Improving student’s writing skills through mind mapping techniques an action research on fifth grade students at an english centre in ha noi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN HOÀI THƯƠNG IMPROVING STUDENT'S WRITING SKILLS THROUGH MIND

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN HOÀI THƯƠNG

IMPROVING STUDENT'S WRITING SKILLS THROUGH MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUES: AN ACTION RESEARCH ON FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS AT AN ENGLISH CENTRE IN HA NOI

(Cải thiện kỹ năng viết của học sinh bằng phương pháp sơ đồ tư duy một nghiên cứu thực nghiệm/ hành động với học sinh lớp 5 tại trung tâm

Tiếng Anh tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

HA NOI - 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN HOÀI THƯƠNG

IMPROVING STUDENT'S WRITING SKILLS THROUGH MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUES: AN ACTION RESEARCH ON FIFTH GRADE STUDENTS AT AN ENGLISH CENTRE IN HA NOI

(Cải thiện kỹ năng viết của học sinh bằng phương pháp sơ đồ tư duy một nghiên cứu thực nghiệm/ hành động với học sinh lớp 5 tại trung tâm

Tiếng Anh tại Hà Nội)

Field: English Language Methodology

Code: 8140231.01

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Supervisor: Prof Dr Nguyễn Hoà

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hoà, for his invaluable guidance, correction, facilitation and encouragement in the writing of this thesis

I wish to express my gratitude to the Dean, the Vice Dean and all the staff of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their priceless wisdom, encouragement, help and kindness during my study and writing this thesis

My thanks go to the language center, which supports me to carry out this research project

Finally, I want to thank my family, my friends for their spirit, encouragement and their support Without them this thesis couldn‟t have been accomplished

DECLARATION

I, Trần Hoài Thương, declare that this thesis is the results of my own research and has not been submitted to any other university or institution partially or wholly Except where the reference is indicated, no other p‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in text of the thesis

With respect to these problems, I have decided to employ mind mapping as technique to improve writing skills of students at a Center in Hanoi Using mind map tool, students were exposed to the flow of writing, to the overall organization and to the language characteristics of narrative writing skills Results from this action research project indicates some improvements in their writing skills and generally a positive attitude toward the intervention

Keywords: Mind mapping, Teaching Techniques, Narrative writing, Writing Process, Improvement

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

DECLARATION ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF APPENDICES x

Chapter I:INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background and Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Research methods 4

1.7 Structure of the thesis 4

Chapter II:LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Defining writing and writing skills 5

2.1.1 Writing and writing skills 5

2.1.2 Narrative writing skill 8

2.1.3 Teaching writing to young learners 8

2.1.4 Teaching and the learning cycle of writing 13

2.1.5 Assessing writing 13

2.2 Mind-mapping definition 14

2.2.1 Mind mapping 14

2.2.2 Mind mapping techniques 15

2.3 Previous studies into using mind mapping techniques 19

2.4 Chapter summary 21

Chapter III:METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 The context of the research 22

