Using the mindmap in teaching the relative pronouns for the students in class 11a2 in quan son high school

In this school year I have spent much time on finding out the best way to help my students in Quan Son high school learn English grammar effectively.. And I choose the theme: “Using the

PART I THE INTRODUCTION

I THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME.

English plays an important role in life nowadays If we can communicatewell in English, we will have an opportunity to get a great deal of benefits, awell-paid job, an oversea study slot and access to new civilization.Correspondently with the development of science and technology, the demand

of learning English is dramatically increasing The government as well as thelocals have been paying great attention to teaching and learning English all overour country In Thanh Hoa province, teachers of English have been enabled toattend a lot of workshops and courses so that they widen their professionalknowledge and renovate their teaching methods and share valuable experienceswith collegues and even lecturers in universities All are aimed at improving thequality of teaching and learning English in the local Teachers, therefore, areobliged to find out new tecniques to make the lesson more interesting and easier

to understand Teaching methods which must increase the initiative and creation

of students are applied fexibly in high schools In the same way, teachinggrammartical points should have something new, more colorful and intriguing

In this school year I have spent much time on finding out the best way to help

my students in Quan Son high school learn English grammar effectively And Ihave chosen relative pronouns as the main points for my research Relativepronoun is not a very difficult part in English grammar but very important inEnglish tests and exams Making right option for each question related to isreally valuable for students because it is directly proportional to the mark theywill get for the test Hence both teachers and students need to take advantage of

it to get little mark That’s why I have made a decision to teach the topic

“relative pronouns” in a new way And I choose the theme: “Using the mindmap in teaching the relative pronouns for the students in class 11A2 at Quan Son high school.” for my research in school year 2019-2020 I hope my

finding will make differences when teaching this popular topic

II THE PURPOSE OF THE INITIATIVE.

The purpose of this theme is to find out a suitable method which helpsstudents learn relative pronouns the most effectively, understand the usage ofeach pronoun and can flexibly apply them in real situations and get maximummark in each English test Moreover, both teachers and students can apply thismethod in teaching and learning other grammartical points This contributes toincreasing concentration of student, developing logical memory and elicitinglearners’ curosity It means that students are attentively engaged in the lesson,work with excitement without being under pressure of study Because they cannaturally memorize the structure without any attempt of learning by heart.Moreover, working in groups motivates the team spirit, helps students share oneanother and assist each other in group In fact, they both study and relax in thesame time so the lesson is not stressful but interesting After the lesson, studentscan list all the relative clauses and their usage at once

III THE REEARCHED SUBJECTS.

When researching this theme, I watn to concentrate on students whocomes from mountainous areas such as Quan Son, Lang Chanh, Ba Thuocdistricts in the West of Thanh Hoa province Because it’s them that havedifficulty in learning languages, lack of objectives of learning and even hortage

of a good environment to learn English Few of them have a good command ofEnglish For them, English is considered as one of the hardest subjects in thenational curriculum So it’s far difficult to attract them to learn English lessons

As the result, the rate of students who get bad marks in exams has been ratherhigh This raises serious questions for the educators and especially Englishteachers in Thanh Hoa province This urges me to make effort to do somethingand improve the situations In the limited scale of this initiative, I mainly focus

on the students in grade 11A2 at Quan Son high school And then I will widen toapply to teaching other ones in our school the next school years

PART II THE CONTENT I.THE THEORICAL FOUNDATION OF THIS THEME.

English as a compulsory subject is aimed at preparing the students todevelop science, technology and culture, and making them competent and goodcitezens who are ready to participate in the national development This subjectincluded four skills equally However grammartical points take up the geaterproportion of mark of a test or exam for high school students Therefore, it isvery important to master English grammar and prepare all well for each lesson.Nowadays, mindmap is a rather new technique for useful for students In theteaching-learning process, mind mapping is very important to help students toautomatically inspire interest in them, thus making thme more receptive and co-operative in the classroom They make lessons and presentations more creativeand enjoyable both for the teachers and the students Mindmap is one of newteaching techniques which can be used in numerous aspects mathematics,history, physics …ect A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughtsorganically without worrying about order and structure It allows you to visuallystructure your ideas to help with analysis and recall A mind map is a diagramfor representing tasks, words, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around acentral concept or subject using a non-linear graphical layout that allows theuser to build an intuitive framework around a central concept A mind map canturn a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable andhighly organized diagram that works in line with your brain's natural way ofdoing things Therefore, mindmap is an powerful tool for teaching Englishgrammar It allows learner to brianstorm related things intelligently It activateslearner’s creation and activeness It also helps children logically think, impacttheir brain positively So it is necessary to use mindmaps in teaching English aswell as other subjects to make big difference between new and one method.Moreover, relative pronoun is a main point of grammar which is rather suitable

