statistic data that there was aremarkable improvement in students’ vocabulary learning after the intervention andmost of the students had positive attitudes, righteous perception and good behaviourtowards the techniques in vocabulary learning It was concluded that using mindmapping technique is one of the good ways to enhance students' vocabularyretention and it exerts students' postitive attitudes in vocabulary learning

LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Diagram 4.1: Distribution of scores in the pre-test and post-test p.41Diagram 4.2: Plot of probability distribution of scores in the pre-test p.42Diagram 4.3: Plot of probability distribution of scores in the post-test p.43Diagram 4.4: The effects of mind mapping technique in the students’

vocabulary learning

p.46

Diagram 4.5: The attitude of the students towards mind mapping

techniques in their vocabulary learning

p.50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

ABTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF DIAGRAMS viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Vocabulary in language learning 5

2.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary 5

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary in language learning 6

2.1.3 Vocabulary learning 7

2.1.3.1 Knowing a word 8

2.1.3.2 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning 10

2.2 Mind mapping in vocabulary learning 12

2.2.1 An overview of mind mapping 12

2.2.2 Characteristics of mind maps 12

2.2.3 Steps of making mind maps 13

2.2.4 Mind mapping in vocabulary learning 14

2.3 Attitude in language learning 16

2.3.1 An overview of attitude 16

2.3.2 The role of attitude in language learning 17

2.4 Review of related studies 18

2.5 Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Research Design 27

3.1.1 The setting of the study 27

3.1.2 Action Research 29

3.2 Research Procedure 30

3.2.1 Participants 30

3.2.2 Action Research Cycle 30

3.3 Data Collection Instruments 34

3.3.1 Vocabulary Tests 34

3.3.2 Questionnaires 35

3.3.3 Interview 36

3.4 Data Analysis 37

3.5 Summary 38

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 39

4.1 Results 40

4.1.1 Results of the tests 40

4.1.2 Results of the questionnaire 44

4.1.3 Results of the interviews 50

4.2 Discussion 53

4.3 Summary 55

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 55

5.1 Recapitulations 56

5.2 Implications 58

5.3 Limitations 59

5.4 Suggestions 59

REFERENCES 60 Appendix 1: Distribution of points in the pre-test I Appendix 2: Distribution of points in the post-test II Appendix 3: PRE-TEST III Appendix 4: POST-TEST V Appendix 5: QUESTIONNAIRE VII Appendix 6: QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS X

xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

English has become one of the most important and useful means ofcommunication and access to information in the era of the globalization andinternational exchange As a result, the English teaching and learning are beingmotivated more and more quickly Through the history, there have been manychanges in language teaching process In the past, the main focus was laid ongrammatical description and procedures of drilling Nowsaday, more and moreattention is paid to real communication Every effort is made to help studentsunderstand and use the language in an active way In recent years, the significance

of vocabulary teaching can be seen clearly in language development

As a language teacher, the researcher recognized the importance ofvocabulary instruction to help students develop the knowledge of vocabulary Thisprocess contributed greatly to their language learning success The vocabularyinstruction that students needed to achieve success should include reference toexplicit and independent vocabulary instruction Although the knowledge ofvocabulary was accepted to be one of the main keys for successful communication

in language, it was difficult to reflect how successfully vocabulary could bepresented From my teaching experience, I found that high school students learnedmore when they were actively involved

In Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in the formal educationsystem As a high school teacher of English, the researcher feels rather concernedabout her students’ English learning, especially their ability in vocabulary retention.Her students have approached and practised English for years Under study pressure,many students learning English also attempt to improve their vocabularyknowledge However, they often have many difficulties in learning vocabulary,especially in memorising and recalling the word meaning They usually forget thewords they have learnt or use the words inappropriately They can not keep thewords in mind for a

It could be supposed that students’ bad memory was due to lack ofappropriate vocabulary memorizing strategies In student-centered learningenvironments, students need to be helped in becoming strategic language students.Learning process focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning andindependent problem solving and motivates students’ autonomy and independence.They could hardly use English fluently and naturally to meet the average demandsdue to lack of vocabulary In my teaching context at Hiep Hoa High School numberone, the teachers of English seldom used mind mapping technique in teachingvocabulary Wondering whether the effectiveness of mind mapping technique couldhelp students in vocabulary retention, the researcher decided to conduct the study

“Using mind mapping technique to enhance students' vocabulary retention: An

action research at Hiep Hoa high school number one” The researcher hoped that

students could apply this technique in their studying vocabulary

1.2 Aims of the study

Being aware of the fact that students had difficulty in memorising andretaining vocabulary in English, the researcher wanted to apply mind mappingtechnique to increase students’ potentials in retaining the taught vocabulary Theresearcher was to evaluate its effects on students’ memory and to explore thestudent’s attitude towards the vocabulary teaching and learning with this technique.Hopefully, the technique could help the students memorize and retain wordmeanings effectively

There were two research questions based on the aims of the study:

1 How does mind-map technique help the students memorize and retainword meanings effectively?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards mind mapping technique?