3.2 Timeline of the research 23

3.3 Research method 23

3.4 Participants 26

3.5 Data collection instruments 26

3.5.1 Pre-test and post-test 26

3.5.2 Classroom observation 27

3.5.3 Guided Interview 27

3.6 Data analysis 29

3.6.1 Assembling your data 29

3.6.2 Coding the data 29

3.6.3 Comparing the data 29

3.6.4 Building meanings and interpretations 29

3.6.5 Reporting the outcomes 30

3.6.6 Quantitative data analysis 30

3.7 Procedures of the research 31

3.7.1 Identifying the problem 31

3.7.2 Carrying out the real classroom research 31

3.7.3 Doing evaluation 31

Chapter IV:FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 32

4.1 Planning a change 32

4.2 Research findings 37

4.2.1 Cycle 1 37

4.2.2 Cycle 2 41

4.3 Discussion 46

4.3.1 Discussion of the pre- and post-test 46

4.3.2 Discussion of the cycles 48

3.3.4 Findings from the intervention 51

Chapter V:CONCLUSION 53

5.1 Summary 53

5.2 Limitations 54

5.3 Suggestions 54

5.3.1 For the teacher 54

5.3.2 For the students 54

REFERENCES 56 APPENDICES I

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Writing process 9

Figure 2.2 The process wheel (Harmer, 2004, p 6) 10

Figure 2.3 Mind-map about writing process taught to the students 12

Figure 2.4 A student‟s mind map about animal 15

Figure 2.5 A narrative writing form 18

Figure 3.1 The action research spiral (Kemmis et al., 2014, p 19) 25

Figure 4.1 The narrative writing of a student in the pre-test exam 35

Figure 4.2 Writing working sheet sample 42

Figure 4.3 The mind-map drew by a student in class about the topic 44

Figure 4.4 The narrative writing of a student in the class in the post-test 45

Figure 4.5 Comparison between the Pre-Test marks and post-test marks 47

Figure 4.6 Change in the marks of the students, comparison between pre-test and post-pre-test 48

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Research procedure and timeline 23Table 3.2 Data collection instruments 28Table 4.1 Problems identified prior to the action research (AR) 33Table 4.2 Descriptive analytic of the marks of the students in the pre-test 36Table 4.3 Descriptive analytic of the marks of the students in the post-

test 46Table 4.4 Problems identified before the action 48Table 4.5 The improvement 52

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Pre-test and post-test results IAppendix 2: Teacher pre-interview IIAppendix 3: Teacher post-interview IVAppendix 4: Lesson plans VAppendix 5: Classroom observation field notes sample IXAppendix 6: The rubric XI

1.1 Background and Rationale of the study

English plays an important role in today‟s world It is an international language broadly used around the world To have a good command of English, students should learn and be competent in all skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing

According to Brown (2000, p 217) “For more than six decades now, research and practice in English language teaching has identified the four skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing as paramount importance” Such four skills are a measuring benchmark on proficiency of learning English Among those skills, writing has a very crucial position in effective communication As agreed by Richards and Renandya (2002), among other skills, writing is seen as the key one and the most difficult skills for students

to master

Despite its important role, the opportunities for available for practicing and developing writing skill, are hardly sufficient Most English teachers pay inadequate attention to writing as it is not included in the National School Leaving Exam Further, there has been some recognition that writing is seen

to be challenging skill to study Many reasons have been disclosed on why writing skill is the challenging skill for students Essentially, according to Harmer (2004), in case of spoken language, it is naturally acquired as children are exposed to it, but the ability to write has to be purposely learned Whereas learners study writing, it takes time and a teacher to teach them Time is

demanded as writing engages many phases including brainstorming, noting, planning, drafting, editing, and proof-reading (Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams, 2005)

At the center where the researcher works as a teacher with the fifth-grade students, they saw writing as a challenging skill to study From the interviews with the learners, and my personal observation, the researcher found out that the they had some problems related to content and textual organization When the students had writing assignment, they spent long time thinking They wrote gradually, and they saw it challenging to identify which ideas to write about Furthermore, they also did not know how to structure their ideas textually Consequently, they made short and incomprehensible texts

With respect to this problem, the researcher has decided to employ mind mapping as technique to improve writing skills of students at a language Center in Hanoi Using mind map tool, the students were exposed to the flow

of writing, to the overall organization and to the characteristics of text forms Furthermore, it helped them to present their opinions and made it easier to organize those thinking into logical structure Mind mapping techniques can also make it beneficial for students who find it difficult with traditional ways

of teaching writing (Peterson & Snyder, 1998)

1.2 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to understand to the impact of mind mapping

on writing skill development for the fifth-grade learners at my center Following are the research question of this study

On answering this RQ, the researcher focused on the following issues The first is to find the improvement in students‟ writing skill at a language center in Hanoi through mind mapping Secondly, the research is to find the phenomenon that takes place when the teacher teaches writing through mind mapping The third, the research is to evaluate the strengths and the weaknesses of mind mapping techniques in teaching writing

1.4 Significance of the study

By undertaking this action research project, the researcher hopes to find out more about the impact of mind-mapping on developing writing skills, and hopefully, the results of this study can be transferrable to other contexts

1.5 Scope of the study

This study was conducted in a language Center in Hanoi, where the researcher works as a teacher of fifth grade cohort Part of my job is to teach them narrative writing There are many problems in Vietnamese children‟s learning English that need researching, however, writing is of the productive skill and it is of essential importance to the development of a language learner In writing, although there are also various problems at different stages

of learning which can be classified into linguistic, psychological, cognitive, and pedagogical categories (Hyland, 2003), this project focuses on mainly on the linguistic and psychological domains of learning writing They struggle with the structural components of writing formats, the command of vocabulary, and the students‟ participation in the classroom are the focus of this present study