to be taught with colorful lines, shapes and maps This makes it possible to have

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a successful lesson with all purposed achieved.

II THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE THEME

Although most teachers of English seem to apply new teaching methods

in teaching English grammar, it is still a controversial topic among educators tochoose the most suitable one to teaching English grammar for their ownstudents And they recognize the important role of teaching English topics atschool because its effect will be reflected in the result of the exam which botheducatioal managers and students’ parents always care It can’t be denied thatmastering English grammar will improve learning effect and learners’ schoolreport Since structures take up a drammartically great rate in each test orexams There have been a lot of ways to teach English grammar such as givingstructures, rules and practice, using pictures or showing some situations …etc However, these methods remains some drawbacks, students have to take notes alot, the lesson takes much time and it’s so confusing for students can understandand remember systematically Furthermore, students have an inappropriatelearning habit that is learning by heart structures and vocabularies which theymay forget right after closing their books because they do not know how toapply them in real situations as well as not knowing how to logically analise thecore of the matter Therefore, teachers need to find out an alternativemeasurement which encourages students’ creation and initiative in learningEnglish grammar To achieve the objective, teachers themselves have todedicate whole time to modifying the lesson so that the content is not onlyinteresting but also simple and easy to understand So I want to share a newmethod to aid the teaching more effective That is using the mindmap inteaching English grammar in general And in this initiative, I used mindmaps toguide students to learn relative pronouns With the theme, I hope to help reducedifficulty in teaching English structures and enable students to show off theirintelectual ability and accumulate knowledge actively

III THE METHODS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

When researching this theme, I have studied the role of mindmaps inteaching generally and in motivating learners’creation, deduction andsystematical memory in particular Besides, I also asked my friends andcollegues for help We have worked together to find out the advanges and thedisadvanages of this technique from which we draw experienced lessons for thelater studies In short, I have used the following methods

- Reading the reference books related to teaching English grammars

- Surf the internet to discover ways to create suitable mindmap and use themeffectively in teaching English

- Asking the collegues for advice and help

- Conducting real surveys on students in my school and changes the ways ofteaching in time

- Investigating and estimating the result of each survey so as to find out usefultips and experiences

IV.THE CONTENT OF THE INITIATIVE

1 WHAT IS A MINDMAP?

A mind map is a diagram for representing tasks, words, concepts, or itemslinked to and arranged around a central concept or subject using a non-lineargraphical layout that allows the user to build an intuitive framework around acentral concept A mind map can turn a long list of monotonous information into

a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with ourbrain's natural way of doing things.A mind map can be used as a simplifiedcontent management system It allows us to store all our data in a centralizedlocation to stay organized With the various mind mapping software programsout today, we can attach files to different branches for even more flexibility Wecan also change to various different views in order to find one that suits ourpurpose best

2 HOW TO CREATE A MINDMAP?

2.1 Determine your central topic

The most important step in creating a powerful mind map is to have arelevant central topic A mind map is utilized to explore and further elaborate acertain main topic placed in the core of the mind map that later will be mappedout in a number of topics and subtopics Mind maps resemble trees with manybranches and sub-branches so imagine that our central idea is the core of the treethat holds together all the branches and sub-branches

2.2 Branch out the map

The topics or so-called ‘branches’ are an integral part of mind maps Theyare used to define the most important areas about a certain topic To put it inperspective, a mind map that in the center has the key subject ‘Travel Plan’could span out in branches that cover the essentials about planning a traveling –itinerary, accommodation, budget, transport, and agenda However, the list ofbranches should be determined according to one’s needs, and this is what makesmind maps flexible, versatile and transformative