1.3 Scope of the study

Due to time constraints, the necessary data for the study were collected fromforty grade 11 students studying English in class 11A9 at Hiep Hoa High schoolNo.1 The study was carried out during 12 weeks They were given three teachingperiods of English a week Each period lasted 45 minutes They were taught thewords related to the content of unit 10, 11, 12, 13 in English 11 textbook Each unitwas divided into five parts, including four lessons for four communicativeskills: reading, speaking, listening and writing and one lesson for grammar orlanguage focus Vocabulary was not taught in isolation It was embedded in the skillwhich was taught in each of the five lessons

During a limited period of time, the study could not cover all communicativeskills and all aspects in vocabulary teaching It mainly focused on the effectiveness

of mind mapping technique to improve students’ vocabulary retention The findings

of the study are only meaningful in this particular teaching and learning context atHiep Hoa high school No.1

1.4 Significance of the study

The study will be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field

of English language teaching and learning Students can use mind mappingtechniques to learn vocabulary more effectively Teachers can understand moreabout mind mapping techniques and use them to teach vocabulary moreeffectively in their lessons Moreover, other researchers will use the study as areliable source of reference in their research

1.5 Outline of the thesis:

The study was intended to consist of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction - This part gave the rationale of the study, reseach

questions, aims, scope, significance and design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review - This part focused on the definitions of vocabulary,

its importance, vocabulary learning, an overview of mind mapping, itscharacteristics, steps of making mind maps, its benefits in vocabulary learning, anoverview of attitude and the role of attitude in language learning as well as previousstudies about using mind-mapping techniques on students’ vocabulary retention

Chapter 3: Methodology - This part reported the research design and the research

procedure of conducting this study The detailed information about data collectioninstruments and procedure for data analysis were presented

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - This part gave the data analysis from the

research results and made a discussion of the results

Chapter 5: Recommendations and conclusions - This part gave the summary of the

study and some implications, limitations of the study as well as suggestions forfurther studies were proposed The following section is a bibliography listing allreference books and materials directly and indirectly quoted in the study The finalsection of the thesis contained the appendices showing all documents serving thisinquiry

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses the theories and researches into the areas as a base forthis study in general The first section provides an overview of vocabulary inlanguage learning and teaching including definitions, the importance of vocabularyand looks at various aspects of vocabulary learning and teaching as well Thesecond section gives an overview of mind mapping, its characteristics, design andimplementation of mind mapping in vocabulary learning The third sectiondiscusses attitudes in language learning in terms of definition and the role ofattitudes in language learning The chapter concludes with a review of relatedstudies on mind mapping

2.1 Vocabulary in language learning

2.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary

Up till now, there has been a wide variety of definitions of vocabulary Inorder to find the best and easiest definition to understand is such an impossibletask Each linguist in his specialized field with his own set of criteria has foundout for his own way to define vocabulary

In his book, Harmer (1991) provides discussion on “active and passive”vocabulary Active vocabulary are words that students “are able to use in speechand which they remember” (p.101) while passive vocabulary refer to vocabularyitems which students can recognize in a text, understand but are not able to usethem actively

According to Diamond & Gutlohn (2006), vocabulary is mentioned as theknowledge of words and their meanings This means comprehension and use of alanguage will not be achieved without establishing a strong vocabulary base,recognising words, and knowing their meanings As a result when a student iseffectively able to recognise and use a word in different contexts, speak, write,pronounce the word well, she/he has the knowledge and meaning of that word

Without words, there would be no language structures Words are the buildingblocks of a language since they label objects, actions, ideas without which peoplecannot convey the intended meaning (Nation, 2004)

According to Cambridge Advanced Student's Dictionary, "vocabulary"means "all the words which exist in a particular language or subject" or "all thewords known and used by a particular person" Vocabulary is an essential part incommunication and acquiring knowledge

In short, it can be shown that vocabulary knowledge requires not only wordmeanings knowledge but also the usage of the words in the appropriate context and

in a natural way as well as the relationship between new words acquired and theones already acquired

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary in language learning

Vocabulary is central to language and is of great significance to languagestudents because without sufficient vocabulary, they can not understand others orexpress their own ideas

