Using mind mapping to teach vocabulary to the first year non english major students at bac giang university of agriculture and forestry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES**************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY LAN USING MI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES

****************************************

NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY LAN

USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

BAC GIANG UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

FORESTRY

(Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tại trường Đại học Nông-Lâm

Bắc Giang)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi-2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE-STUDIES

****************************************

NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY LAN

USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY

TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT BAC GIANG UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

FORESTRY

(Sử dụng bản đồ tư duy để dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tại trường Đại học Nông-Lâm

Bắc Giang)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Prof.Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi-2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

Lists of tables and figures viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 An overview of mind mapping 5

2.1.1 Definition of mind mapping 5

2.1.2 Classifications of mind mapping 6

2.1.2.1 Network tree 6

2.1.2.2 Event chain 7

2.1.2.3 Cycle concept map 8

2.1.2.4 Spider concept map 8

2.2 The applications of mind mapping to teaching a foreign language 9

2.3 The applications of mind mapping to teaching vocabulary 12

2.3.1 The overview of vocabulary 12

2.3.2 Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary 13

2.3.3 Mind mapping in teaching vocabulary 15

2.4 The advantages of using mind mapping 16

2.5 Related studies 19

2.5.1 Review of related studies worldwide 19

2.5.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam 20

2.6 Concluding remarks 21

CHAPTER 3: USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY 22 TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BUAF AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS

3.1 Introduction 22

3.2 Using mind mapping to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English 22 major students at BUAF

3.2.1 A brief introduction to BUAF 22

3.2.1.1 The University 22

3.2.1.2 The teachers of English 23

3.2.1.3 The Students 23

3.2.1.4 The coursebook “New Cutting Edge – Elementary” 24

3.2.2 How to use MM to teach vocabulary in the coursebook “NCE – 25 Elementary”

3.2.2.1 Three chosen vocabulary parts in the coursebook “NCE – 25 Elementary”

3.2.2.2 Class procedures 26

3.3 How effective is mind mapping in teaching vocabulary to the first year 30 non-English major students at BUAF?

3.3.1 Method of the research 30

3.3.2 Population 30

3.3.3 Data collection instruments 30

3.3.3.1 Questionnaires 30

3.3.3.2 Interviews 31

3.3.4 Data analysis procedures \ 31

3.4 Findings and discussion 32

3.4.1 Discussion 32

3.4.2 The Findings 32

3.4.2.1 The effectiveness of mind mapping technique to teaching 32 vocabulary

3.4.2.2 Students’ feedbacks on the application of mind mapping in 34 vocabulary lessons

3.4.2.2.1 Questionnaires 34

3.4.2.2.2 Interviews 36

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 37

4.1 Major findings of the study 37

4.2 Pedagogical implications and suggestions 38

4.3 Limitations of the study 38

4.4 Suggestions for further studies 39

References 40 Appendices I

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

MM: Mind mapping MMs: Mind maps

BUAF: Bac Giang University of Agriculture and ForestryNCE: New Cutting Edge

L2: Second language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page Table 1: Question 1 & 2 in questionnaires and students’ answers 34

Figure 2: Network tree of U.S currency 7

Figure 7: Mind map on “Family week away” 16

Figure 13: Students’ interest with the application of mind mapping 35 Figure 14: Do you want to learn vocabulary with MM any longer? 35

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1 1 Rationale

Vocabulary is an important element in second language (L2) acquisition Bylearning new words, learners can enhance their listening, speaking, reading andwriting as well as improve comprehension and production in L2

When a person’s vocabulary is limited, he may find himself incompetent inlearning English as he cannot make full sense of what he hears or reads Dellar and

Hocking (cited in Thornbury, 2002: 13) states, “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words.” Thornbury (2002: 23) also

maintains that learners need not only to learn a lot of words, but also to rememberthem

The prominent role of vocabulary in second or foreign language learning hasbeen recently recognized by theorists and researchers in the field Accordingly,numerous approaches, techniques, exercises and practice have been introduced intothe field of vocabulary teaching (Hatch & Brown, 1995) It has been suggested thatteaching vocabulary should not only consist of teaching specific words but also aim

at equipping learners with necessary strategies to expand their vocabularyknowledge (Hulstjin, 1993, cited in Morin & Goebel, 2001)

Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategieswhich in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001) One of thestrategies in learning vocabulary is how to learn and remember vocabularyeffectively Learning new vocabulary involves storing them first in short-termmemory, and then in long-term memory There are some factors affecting theprocess of remembering new vocabulary items They may be the ways to present thewords, how frequently they appear or how words are recycled

Rivers (cited in Thornbury, 2002: 144) states that “vocabulary cannot be taught, it can be presented, explained, included in all kind of activities and experienced in all manner of associations…but it is ultimately learned by the individual.” Moreover, one of the strategies to teach vocabulary is to apply images

and review well in a structured way Mind mapping is believed to be one of thetechniques or activities which can be used in teaching and learning vocabularyeffectively

For all the reasons mentioned above, I have decided to choose Using mind mapping (MM) to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students

at Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry (BUAF) as the topic of my

MA thesis

1.2 Aim of the study

The study is aimed at finding the ways to use MM to teach vocabulary to the

first year non-English major students at BUAF effectively with the coursebook New

Cutting Edge (NCE) – Elementary.