2.3 Expand the branches with sub-branches

Once we have expanded your central topic in different topics, it’s time tosplit those further into sub-topics or so-called sub-branches It may soundconfusing but, it’s actually very simple – you have a central idea that spreads indifferent topics that further develop in sub-topics Every branch is connected toits sub-branches and all of them, together, elaborate the main idea put in thecenter

2.4 Elaborate and grow the sub-branches

The sub-branches are what makes a mind map complete in terms ofcontent In other words, if we leave our topics general and unelaborated, ourmind map won’t be as much powerful as it should We have to always focus onexpanding the mind map and its topics until you are sure that there is nothingleft to add to a certain branch.Radiate out the map with ideas and associations of

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all the information we know and every idea you have on your mind thatcorrelates with the main subject Once you are finished adding branches andsub-branches, we can go onto the more creative steps - decorating the map withdifferent colors and images which will make it bold and eye-catching.

2.5 Choose a font and start coloring the mind map

A mind map becomes a powerful tool once we give its content a suitablefont and we embellish the topics and sub-topics with different striking colors

We can use any solfware to add as many colors and shades as we like to ourmind map in order to make it unique and personal The software is versatileenough to allow us to color-customize each branch and sub-branch of our mindmap according to your personal preferences.The role of the colors is not only tomake our map more attractive It has been found that colors have a beneficialimpact on people’s memorizing skills To be more precise, several studies haveshown that people have a greater ability to memorize and recall a certain colorthan a word Therefore, using diverse colors when creating a mind map isalways a good idea as it will help you to memorize information more easily asyou will connect that information with a color

2.6 Add visuals to the topics and subtopics

Once our mind map is expanded and all relevant topics and sub-topics areemphasized with an array of different colors, we can continue with the next step,which may be the most interesting one – putting images and/or symbols to thecontent As we specified earlier, colors help in memorizing things more easily,but when attached to color and content, visuals provide even greater benefit forthe brain Images and symbols that are associated with a certain concept or anidea can help to memorize and recall information better

2.7 Add a background image to the mind map

After finishing all previous steps and creating a mind map with branchesand sub-branches and decorating them with different colors, images, andsymbols, it is time to add a background image or pattern that will accentuate thecontent and make the mind map a statement piece.When choosing an image as abackground, we should always look for a style that will correspond to the mainidea or topic of our map Inserting background pictures make mind maps moreengaging and appealing to the eye, which is the reason why this step isimportant and shouldn’t be overlooked

2.8 Share or present our mind map

We have come to the last piece of the puzzle – sharing and presenting ourmind map Whether we create a mind map for ourselves or to present it to ourfriends or colleagues or students, we should strive to make it as appealing aspossible The more effort we put into creating a mind map that is worth to bepresented the more we will benefit from it.The mind mapping technique is acreative and engaging alternative for the PowerPoint presentations because itenables us to visually present ideas and information in a different format whichalways sparkles the audience’s interest So it is useful for teaching in the class

3.APPLYING TO TEACHING RELATIVE PRONOUNS

A.GRAMMAR

1.The ralative pronouns English.

Use a mindmap to brainstorm all the relative pronouns the lesson on the board:

2.The usage of each relative pronouns

2.1.Usage of the relative pronoun: “Which”

Use the mindmap to elicit all the matters ralated to “Which” and specificexample as the picture below:

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2.2The usage of the relative pronoun: “whom”

-Show the usage of whom and give some examples to clarify its role, fuction inthe clause

2.3The usage of the relative pronoun: “who”

2.4The usage of the relative pronoun: “whose”

2.5.The usage of the relative pronoun: “that”

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2.6.The usage of the relative adverb: “when”

2.7.The usage of the relative adverb: “where”

2.8.The usage of the relative adverb: “why”

3 Some notes related to relative pronouns

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WHY

-Used to explain a reason,

Function as “for which”

-Followed by a subject

E.g

I don’t know the reosonWHY/

FOR WHICHshe lost her job