Vocabulary of a language is just like bricks of a high building Despite quitesmall pieces, they are vital to the great structure Like bricks, vocabulary plays anintegral part of building of a language Wilkin (1972) noted that “without grammarvery little can be conveyed, but without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” If

we want to use a language effectively, we must have good stock of vocabulary Wecan not use the language if we do not know the words of that language Therefore it

is significant for students to develop their productive vocabulary knowledge in using

a language

As stated by Harmer (1993), “if language structures make up the skeleton oflanguage, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” If onewants to use language effectively, he/she must have an extensive vocabulary Thisalso means the comprehension of a language depends on the amount of words thatare known in that language In other words, students need to have sufficient wordknowledge to understand what they read Nation (2001) states that readers need to

know at least 97% of the vocabulary in a text for an adequate understanding of it

Thornbury (2002) also expressed the importance of vocabulary in languagelearning He stated that “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, yourEnglish will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learnmore words and expressions You can say very little with grammar, but you can sayalmost anything with words!” Good vocabulary helps students develop readingcomprehension ability, writing ability and communicative competence Nagy (2003)remarks “ vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension; one cannot understand text without knowing what most of the words mean” Schmitt (2000)emphasizes that “lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence and tothe acquisition of a second language” (p 55) Teaching vocabulary well isconsidered as a key aspect of developing engaged and successful readers

Vocabulary can be descibed as “scaffolding” of building a language It helpsstudents with language production The more words a student knows the moreprecisely that student can express the exact meaning he/she wants to This meansthat students need to know a large number of word meanings to communicateeffectively According to Cardenas (2001), vocabulary is used to determine theproficiency which a student has in oral contexts Vocabulary serves as an essentialcomponent to determine how much a student is able to communicate successfully.Therefore students have to overcome the lack of vocabulary knowledge in order tocommunicate effectively The importance of vocabulary in language learningprocess can be seen clearly although teaching of grammatical structures was givenfor a long time a greater priority over the communicative function itself For manyyears, teaching vocabulary was considered as an add-on to teaching grammar orsimply a by-product of language teaching and communicative functions(Meara,1980) Language teachers should focus on effective instruction to teachvocabulary to help students to develop their vocabulary knowledge for them tocommunicate successfully

2.1.3 Vocabulary learning

2.1.3.1 Knowing a word

Knowing a word is not a simple task The task does not simply mean you canrecognize the word and use it You need to cover all the contents related to a specificword to learn vocabulary as effectively as possible

According to McCarthy (1991), “knowing a word involves knowing itsspoken and written context of use; its patterns with words of related meaning as well

as with its collocation partners; its syntactic, pragmatic and discourse patterns; Itmeans knowing it actively and productively as well as receptively” It is inevitable

to know the different meanings of the item clearly Students need to have the ability

to recognise the word in its spoken and written forms, then identify its part ofspeech, grammatical function or any unpredictable grammatical patterns so that theycan use the word correctly and be aware of potential conversion In English, there is

no correspondence between the form of a word and its phonemic transcription Insome cases, the distribution of stress can change the meaning of a word As a result,the pronunciation and stress of the word need to be focused Students need to knowhow the word is used in its spoken and written context with words of relatedmeaning as well as with its collocation partners The connotations that the item mayhave should be mastered For example, “Bachelor” is a neutral/ positive wordwhereas “spinster” has a more negative image The word can be used in formal,neutral or informal situations For example, die, pass away, kick the bucket.Students also need to know how the word is related to others such as synonyms,antonyms It is neccesary for students to study the collocations For example,students use “heavy rain”, not “strong rain” Lastly, the affixation should be noticed

to clarify the word meaning

According to Nation (2001), words are not isolated units of language, but fit

into many interlocking systems and levels He points out that knowing a wordinvolves knowing its form, meaning and use and each category is broken down intoreceptive and productive knowledge The word form includes pronunciation,spelling and the words The word meaning consists of structure or meaning ofwords, ideas and preferences, a combination of words The word use covers thesyntax, collocation, constraints in use All the aspects of vocabulary knowledgeshould be viewed in detail to serve as guidelines in the construction ofmeasurement instruments and define vocabulary teaching and learning strategies.Every single aspect of this perspective can also be seen in the form of receptive

and productive as shown in Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1 What is involved in knowing a word (Nation, 2001, p.40-41)

Notes: In column 3, R = receptive knowledge, P = productive knowledge.