The answer to Question 2 involves a mini-experiment in which I will exploitthe insights of MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students

at BUAF, using the coursebook the university is currently using; then in order to get

to know how effective MM is to teaching vocabulary, a small research is conducted

to obtain the opinions from the students at BUAF

1.4 Scope of the study

Given the aim set in 1.2 and the research questions raised above forexploration in 1.3, the study can not cover all aspects of vocabulary teaching andlearning It only focuses on applying the insights of MM to teaching vocabulary tothe first year non-English major students at BUAF

1.5 Significance of the study

The study will be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field ofEnglish language teaching and learning: students can use MM model to learnvocabulary quickly and more effectively; teachers can understand more about the

MM model and use it to teach vocabulary more effectively in their lessons; and researchers will use the study as a reliable source of reference in their research

1.6 Organization of the study

The study consists of four chapters

Chapter 1 – Introduction – covers the rationale, the aim, the research

question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature review – provides the theoretical background of the

study which includes some basic knowledge of MM in general and MM in teachingvocabulary in particular Besides, some advantages of using MM are also presented

Chapter 3 – Using MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF and its effect – describes the method based on which the

study is carried out with the description of participants, data collection instruments,data collection procedures and analysis procedure It also gives a brief introduction

to BUAF, English teachers, students and the coursebook that the university iscurrently using Besides, in this chapter, it attempts to describe in detail three placeswhere vocabulary is taught to the first year non-English major students at BUAF,

using the coursebook “NCE – Elementary” Then to arrive at a preliminary

confirmation about the usefulness of MM in teaching vocabulary, a questionnaire isdesigned to obtain students’ opinions And when there is some doubt about theresults of the questionnaire, an informal interview is conducted The chapter endswith presenting the findings and a discussion of them

Chapter 4 – Conclusion – summarizes the main issues of the study, points

out the limitations of the study, presents the implications for using MM to teachvocabulary and make some suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview of mind mapping

2.1.1 Definition of mind mapping

“Mind mapping” or “Mind Map” was developed by the British psychologistTony Buzan in the late 1960s in an attempt to help students take notes effectively

Buzan (1993: 1) states in “The mind map book” that “MM is a powerful graphic technique, which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain”.

According to McGriff (2000: 9), “MMs are an excellent way to help learners organize knowledge, to empower themselves to better comprehend the key concepts, and principles in lectures, readings, or other instructional materials” De Porter, Readon and Nourie (1999: 175) states that “MM is a creative note-taking method, which eases us to remember much information” The best MM is colorful and used

much pictures and symbols; usually like an art

( http://www.squidoo.com/Creating-Your-First-Mind-Map )

Figure 1: Example of MM

With the use of MM in the example above, it can be seen that the learners

as where and when to go, where to stay, who to go with and how to go They cannot only organize their existing knowledge systematically but remember moreinformation related to the key concept.

In general, MM imitates the thinking process, namely helps us to move fromone topic to another topic back and forth, and presents the information throughsymbols, pictures, emotional meaning and colors, exactly the same as our brainsprocess it It uses lines, colors, arrows, branches or some ways of showingconnections between ideas generated on our mind map Our brains can rememberthings better with visual, colors and pictures and therefore remember the facts andideas that go with them

2.1.2 Classifications of mind mapping

There are many different types of MM Here are four common types that we

can find They are network tree, event chain, cycle concept map and spider concept map.

2.1.2.1 Network tree

A network tree is a representation, which shows the relationships amongideas or concepts that are depicted in the form of branches The terms are normallyordered from general to specific and should incorporate examples to reinforce theword meanings

It can be used to show casual relationship In science, it is often used to show

a progression of ideas such as particle to atom to iron to molecule to sub-atomicparticles or any classification process such as those for animals, plants or rocks, alsofor hierarchical relationship such as food chains, manufacturing processes or energytransforms

With the use of network tree, in Figure 2, it can be shown that hierarchicalrelationship in U.S currency is illustrated clearly with two kinds of currency, whichare coins and paper Moreover, in each kind, there are other sub-kinds

of a process.