Methodologically, there are a lot of methods to help children improve writing skills, the focus of this project is limited to using mind mapping techniques proposed by (Buzan, 2003, 2013; Buzan & Buzan, 2003) for the development of narrative writing skills

1.6 Research methods

The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of mind mapping into writing skills, therefore action research is an appropriate approach to examine the students‟ improvement and the researcher herself can get involved in that development In this research both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered The qualitative data came from the classroom observation and interviews with the associate teacher (AT) The quantitative data came from the pre- and post-test

1.7 Structure of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters

Chapter 1 - Introduction represents the rationale for the study, the aims

to which the study is conducted, the research questions, the scope, the significance of the study, and the design of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature reviews provides the definitions of the key terms, and the previous studies related to the study as well as the gaps in the field which inspire the researcher to conduct this project This chapter also looks at the advantages and disadvantages of mind-mapping technique in the activities

of learning and teaching writing

Chapter 3 - Methodology describes the action research cycle, the context of the study, the data collection methods and data analytic framework

Chapter 4 - Findings presents the findings and the discussion of the findings

Chapter 5 - Conclusion summarizes key findings, the contribution of the study, some limitations of the study Recommendations for further research are also offered

Chapter II:

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter shows the literature review, related researches and conceptual framework Literature review discusses the theories relevant with the researched topic Researches which are related to this study are also shown Whereas, conceptual framework examines the connection of the theories with the research

2.1 Defining writing and writing skills

2.1.1 Writing and writing skills

According to Spratt et al (2005), writing is one of the constructive skills While people write, they create language rather than just getting it This process relates to communicating a note, generating symbols on a page and transfer to readers Moreover, they also have to be clear about what messages they would like to communicate and how they are communicating the messages These facts will impact on what they write and how they prepare for that In this connection, Harmer (2004) comments that writers should understand the target audience that they are writing for This will support the writers to conclude on what to communicate and how to communicate Besides, writing needs to follow step by step Those comprise brainstorming, drafting and revising

Written language is clearly known as a kind of graphic representation

of spoken language, writing needs distinctive course of competence and writing requires a process, it is an outcome of brainstorming, drafting and revising (Brown & Lee, 2015)

Same as any other skills, writing includes some particular skills that are generally known as micro skills and macro skills or so-called sub-skills They are used to determine what can be seen as good writing It means that these conditions are employed to evaluate writing of students

There are many sub-skills for writing as agreed by Spratt et al (2005) The first is accuracy According to the authors, “Accuracy is about using the correct forms of language such as spelling correctly, forming letters correctly, writing legibly, punctuating correctly, choosing the right vocabularies, using grammar correctly, joining sentences correctly, and using paragraph correctly” The second is relating to convey a message successfully to other people and in order to achieve this result, the writer must have enough ideas and structure them in good manner The third is that they also have to show their ideas in proper way

Brown (2004) also separates skills of writing into micro-skills and macro-skills The micro-skills are suitable for simulated and comprehensive kinds of writing assignment, whereas the macro-skills are vital for the successful expertise of comprehensive and reactive writing They are the micro-skills and macro-skills of writing in accordance with Brown (2004)

There are a number of written results As categorized by Brown (2004), those written results have four types of performances This type is divided from the most fundamental skill to the most complicated skill

The first kind is simulated writing From the beginning level, students have to gain skills in the fundamental tasks of writing They would comprise writing words, letter, punctuation and very brief sentences Under this level, students are expected to be capable of spelling accurately and obtaining phoneme grapheme correspondences under English spelling system The key point of this phase is that context and meaning come into interest

The second category is comprehensively or frequently named as monitored writing It consists of the skills in generating proper words under the context, collocations and idioms; and fix grammatical features to reach the length of sentence Most examination tests for comprehensive writing are strictly monitored by the test creator or the teacher Hence, this category of

writing will not permit learners to employ their creativity A general form of monitored writing is written grammar works Students are provided with a paragraph with a defined tense and they are to change the tense For instance, students might be asked for altering all present tense verb into past tense One

of other kinds of this task categories are sequencing jumbled vocabularies into meaningful and good sentences and depicting a clear figure with a short sentence In this regard, the meaning and context are very critical for defining accuracy and correctness, however, most tasks stress on form more