2.1.3.2 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning

Learning vocabulary plays an important part in learning a language Thenumber of words you know will affect greatly to the ability to demonstrate what youwant to express in spoken or written contexts If the vocabulary learning process iseffective and successful, your vocabulary knowledge will be widened The question

is that how vocabulary is learned There are two major types of vocabulary learning:intentional and incidental

Nation (2001) defines incidental vocabulary learning as an importantstrategy in vocabulary learning It refers the learning process which occurs withoutspecific intention to focus on vocabulary Students can enlarge their vocabularyknowledge when they are engaged in any language activities such as extensivereading, listening to stories or radio, watching English movies On the other hand,intentional vocabulary learning is common and traditional It focuses directly onwhat to be learned by using tools to bring student’s attention into direct contactwith the form and meaning of the word such as dictionaries, direct vocabularyexplanation

Hulstijn (2006) makes a distinction between intentional and incidentallearning “Intentional learning” refers to “the learning mode in which participantsare informed, prior to their engagement in a learning task, that they will be testedafterward on their retention of a particular type of information” while “incidentallearning” refers to “the mode in which participants are not forewarned of an

upcoming retention test for a particular type of information” “Incidental vocabularylearning refers to the learning of vocabulary as the by-product of any activity notexplicitly geared to vocabulary learning” whereas “intentional vocabulary learningreferring to any activity aiming at committing lexical information to memory”

It can be seen that how well students learn a language ultimately dependsmore on their own efforts than on their teacher’s Vocabulary learning will be mosteffective if students take control of and responsible for their learning Althoughincidental learning is believed to be useful for language students, it may also be thelearning burden due to time cost in classroom It is slow and gradual for learning(Schmitt, 2000) Therefore intentional learning is needed Intentional learning isquicker and more efficient for a specific purpose However, students often encountervocabulary in an isolated form and are incapable of using it correctly in differentcontexts Scott Thornbury (2002) describes these types by stating that "some of thewords will be learned actively", while others "will be picked up incidentally" As aresult, it should be better to have both types in the learning process so that they can

be mutually reinforcing

2.1.3.3 Vocabulary retention

Vocabulary retention is known as the ability to recall vocabulary in memory.There are two basic types of memory according to the duration of retention andcapacity of recalling the information: short-term memory and long-term memory.Short-term memory, known as working memory, allows recalling information for aperiod of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal The short-term memorygenerally has a strictly limited capacity and duration, which means information isnot retained indefinitely By contrast, much larger quantities of information can bestored for potentially unlimited duration in long-term memory Its capacity isimmeasurable Long-term memory is maintained by more stable and permanentchanges in neural connections widely spread throughout the brain

Vocabulary retention is essential and useful in language learning Richards &Schmidt (2002) defined “vocabulary retention” as “the ability to recall or remember

things after an interval of time” In language teaching, the quality of teaching, theinterest of the students, or the meaningfulness of the materials may have greatinfluence on the retention of what has been taught The object of vocabularylearning is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory to themore permanent long-term memory (Schmitt, 2000).You must “work on” theinformation in your working memory in order to transfer it into the long-termmemory although it is not an easy task As a result, students need to organize thewords they have learnt in a scientific way for storing and retaining them later In thepresent study, short- term memory included the initial memory of the words at theend of the lessons whereas the number of words which could be recalled at the nextlessons or at the end of the study was referred as ones from long -term memory.The participants in the study had only three forty-five-minute lessons per week

2.2 Mind mapping in vocabulary learning

2.2.1 An overview of mind mapping

According to Cambridge dictionary, a mind map is defined as “a type ofdiagram (simple plan) with lines and circles for organizing information so that it iseasier to use or remember” A mind map is hierarchical and shows relationshipsamong pieces of the whole

Mind mapping was first popularised by Tony Buzan, the British psychologist,

in the late 1960s It is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically There is noconcern about order and structure It allows you to visually organise your ideas tohelp with analysis and recall It is stated to be “a powerful graphic technique whichprovides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain” (Buzan,1993)

Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking Mind mappingconverts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable andhighly organized diagram Mind maps have a natural organizational structure thatradiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according

to simple, brain-friendly concepts Mind maps can be drawn by hand or usingsoftware

2.2.2 Characteristics of mind maps

Mind mapping is a highly effective way of getting information in and out ofthe brain It helps students to use many pictures, colors, key words actively topresent ideas and information in clear classification It also uses association whichmakes the information easier to be remembered because students can connect it withwhat they have already known According to Buzan (1994, p 59), mind maps havefive basic characteristics They are:

1 The main idea, subject or focus is crystallised in a central image

2 The main themes radiate from the central image as “branches”

3 The branches comprise a key image or key word drawn or printed on itsassociated line

4 Topics of lesser importance are represented as “twigs” of the rellevantbranch

5 The branches form a connected nodal structure

2.2.3 Steps of making mind maps

When creating a mind map, there are several elements to consider includingthe map’s central image, colors, branches, images and key words According toBuzan (2006, p 162), these elements are as follows:

1 Start in the center of a blank page turned side ways Because starting in thecentre gives your brain freedom to spread out in all directions and to express it morefreely and naturally

2 Use an image or picture for your central idea Because an image is worth athousand words and stimulates your imagination A central image is moreinteresting, keeps you focused and helps you concentrate

3 Use colors throughout Because colors are exciting to your brain as images.Color adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map and adds tremendous energy

to your Creative Thinking

4 Connect your main branches to the central image and connect your and third-level branches to the first and second levels, etc Because your brain’swork

second-by association It likes to link two (or three, or four) things together That linking thebranches creates structure will help you understand and remember a lot more easily.