( http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/lep_science/physical_science/skill_handbook/oinfo.html)

Figure 3: Event chain

As can be seen clearly, in Figure 3, event chain presents the steps in aprocess from alarm ringing to leaving for school With the use of event chaindiagram, we can see the relationship between each step and how they affect eachother.

2.1.2.3 Cycle concept map

A cycle concept map is a special type of event chain map In a cycle conceptmap, the series of events does not produce a final outcome Instead, the last event inthe chain relates back to the initiating event It is suitable to show a correlation how

a combination accident is interacting to produce a group of result repeatedly

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/lep_science/physical_science/skill_handbook/oinfo.ht ml

Figure 4: Cycle concept map

This cycle concept map describes the relationship between day and night Itcan be seen that the event starts with nighttime and ends with sunsets; however, itdoes not stop there It backs to the initiating event and starts a new event chain likethe previous one

2.1.2.4 Spider concept map

A spider concept map has a central or unifying concept in the centre withrelated concepts radiating out from the main one This is a map that you can use forbrainstorming Once you have a central idea, you may find you have a jumble ofideas that relate to it, but are not necessarily clearly related to each other By writing

these ideas outside the main concept, you may begin to separate and group

unrelated terms so that they become more useful

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/science/lep_science/physical_science/skill_handbook/oinfo.html

Figure 5: Spider concept map

Figure 5 presents spider concept map of “homework” with the central concept “homework” in the centre and supporting ideas radiating out from it.

2.2 The applications of mind mapping to teaching a foreign language

It is reasonable that memory has an important role in learning and acquiring aforeign language Especially in the communicative approach, learners have tobecome familiar with and internalize words and sentences to use them effectively

MMs are memory tools which use personal associations to make it easier toremember new information and to visualize the thinking process Therefore, MMshave proven to be a very helpful technique to master a foreign language Although itmay cost time to use the technique, it will eventually speed up the learning processwhen learners know and understand how to use it

According to Casco (2009), MMs have some applications in teaching aforeign language They are as follows:

The map helps the learners knows what comes next and draws the learners’attention to the topic Furthermore, the map provides a structure to reduce thelearners’ anxiety when receiving input through listening and reading and whenspeaking.

 Activate prior knowledge:

The use of images and keywords foster memory of what the learners know about the topic

 Encourage the learners to ask questions:

The map displays clearly what the learners know and what they do not knowabout the topic Images and interrogation marks broaden the information gap andstimulate the need in the learners to find out what they do not know

 Scaffold reading and listening comprehension:

The map is a powerful tool to facilitate comprehension because it offers thelearners a global view of what they are going to listen or read Furthermore, theembedded cues contained in the map prompt the learners to form inferences that inturn act as an aid to understanding

 Scaffold speaking:

The map serves as a tool for the learners to organize their thoughts andspeech The different elements of the map can be easily linked and cross-referencedallowing the learners to create a different discourse each time the learners use themap

 Assess oral production:

The same map implemented at other stages of the language course can beused to get a new sample of the learners’ production By explaining the connections

on the map, the learners will show if they have acquired new structures and lexicalitems The production obtained with the aid of the map will reveal errors providing

an information source for the teacher to reflect upon in her future practice

 Scaffold written production:

The map originally designed by the teacher and expanded upon by thelearners may become the starting point to write a paragraph or an essay on the topicexplored

From all his above explanations, Casco (2009) proved that MMs can bring alot of benefits in teaching a foreign language in many aspects consisting of reading,writing, reading skills as well as in motivating the learners and activating the priorknowledge

Having the same opinions with Casco (2009), Hofland (2007) agreed thatMMs are great tools for foreign language teaching and learning Therefore, they can

be used for all skills including reading, speaking, writing and vocabulary

 Mind maps and reading skills

Hofland (2007) confirms that “reading is a very linear process, a typical left brain skill” Furthermore, the human brain is not good at linear process but

extremely good at parallel processing tasks That is why MM might be a good tool

to improve the learners’ reading skill It is obvious that when a learner thinks of aword, all the images, associations, ideas and pictures will come into his mind In hisresearch, Hofland also considered that MMs can help the learners understand a textlike an article or a story better

 Mind maps and writing skills

Writing can be considered as the most difficult skill for the language learners.They often have many difficulties in expressing their ideas into words A mind mapcan activate the learners’ thinking ability and creativity By using a mind map as abrainstorming activity, the learners can express what they are going to write intoimages, graphs, ideas, etc That would be easier for them to follow when they start

to write

 Mind maps and speaking skills

MMs can be served as reminders Learners can draw a mind map to prepare atopic that they are going to speak In those MMs, they should only use key wordsand symbols to help them easier to remember their ideas.