5 Make your branches curved rather than straight-lined Because straightlines are boring to your brain

6 Use one key word per line Single key words give your Mind Map morepower and flexibility

7 Use images throughout Each image, like the central image, is also worth athousand words

2.2.4 Mind mapping in vocabulary learning

Language learning strategies are said to be oriented towards the development

of communicative competence (Oxford, 1990) She advocated memory strategiesare regarded as "powerful mental tools" for language students to cope withvocabulary learning difficulties because they "make learning easier, faster, moreenjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to newsituations" (p.8) She explained memory strategies served as "a highly specificfunction: helping students store and retrieve new information"(p.37) She found outthat "language students have a serious problem remembering the large amounts ofvocabulary necessary to achieve fluency"(p.39)

To deal with the learning problem, memory strategies were of great help Theuse of mnemonic strategies was claimed to benefit students' long-term memory ofvocabulary (Johnson and Obi, 1993) Memory strategies were thought to helpstudents in moving information to long-term memory for storage purposes andretrieving it from long-term when needed for use (Hsiao and Oxford, 2002) Itshould be noted that memory strategies could build up students' learning autonomy,facilitate their vocabulary and develop a long-term retention of English vocabulary

Mind mapping, one of memory strategies, brings a lot of benefits invocabulary learning It is a useful strategy that can be introduced to students at anylevel of proficiency According to McGriff (2000), mind maps are considered as apowerful tool to help students overcome problems with the organization of theirideas and

thoughts and "an excellent way to help students organize knowledge, to empowerthemselves to better comprehend the key concepts, and principles in lectures,readings, or other instructional materials".

Mind maps can be representative of the students' cognition andcomprehension of vocabulary Using mind maps is described as an excellent way tohelp students to express themselves both verbally and visually (Buzan, 1993) Based

on Harmer (2001), mind mapping technique can assist students to activate theknowledge and skills they have already learned and determine what informationthey need to discover when it is used effectively in class As a result, students canunderstand the lessons and learn vocabulary more thoroughly Moreover, thanks toactivating existing knowledge, it makes students brainstorm the topic from a centralidea to many other related ideas Besides, students can learn not only one word butalso many other related words

Mind maps are regarded as “pictorial techniques” By using visual clues such

as images, shapes and colors, this technique helps students accelerate theirknowledge acquisition and retrieval of information (Budd, 2004) As Hofland(2007) mentioned, second language students will have good chances to have moremeaningful repetitions and retention of the new words in any target language byusing mind mapping technique Moreover, by using pictorial and graphical design,mind mapping can help to change the teaching atmosphere more vividly, whichpromotes memory retention as well as the motivation of the students (Liu, Zhao, &

Bo, 2014)

Mind-mapping can be used in different learning and thinking processes.Students make full use of various colours, images, symbols and errors, etc toassociate and connect ideas The drawing of mind maps requires the use of bothsides of the brain (Buzan, 1976) and therefore can increase productivity andmemory retention

Based on the advantages, it would be worth exploring the effects of mindmapping on students’ vocabulary learning for storing and retaining vocabulary itemsfor longer period of time

2.3 Attitude in language learning

an overall evaluation of an object that is based on cognitive, affective, andbehavioral information” (p.4) The cognitive component involves the beliefs,thoughts or viewpoints about the object of the attitude The affective one refers tothe individual's feelings and emotions towards an object, whether he/she likes ordislikes The behavioral one involves the tendency to adopt particular learningbehaviors

An attitude is known as an evaluation of an attitude object, ranging fromextremely negative to extremely positive Positive attitude reveals the advantages

of the subject to take up its value Negative attitude reveals the disadvantages ofthe subject to dismiss it and to weaken its strong attitude The researcher hopedthat applying the new technique effectively in their learning process motivated thestudents’ positive attitude to gain better and higher results

2.3.2 The role of attitude in language learning

Language attitudes are defined in the Longman Dictionary of AppliedLinguistics and Language Teaching (2002, p.297) as follows: “the attitudes whichspeakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’slanguages or to their own language Expressions of positive or negative feelingstowards a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity,ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc.Attitudes towards a language may also show what people feel about the speakers ofthat language Language attitudes may have an effect on second language or foreignlanguage learning The measurement of language attitudes provides informationwhich is useful in language teaching and language learning.”