 Mind maps and vocabulary

Lastly, Hofland asserted that mind map is a technique that is very suitable toelicit vocabulary Learners can create a mind map based on their own thinking withtheir own images, pictures, ideas or key words That is why a mind map is anexcellent way for them to remember new vocabulary

In summary, building MMs is the way to go in learning or teaching a foreignlanguage When creating MMs, learners often develop images that associate withwords Word association and images are powerful ways of learning quickly andremember for a longer time Moreover, MMs can be used with colors; numbers, etc.that bring the best result for learners in learning a foreign language

2.3 The applications of mind mapping to teaching vocabulary

There have been numerous definitions of vocabulary so far Ur (1996: 60)

defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi word idioms”.

According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online, vocabulary

is defined as all the words known and used by a particular person, and all the words which exist in a particular language or subject.

“Vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas and content together… making comprehension accessible for children.” (Rupley, Logan & Nichols, 1998).

Learners’ word knowledge is linked strongly to academic success because learnerswho have large vocabularies can understand new ideas and concepts more quicklythan learners with limited vocabularies

In short, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total number of all thewords that a language possesses ranging from a single word, two or three wordsitems expressing an idea to multi-word idioms

2.3.2 Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary

Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategieswhich in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001) Languagelearning strategies encourage greater overall self-direction for learners Self-directedlearners are independent learners who are capable of assuming responsibility fortheir own learning and gradually gaining confidence, involvement and proficiency(Oxford, 1990) Thus, students need training in vocabulary learning strategies theyneed most Research has shown that many learners do use more strategies to learnvocabulary especially when compared to such integrated tasks such as listening andspeaking However, they are mostly inclined to use basic vocabulary learningstrategies (Schmitt, 1997) This in turn makes strategy instruction an essential part

of any foreign or second language program

Learners acquire vocabulary in various ways Students are exposed to a lot ofnew vocabulary during lessons by the teacher, by texts or other materials they workwith A lot of this vocabulary is automatically absorbed (Harmer, 1993: 159).Various techniques and activities are aimed directly at

learning vocabulary, which is usually put into sets of somehow related words, often

by topic or meaning

As McCarthy (1992: 108) suggests, before presenting new language,

pre-teaching activities might be beneficial “to activate existing knowledge to make the encounter with new words more meaningful” Pre-teaching activities often arouse

students’ attention and desire to explore a particular topic or subject in greater detail

Both McCarthy (1992: 110) and Thornbury (2004: 76) suggest two generalpossibilities of arranging vocabulary presentation The teacher provides the learnerswith the meaning of the words and then progresses to introduction of their forms orvice versa – the form is introduced first, followed up with illustration of themeaning In the latter, forms are often presented in text or another form of contextand students are encouraged to discover meanings and other properties of wordsthemselves This type of activity is called the discovery technique (Harmer, 1993:160)

For Nation (1990; 2001), the most important way to learn vocabulary islearners using strategies independently of a teacher In his recent publication,strategy training is suggested to be part of a vocabulary development program.According to Schmitt & Schmitt (1995), the best teaching plan may be to introduce

a variety of learning strategies to students so that they can decide for themselves theones they prefer This echoes learners' need to develop their strategy knowledge

As Harmer (1993: 161-162) suggests, sense relations, definition and directtranslation of words might function as another helpful tool for clarifying themeaning Besides, Thornbury (2004: 81) listed these options as well andfurthermore included an idea of clarifying the meaning by examples, such as

“providing an example situation” or” giving several example sentences”.

Besides explaining the meaning in vocabulary presentation, it is alsoimportant to focus on forms, since the sound of words is one of the aspectsinfluencing the organization of the mental lexicon (Thornbury 2004: 84; McCarthy,

1992: 110) This is arranged by various drilling activities From experience, songsand chants are very suitable for drills, providing rhythm, catchy rhymes and anelement of fun.

All these techniques are more or less useful for a particular situation, leveland vocabulary, the best way would be in many cases to combine them and useseveral together

2.3.3 Mind mapping in teaching vocabulary

Casco (2009) states that MM (MMs) was first applied to foreign languageteaching in the 1990s as an aid to activate prior knowledge on a certain topic andhelp learners to organize and recall items of vocabulary When being used toactivate prior knowledge, the teacher asks learners what they know about a certaintopic and the learners brainstorm associations which the teacher writes on the boardcreating a collective map When being used for vocabulary acquisition, teachersfirst ask learners to brainstorm items of vocabulary associated with a certain topicand then learners are asked to create their own maps instead of the more traditionalapproach of creating glossaries with new vocabulary

A mind map consists of picture, symbol and color that will not only help thestudents to understand the vocabulary knowledge but also makes the students feelgood, enjoyable and attract their brain which at last leads them to have interest inmastery vocabulary knowledge

The examples below will describe clearly how MM can help students learnvocabulary easily (See Figure 6 in the next page)

It can be seen clearly in the example in Figure 6 that students not only learn

the meaning of the word “transport” but also know different types of transport

through this MM By using MM, teachers can enhance students’ imagination;moreover, students can learn and remember the words more easily and effectively

(english-with-tuoi-tre- news/weekly-lessons/unblocking-writer-s-block-

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/education/studying-technique-3-mind-mapping-1.42101)

Figure 6: Mind map on “Transport”

By using colors and images that can be illustrated in Figure 7, MM can helpstudents a lot in learning the word and organizing the ideas systematically In fact, itusually takes a lot of effort to remember words and sentences; whereas when wevisualize them, they automatically pop up in our mind when we try to rememberthem Of course, it is possible to learn by hearing or remembering but it is mucheasier to learn when we visualize and associate because these techniques suit theway our mind works

(http://www.imindmap.com/personal/)

Figure 7: Mind map on “Family week ahead”

2.4 The advantages of using mind mapping

As presented before, MM was first used to help students take note effectively

by Tony Buzan In fact, information has been recorded with letters, lines andnumbers for a long time However, many disadvantages can be found while noting

down information First of all, it takes a lot of energy and time to write downredundant words Another disadvantage is that information may be missed whilenoting down one idea Moreover, it takes longer to read and review.

Comparing with the traditional linear notes, we can see many advantages ofusing MM technique According to Russell (1995), MMs have many applications.First, MMs help organize information into a form that is easily assimilated by thebrain and easily remembered Thus, they can be used for noting books, lectures,meetings, interviews, telephone conversations Next, MMs allow ideas to be quicklynoted as they occur, in an organized manner, obviating the relatively laboriousprocess of forming neat sentences and writing out in full They, therefore, serve as aquick and efficient means of review, and so keep recall at a high level Russell alsoemphasizes that MMs are very valuable in any planning and organizing, whether it

is of books, reports, lectures, meetings, study, daily tasks, or future activities

De Porter and Hernacki (2008: 172, cited in Dang, 2011) put out that using

MM technique has some advantages They are as follows

1) Flexible

Explaining something can be easy without confusing in adding the materialbased on MM We can put the label and category of something based on our ownopinions anywhere in MM

2) Concentrate on the Topic

Getting the subtopics what we talk about with focus on the main ideas easily.Keep focus on the keyword can help us to make it simple and it does not waste thetime

3) Increasing Comprehension

Using MM can make easy in understanding the material MM is a simplethink pattern so it does not make us confuse to understand what we have learnedand easy to remember the material

4) Enjoyable

Imagination and creativity are unlimited in using MM, so it can be funny tolearn By using pictures and colors, it makes the brain enjoy and excited in thinkingsomething what we want about the material

From the all explanations, it can be seen that MM can bring a lot of benefits

to the learners for the ability of memorizing and brain development That’s why it ischosen to apply for teaching language more and more popularly nowadays

(http://www.illumine.co.uk/learn-absorb-understand/mind-mapping-training.html)

Figure 8: Why to use mind maps?

According to McGriff (2000: 9), “MMs are an excellent way to help learners organize knowledge, to empower themselves to better comprehend the key concepts, and principles in lectures, readings, or other instructional materials” Buzan

(1993) describes mind maps as a representation of cognition and comprehension inthe learner, and as an excellent way to help learners to express themselves bothverbally and visually Indeed, in their mind map, learners may use graphicrepresentation which may help in the brainstorming process McGriff (2000) foundthat relating images to concepts is a creative task which requires thinking instead ofmemorizing

From the advantages MM can bring to the learners as presented above, Iwould like to affirm once more time that MM can be an amazing tool to helpstudents improve their vocabulary as it is a tool to take note effectively During the

lessons, learners can use MM to take note with key words, colors, images tounderstand the lessons and learn vocabulary more thoroughly Besides, because ofthe ability of activating existing knowledge, MM makes learners brainstorm thetopic from a central idea to many other related ideas With this activity, learners canlearn not only one word but many other words related.