Smith (1971) also indicates that “an attitude is relatively enduring because it

is learned, it can be unlearned Because it is learned, it can be taught Liking aforeign language can be learned No student is born liking or disliking it” (p.81)

Moreover, according to Ellis (1994), there are both negative and positiveattitudes towards the second language being learnt As a result, the teacher needs tofocus on the students' attitudes The attitudes can be positive or negative.They canalso be changed They can either facilitate or hinder the learning process effectively.Learners may have negative attitudes at the beginning of learning a language butwhen they realize the advantages of knowing this language, their attitudes change

David Nunan (1991) pointed out that “if students can be encouraged to adoptthe right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, aswell as in the learning environment in which they find themselves, then successfullearning will occur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set oftechniques is likely to succeed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised

or how solidly they based on the latest theory and research”(p 234) Students’positive attitude in language learning may encourage them to have better results.However, if they have negative one, the attitude may become an obstacle Students’negative attitude can also be changed positively to facilitate their learning results

Having positive attitude in language learning is believed to be a good start in theirlearning process.

In conclusion, students’ attitude plays a vital role in maximizing learning andteaching output and it is one of the key factors influencing the success of secondlanguage learning It would be meaningful when the researcher could help herstudents develop and maintain their positive attitudes in the language classroom.

2.4 Review of related studies

A wide variety of previous research into the effects of mind mapping onvocabulary memorizing was conducted The research indicated the positive effects

of mind mapping on students’ vocabulary memorizing

The study “The Effect of Mind Mapping on Vocabulary Learning and Retention” written by Heidari & Karimi (2015) explored the effect of mind mapping

on vocabulary learning and its retention To achieve the aims, 40 Iranian male grader high school students from two intact classes in Shahed High School inHamedan, Iran, were chosen conveniently and were randomly assigned to theexperimental and control groups There were 20 male students in each Before thetreatment, a researcher-made vocabulary pre-test was administered to the groups As

first-to the experimental group, vocabulary was taught by a myriad of mind mappingoptions such as color, symbols, keywords, design, images, and chunks The controlgroup was taught through traditional techniques such as translation into L1 andprovision of synonyms and antonyms Then, a researcher-made posttest wasadministered to the groups It was concluded that teaching English vocabularythrough the use of mind-mapping could help the experimental group outperform thecontrol group on the delayed posttest This also meant that presenting vocabularyitems through using of mind-mapping technique fosters students’ vocabularyretention

In “The Use of Mind Mapping Technique in Teaching Vocabulary”,

Samhudi (2015) aimed to describe the procedure of mind mapping technique onteaching vocabulary and to know the improvement of students’ vocabulary masteryafter teaching learning vocabulary through mind mapping technique In collectingthe required data, the writer did test and questionnaire The writer as teacher tried to

apply mind mapping technique in teaching vocabulary mastery of students Theresult of test showed that mind mapping technique improved students’ vocabularymastery The result of the questionnaires show that most of the students agreethat mind mapping is able to advance them, improve their vocabulary, expand theirideas, and increase their self confidence in learning.

In “Using mind mapping to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at Bac Giang university of Agriculture and Forestry” , Nguyen Thi

Thuy Lan (2015) aimed to explore the effectiveness of mind-mapping in teachingvocabulary to the first-year non-English major students at BacGiang University

of Agriculture and Forestry, using the course book New Cutting Edge The resultsfrom her study showed that mind-mapping could help students to brainstorm a newtopic and activate the prior knowledge Besides, it could be a tool to facilitatestudents to summarize the lessons effectively and to take note during the lesson

In “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy”, Nguyen

first-Thi Lien (2016) aimed to bring mind-mapping technique to improve vocabularyretention of Vietnamese students This study was based on action research, in which

32 students in the K51 Information class at Military Technical Academy wereinvestigated Based on the purposes of the study, a pre-test and a post-test wereused to investigate the effectiveness of mind-mapping on the student’s vocabularyretention A survey was designed to get the students’ attitudes about this technique

in vocabulary learning and memorizing After the data were calculated andanalyzed, it indicated that students were successful in improving vocabularyretention with the implementation of the treatment and they seemed to highly valuethis technique

In my teaching context at Hiep Hoa High School No.1, the teachers ofEnglish seldom used mind mapping technique in teaching vocabulary Besides, therewas not yet any empirical study on using mind mapping technique in vocabularyteaching and learning at Hiep Hoa High School No.1 Therefore the researcherhad a high motivation to conduct this study

2.5 Summary

Chapter 2 has summarised the literature related to the study The first partreviewed definitions of vocabulary, its importance and vocabulary learning Thesecond one gave an overview of mind mapping and its benefits in vocabularylearning The next part discussed attitude in general and its role in languagelearning The last one presented previous studies on mind mapping and theirfindings The next chapter will present the methodology employed for this study