With the benefits of MM to learning and teaching vocabulary, I would like toapply this model to teaching vocabulary in my lessons to my students – the first

year non-English major students at BUAF - with the coursebook “NCE – Elementary” to see how it is used to bring more positive effects to my students’

vocabulary improvement

2.5 Related studies

2.5.1 Review of related studies worldwide

There are several studies related to using MM technique in teaching

languages in the world The study Teaching vocabulary through MM technique to the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang was written by Effendi

(2004) Based on the analysis of the data gathered during the study, it can beconcluded that there was a significant difference between the students’ progress inthe experimental group (using MM technique) and the control group (usingtraditional method) From the data analysis, it can be concluded that it was effective

to teach vocabulary through MM to the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 15Palembang

Beside the above study, I cannot find the study related to using MMs to teachvocabulary However, there are some studies about using MMs in teaching language

The study Introducing mind map in comprehension by Moi and Lian (2007)

concluded that pupils are able to understand and remember the comprehensionpassage better in establishing meaningful links, pattern, relationship among conceptsand information Visual mapping also helps pupils to develop their thinking skills,sorting of information and ideas, thus developing better

understanding in a topic area Pupils gain confidence in attempting comprehensionquestions.

Another study entitled MM in the EFL classroom conducted by Hofland

(2007) affirms that MMs are memory tools which use personal associations to make

it easy to remember new information and to visualize the thinking process That iswhy MMs have proven to be a very useful technique to master a foreign language

He also states that using MMs can bring a lot of benefits in teaching reading skills,writing skills, speaking skills as well as vocabulary

The study The Use of MM to Develop Writing Skills in UAE Schools by

Naqbi presented that MM may impact on students’ abilities to plan and organizetheir ideas for writing tasks under exam conditions Moreover, using the MMtechnique can help in developing students’ cognition skills and aid in informationrecovery in an assessment situation Eventually, he stressed that MM techniquewould seem to be particularly suited to help students in planning their writing as theapproach encourages students to reach for and adapt a deeper level of understanding

of the writing topics

2.5.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam

It is quite hard to look for the studies related to the topic of this study inVietnam After a long time searching, I only found one related study – the

graduation paper – which named Using MMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary for first year mainstream students, Faculty of English Language Teacher

Education by Dang (2011) Her findings were that there was a different

achievement on the Experimental Group and Control Group, which means, usingMMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary can help students have better and longermemory of word items taught Furthermore, students after attending a lesson withMMs and diagrams really wanted to have chance to learn with those techniques

Beside this study, there are various studies on the matter of teaching and

learning vocabulary For example, Using movies and videos to teach English

vocabulary to the tenth form students by Do (2010), Some techniques to teach vocabulary effectively in coursebook “Powerbase elementary” for first-year, non- major students at Vietnam national economics university by Nguyen (2006), Improving learning English vocabulary through games: an action research by Vu

(2011), etc Although these studies are not really related to the topic “using MM to teach vocabulary”, all of them help me a lot in providing general knowledge on

vocabulary and vocabulary teaching and learning

2.6 Concluding Remarks

In this chapter, I have been concerned with an over review of MM as ateaching model At the first stage, an overview of MM was presented with variousdefinitions of MM and its classification Next, the applications of MM to teaching aforeign language in general and to teaching vocabulary in particular were madeclear with a brief introduction of vocabulary and strategies of teaching and learningvocabulary And then the advantages of using MM was also exposed such asflexible, concentrating on the topic, increasing comprehension, etc Lastly, somerelated studies worldwide and in Vietnam were presented with a clear description ofthe studies and the gained findings

CHAPTER 3 USING MIND MAPPING TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BUAF AND ITS

EFFECTIVENESS 3.1 Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the question of how to use MM to teachvocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF The chapter willstart with a brief introduction to BUAF, BUAF’s English teachers, the first yearstudents, and the English coursebook that the university is currently using Then itwill present data collection and data analysis procedures This is followed by adetailed description of three places where vocabulary is taught, using MM model

And then class procedure is made clear from the beginning to the end of each trialvocabulary parts

Next, in order to answer the question " How effective is MM in teaching vocabulary to the first year non-English students at BUAF? ”, firstly, the method ofthe study, population, data collection instruments and data analysis procedures arepresented clearly and then a small research is conducted with a questionnairedelivered to 90 students And when there is some doubt about the result of thequestionnaire, an informal interview is conducted The chapter ends with presentingthe findings and a discussion of them

3.2 Using MM to teach vocabulary to the first year non-English major students at BUAF

3.2.1 A brief introduction to BUAF

3.2.1.1 The University

BUAF is located in Bich Son, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province It is apublic university in Vietnam It is a training institution under Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development established under Decision No 133/QD - TTg

by the Prime Minister on 20th May, 2011, on the basis of upgrading Bac GiangCollege of Agriculture and Forestry.

Its functions and tasks are to train technical staff who have university –college degrees, high school technicians and craft workers on economic andtechnical field of agriculture and forestry in order to meet the applications in theagricultural and rural development contributing to the industrialization andmodernization of the country Besides, the university is also responsible for researchand application of scientific and technical advance and development to meet therequirements of the industry

After 50 years of development, BUAF has always been the basis of trainingquality assurance providing technical staff for the country The university hasconstantly been growing in size, training types, and teaching staffs

3.2.1.2 The Teachers of English

In fact, at BUAF, there are only 7 English teachers aged from 28 to 41, butnone of them have ever been to an English speaking country 5 out of them weretrained at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam NationalUniversity, Hanoi while two others finished an in-service course of English Only30% are M.A of English Most of the teachers have been teaching English for over

5 years and have acquired certain pedagogical competence However, the method ofteaching, which is applied by most of the teachers at BUAF, is a very traditional one– the Grammar Translation Method Other methods are not popularly used

3.2.1.3 The students

Like students of other colleges and universities in Vietnam, the students ofBUAF come from many different parts of the country; however, most of them arefrom provinces and mountainous areas Their age ranges from 18 to over 20.Students of BUAF do not have the same level of English language proficiency.Some of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high schools, somehave only learned English for 3 years and some have never learned English before

Most of them are only good at grammar, not at speaking, writing and listening.Moreover, their vocabulary is very poor That is why they do not have enoughvocabulary to express their ideas in writing and speaking, and they do notunderstand what they hear As a result, the way to present vocabulary is veryimportant to make sure that they understand their meanings and remember them for

a long time

3.2.1.4 The coursebook “NCE – Elementary”

The coursebook the university is using is NCE – Elementary It is written by

Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor and Jane Comyns-Carr and was published by

Pearson Longman in 2005 NCE presents the basic structure of English and

develops them through a variety of different contexts It is a topic-based textbookwhich includes language components and language skills such as grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation and skills of reading, speaking and writing Emphasis isalso placed on enlarging the students’ knowledge of vocabulary, and on developingtheir ability to communicate effectively There is a comprehensive treatment ofreading, writing, speaking and listening skills The coursebook is most appropriatefor students who have limited precious experience of learning English, and whoneed to practise and consolidate basic structures and vocabulary from the beginning

Each unit is based around a theme and has the main structure focus, which isrecycled and developed through the unit Each module contains different sectionssuch as Language focus, Vocabulary, Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing(mostly in the Workbook) After every five modules, there is a Consolidationmodule section This section provides controlled and free revision of the previousmaterial and can be used by the teachers and the students to evaluate their progress

At BUAF, the coursebook “NCE – Elementary” has been used since 2010 as

the official material to learn general English After 5 semesters of learning generalEnglish, students will learn English with Specific Purposes (ESP) which is relevant

to their majors The coursebook includes 15 modules In each module, vocabulary

part is often presented at the beginning after one small part of language focus (For more detail about this, please see Appendices 11, 12 & 13).

3.2.2 How to use MM to teach vocabulary in the coursebook “NCE –

Elementary”

3.2.2.1 Three chosen vocabulary parts in the coursebook “NCE – Elementary”

In this section, I will describe in some detail three chosen vocabulary parts in

the coursebook “NCE – Elementary” where vocabulary is taught, using MM model.

Each part is taught in 20’ at the beginning of the lessons After teaching vocabulary,other teaching parts such as language focus, reading, listening, speaking and writingwill be taught as usual The three chosen vocabulary parts are as follows

Vocabulary Part 1: Transport (Module 5: Getting from A to B – Page 42)

Vocabulary Part 1 is extracted from “Module 5: Getting from A to B – page 42” (See Appendix 11) The topic of the lesson is about transport Therefore, the

main purpose of the lesson is to help students get to know words (their form,

meaning, and use) which are related to the concept “transport” Besides, students

can learn and remember words indicating different types of transport

Vocabulary Part 2: Food and drink (countable and uncountable nouns) (Module 6: Eating and drinking – Page 52)

Vocabulary Part 2 is extracted from “Module 6: Eating and drinking – page 52” (See appendix 12) This topic is quite common to students Therefore, it seems

that students will be eager to learn this vocabulary part However, the final purpose

of the lesson is to help students learn and remember words indicating different kinds

of food and drink Besides, they can identify which one is a countable noun or anuncountable noun

Vocabulary Part 3: Describing films (Module 8: Fact or Fiction – Page 68)

Vocabulary Part 3 is extracted from “Module 8: Fact or fiction – page 68” (See Appendix 13) In this vocabulary lesson, students will learn how to describe

the films they have seen Therefore, students need to know the names of differentkind of films and the adjectives that can be used to describe those films.