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a description of the methodology used for the presentstudy It starts with the research design including the rationale for the researchdesign as well as the information about the action research project Then theresearcher provides in detail information about action research procedure of thecurrent study with a thorough description of the participants and action researchcycle Description of the data collection instruments, data analysis procedure andconclusion are also provided in the last three sections of the chapter

3.1 Research Design

3.1.1 The setting of the study

The present study was conducted at Hiep Hoa high school No.1, which islocated in Thang Town , Hiep Hoa district, Bac Giang province This school wasestablished in 1961 It is one of the most famous schools in Bac Giang province,Vietnam with nearly 100 teachers and officers, more than 1400 students and 36classes (school year 2017 – 2018) The school has gained high achievements inteaching and learning at the provincial and national level

The English Group consists of 10 teachers They are co-operative andenthusiastic in teaching At Hiep Hoa high school No.1, English has been taught as acompulsory subject for all students However, they mainly learn it because of theirduties As a result, the researcher has to face up with many difficulties in teachingskills, especially teaching vocabulary for students They often said vocabularylearning was difficult They found it hard to remember word meanings and use thewords correctly To recall the words is even more complicated and challenging.They often tried to learn by heart by writing down the words on paper, practisingthem orally or listening to the teacher’s explanations passively

Therefore, this study was conducted to solve the problem of students' poor memorization of the taught vocabulary by utilizing mind maps As a result, the

teacher wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of using mind mapping technique toenhance students' vocabulary retention and the students' attitudes towards thistechnique in their vocabulary learning

The study was influenced by qualitative approach with the research methodbeing Action Research Comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusions werebased on problem identification, planning, actual researches, experience, anddiscussions

The researcher wanted to examine her own classroom with the use of mindmapping technique in teaching vocabulary, assess the effectiveness of the procedure,and interact with students in order to improve their quality and effectiveness ofstudents’ vocabulary retention

The action research was conducted because of some reasons Firstly, it helped

to identify problems, solve the problems and bring about improvement in herclassroom activities Moreover, it helped the teacher to know what was actuallyhappening in her classrooms, what students were thinking, why students werereacting in the ways they do, what aspects of the classroom she should focus on todevelop her teaching effectively, how she should change in these aspects, and whatthe effects of such a change were Through teaching experience and observation, theresearcher discovered that her students had problems in vocabulary retention.Therefore, an effective method needed developing and putting into action with thehope of bringing better change for students’ vocabulary retention

Different researchers have proposed different models for the action researchprocess because action research process is dynamic and flexible, steps in actionresearch may vary depending on different points of view held by researchers(Creswell, 2012) The present study adopted the action research model, an iterativecycle of planning, observing, acting and reflecting, proposed by Nunan (1992)

Because of its outstanding advantages discussed above, this action researchwas conducted appropriately and logically In the following sub-sections, a generaloverview of an action research design and action research procedure will beexplained in detail

3.1.2 Action Research

According to Kurt Lewin, who planted the first seeds of "action research" in

1944, action research can be described as "a comparative research on the conditionsand effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action"that uses "a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning,action and fact-finding about the result of the action"

Elliott (1991) defined action research as “the study of a social situation with

a view to improving the quality of action within it” This simple definition directsattention to the will to improve the quality of teaching and learning as well as theconditions under which teachers and students work at schools According toFerrance (2000), action research is “a cycle of posing questions, gathering data,reflection and deciding on a course of action”

Mills (2003) cited by Donato (2003: 4) stated that “action research” is “anysystematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers” in their teaching environment

“to gather information about the ways that their particular schools operate, howthey teach, and how well their students learn This information is gathered with thegoals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes

in the school environment and on educational practices in general, and improvingstudent outcomes and the lives of those involved”

Lo Castro claimed that “action research is seen as being small scale andsituational… focused on a particular problem, to try and understand and perhapssolve some concrete problems in an individual teacher's classroom” (1994, p5).This means action research is mainly concerned with a single case in a specificsituation and tries to find solutions to the problem in focus It encourages teachers

to compare methods and ideas with critical eye and to adopt them into theirteaching It also engages them in their teaching in a deeper way

Additionally, an action research is a “systematic process of inquiryconsisting of three elements or components: (1) a question, problem, orhypothesis, (2) data, and (3) analysis and interpretation” (Nunan, 1992:3).According to Wallace (2000), action research is conducted by teachers and forteachers It is small scale to

discover, develop or monitor changes to practice Mertler (2009) restated “actionresearch is characterized as research that is done by teachers for themselves”.Teachers examine their own classrooms, instructional strategies, assessmentprocedures, and interactions with students in order to improve their quality andeffectiveness

3.2 Research Procedure

3.2.1 Participants

The participants of this study included the researcher and her students Theresearcher of this study was also the teacher She has taught English for nearly tenyears for high school students She was very concerned about the situation of thestudents and wanted to find the way to help her students out of difficulties,especially in vocabulary learning She conducted this study She applied mindmapping technique in her vocabulary teaching and guided her students to use it intheir vocabulary learning process The researcher hoped her students could applythe technique to improve their vocabulary learning, especially vocabulary retention

In the academic year of 2017 – 2018, the researcher taught English in onlyone class Moreover, the study was conducted in limited time It was available forthe researcher to collect data from them As a result, forty grade 11 students fromclass

11A9 in the academic year of 2017 – 2018 at Hiep Hoa high school No 1 were chosen to participate in the study

3.2.2 Action Research Cycle

The present study adopted Nunan’s action research procedure According toNunan (1992), action research procedure includes 7 steps: Initiation, Preliminaryinvestigation, Hypotheses, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination and Follow-up

Step 1: Initiation (identifying a focus of interest or a problem) (week1): The

students found it hard to remember the words and retain them after a long period oftime Students felt less motivated in their learning due to lack of vocabulary andmore passive in their way of learning vocabulary

Step 2: Preliminary investigation (collecting data) (week 1 to week 3): The

researcher spent sometime collecting baseline data through observation andclassroom interaction The researcher wanted to confirm the students’ level in step1clearly so students were asked to do a pretest to explore the present state of students’vocabulary knowwledge and check if the students had problems in memorising andretaing the taught words

Step 3: Hypothesis (analyzing data/generating hypotheses): The collected

information revealed that students often had trouble in retaining new words Whenencountering new words, they often asked the teacher, their classmates or looked up

in the dictionary for the only one information, the meaning of the new words Afterthat, they quickly forgot the words because they did not have varied kinds ofpractice for them to revise these words Moreover, the students were not introduced

to apply vocabulary learning strategies which could help them to learn new wordsbetter In an attempt to help her students solve their problem, the researcherreviewed the literature relevant to the topic and found that using mind mappingtechnique in vocabulary learning would be an effective solution which helpedstudents remember words longer and improve their ability to retain words after alonger period of time

Step 4: Plan Intervention (from week 4 to week 12)

The material for the analysis was “English 11” textbook used for the grade 11students and published by Vietnam Education Publishing House This book isdesigned from the point of view of communicative language teaching to developcommunication skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Knowledge

of language such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar is considered as the meansand conditions for the formation and development of communication skills

In the study, the students were given three periods of English per week Eachperiod lasted 45 minutes They were taught the words related to the contents of unit

10, 11, 12 and 13 in the textbook In each unit, there were four lessons for fourcommunicative skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing and one lesson forgrammar or language focus Vocabulary was not taught in isolation It wasembedded in the four skills which was taught in each of the five lessons

On the basis of literature review relating to the topic and the initial datacollected and analyzed, an action plan was developed In this action plan, theresearcher introduced mind mappingtechnique to herstudents The study lasted 14weeks from 29thJanuary, 2018 to 20thMay, 2018 The detailed action plan ispresented asfollows

In the first week, the researcher introduced the technique to the students.Firstly, the teacher discussed the importance of mind mapping technique with thestudents as an important tool which could help them to improve their vocabularylearning Then, mind mapping models were introduced on PowerPoint Theresearcher and her students studied the name of each aspect in the mind map Then,the teacher together with her students developed an example of mind map onPowerPoint The information that the students needed to record into their mindmaps included words related to the key word in the centre of the mind map,phonemic transcription, synonym and antonym, part of speech, definition, examplesentences, collocations and the word's derivations

Lesson plan writing and preparation for plan implementation (week 4)

The lesson plans for four units from Unit 10 to Unit 13 were designed

focusing

on vocabulary learning activities Other techniques such as allocating time for eachtask, facilitating students during task implementation by answering questions andgiving encouragement to increase students’ participation were included The taskswere applied in the lessons as follows:

Table 3.1 A schedule of applying vocabulary tasks in language skill lessons

Plan implementation (from week 5 to week 14)

The lessons of the newly designed lesson plan which implemented mind mapping technique were taught

Step 5: Evaluation (Collecting data to monitor changes): The pretest was

implemented in the first lesson of the action plan In the last week of the treatmentperiod, a posttest (see Appendix) was delivered to students to check whether therewas a change in the students’ vocabulary retention A questionnaire (see Appendix)was implemented to find more information about the effectiveness of using mindmapping technique in vocabulary learning and evaluate the students’ attitudestowards it To collect extra information about the effectiveness of using mindmapping technique in vocabulary learning, the researcher interviewed sixrepresentatives of the students They clarified what they thought about the techniquebased on the questions given to be interviewed and the researcher also directlyexchanged her ideas

Step 6: Dissemination (analysis and evaluation): The data collected from the

test, questionnaire and interview were analyzed and compared for the final report