3.2.2.2 Class procedures

Vocabulary Part 1:

Before starting the lesson, students were asked to close the book and give the

answers to some questions such as “How do (does) you/ your mother/ your father often go to school?” to lead the lesson After students knew the topic of the lesson,

a map was drawn on the board with “transport” – the central idea and then I asked students some questions to help them complete the map such as “How many types

of transport do you know?”, “What are their subtypes?” etc (See Figure 9 in the

To make sure students know the meaning of these words, I asked students tomatch them with the pictures given in Page 42 and elicit them to give theirVietnamese meaning Knowing the meaning of the words is not enough; studentswould be helped to practice pronouncing them correctly

Moving to task 2, students were told to work in groups to put the types oftransport in order from fast to slow Students found it very eager to do this taskbecause they could share their own opinions and discussed with each other Ireminded them to put the number 1, 2, 3 under types of transport in the mind map

Students were elicited to give the answers and finally I would give the correct one ifnecessary (See Appendix 4)

Transport

Figure 9: Mind map on “Transport”

The purpose of task 3 is to help students know the prepositions that go withthese types of transport and people who often use them With this kind of task, Icould elicit the answers from students because they had learnt it before If they didnot remember, I would give the correct answer by writing down the preposition nearthe types of transport on the board And then, I would help students match peoplewith types of transport they often use (See Appendix 4)

Vocabulary Part 2: Food and drink

At the beginning of the lesson, students were elicited to give the name of the

meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and then they were asked to look at the picture

given in page 52 and gave the answer

In task 2, I made students work in pairs to find food and drink in the picturegiven The answer was checked with the whole class In order to help studentspronoun these words correctly, I drilled word by word with students

Moving to task 3, the class was divided into 2 big groups One group put thewords in task 2 into countable nouns box, one group put them into uncountablenouns box The answer was checked by calling 2 students to write down it on theboard and then I would correct it if necessary.

Before ending the lesson, I would draw two maps on the board and askedstudents to close the book to complete it (See Appendices 5 & 6)

Drink

Figure 10: Mind mapping on “Drink”

Food

Figure 11: Mind mapping on “Food”

Vocabulary Part 3: Describing films

At first, I introduced the topic of the new lesson to students Next, I woulddraw a map on the board and reminded students that during the lesson, they had tocomplete the map with their own ways They could add, remove or change branches

if they wanted (See Figure 12 in the next page)

I started the lesson by checking students’ understanding about the meaning

of the given words and focused them on the photographs of the films (page 68-69)

Figure 12: Mind map on “Film”

Next, I asked students to work in pairs to match the films with thevocabulary given To make sure that students understood the words thoroughly, Icould ask them to give the meanings of these words in Vietnamese After that,students were helped to practice pronouncing the types of film Finishing task 1, Igave students 3’ to fill the types of film in the map

In task 2, students were elicited to give the meanings of the given adjectives

I could give their meanings if they did not know Students were asked to work inpairs to choose the adjectives that are suitable to describe the types of film At thisstage, I also reminded students to complete the map with the new information

The purpose of task 3 is to help students practice speaking with some newvocabulary that they have just learnt In this task, students were made to work in

pairs (one says the name of the film; one speaks out the adjectives to describe this film) I could check students’ practicing by calling some pairs to speak aloud in

front of the class

At the end of the lesson, I asked students to compare their maps with theirfriends before calling 2 students to draw their maps on the board Students wereelicited to add more ideas and then I would give the suggested answer if necessary.(See Appendix 7)

3.3 How effective is MM in teaching vocabulary to the first year non-English students at BUAF?

3.3.1 Method of the research

The aim of this section is to find out how effective MM is in teachingvocabulary after my three teaching samples To do this, I will do a mini-research toget the opinions from the students through two research instruments: questionnairesand interviews

3.3.2 Population

The first year non-English major students at BUAF in the academic year of2011-2012 were chosen as the participants of this study The total number ofstudents selected to answer the questionnaires and take part in the three trialvocabulary parts was 90 including 42 males and 48 females (18-22 years old) Then

to reconfirm some information collected from the questionnaires and to get moreopinions from students, informal interviews were conducted with 10 students afterthe trial vocabulary lessons

3.3.3 Data collection instruments

3.3.3.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire (See Appendix 1) consists of 7 questions concerned withstudents’ opinions about learning vocabulary, their feedbacks on the use of MM inteaching vocabulary, the benefits that MM brings to their vocabulary learning, thedifficulties that they have met when learning vocabulary with MM and theirsuggestions to make the lessons with the use of MM more interesting It was written

in Vietnamese to help students to understand and complete them easily Indesigning the survey, closed questions were used more than open-ended ones inorder to easily quantify the data The survey was conducted to get students’feedbacks after they had chances to approach MM through three trial vocabularyparts

3.3.3.2 Interviews