The third kind is reactive writing In this category, students are asked to produce at a restricted level in connection of sentences into a paragraph and generating logically connected order of two or three paragraphs The tasks are known as reactive writing as students correspond to training instruction, course of conditions, structures, and other guidelines Under features, students start to apply their creativity to show their opinions in varied types In addition to focus on dialogue tradition, this kind of writing also stresses on type at the conservation degree, with a strong focusing on context and meaning Shapes of tasks that exist with reactive writing are paraphrasing, growing topic within a paragraph, compiling lectures, and explaining graphic

or flat data

The final category is comprehensive writing Comprehensive writing means successful controlling of all processes and strategies of writing for all objectives, reaching to the length of a narrative writing, a term paper, a major research project report or even thesis The emphasis of comprehensive writing tasks is gaining the objective of writing, arranging and developing opinions logically, applying details to help or describe ideas, and in most cases, involving in the process of diversified drafts to accomplish a final product Dissimilar with stimulating and monitored writing, the emphasis of grammatical shape is limited in this form of task

2.1.2 Narrative writing skill

Definitively, narrative text correlated with one of text classes in training language in primary school Additionally, narrative text is a text that presents a story According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (Deuter, Bradbery, & Turnbull, 2018), narrative is about describing events, exceptionally in a novel or act, course of skill of telling of story Narrative writing pertains a clear order of events that happens over time (Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994) Our understanding of narrative writing skills is consistent with the early composition writing skills of children, the organization of students‟ writings, the text generation or vocabulary usage (Babayiğit & Stainthorp, 2010)

In this research, the researcher employs mind mapping in writing narrative text For example, in the Coursebook - Write Right 2 - used for this research, the students are asked to write about a summer vacation (Unit 4, pp 30-37) Mind mapping is appropriately used to maximize students‟ narrative writing skill in this research because Nurlaila (2013) proved mind mapping is highly effective in this form of writing

2.1.3 Teaching writing to young learners

Writing, like reading, is an “unnatural” act with the purposes for writing, and to say why writing is an important educational tool (Nunan, 2011) When working with young learners, it is important to remember that along with learning how to write in English, they are refining their oral language skills, and depending upon the age, beginning to develop written language skills in their native language If students don‟t have writing skills in their native language, they most likely won‟t have them in their second language Teachers of young learners should never underestimate the value of native language literacy (Linse & Nunan, 2005, p 98)

It is real that how well a student‟s final product evaluated up against a list of condition is still the interest of teachers Nevertheless, nowadays teachers could see the benefit of placing students as the maker of language, letting them to stress on content and message, and placing students‟ individual basic purposes at the learning center Hence, what is now named the process way to writing instruction remains on developing

According to Harmer (2004), the process of writing is the steps a writer goes through to create final written forms The process may be influenced by the writing content, the kind of writing, and the medium it is written in Nation (2009) claims that writing process help students to perceive the dissimilar perspective of writing The writing process is categorized into some phases Spratt et al (2005) recommends the phases of the writing process as follows

Figure 2.1 Writing process

Nation and Newton (2009) interpret the phases of writing process in different definition The first processes are assessing the objectives of the writers and having frame of the reader When the writers/students understand the reason why they write and to whom they write for, it would be simpler for them to accommodate the information with the approach of showing it The second

Proof reading Creating another draft

Editing Writing a draft Planning Composing notes Brainstorming

process is compiling opinions This process could be completed by merely motivate students‟ sense to discover a topic or by replying the questions of who, why, where, when, and how The third process is arranging opinions Occasionally, in which few students are to write with a provided topic, the opinions consisted do not contrast significantly from one to another, but the methodology is structured can increase uniqueness to the piece of writing To arrange the opinions, students could line up the ideas in line with a useful condition or to divide the opinions into group The fourth process is changing ideas into written text and followed by reviewing the text Reviewing on what has been written is vital for students because they could check what opinions have already been covered, be able to remain the agreement and progress of the writing, quicken further opinions, and find out for mistakes Let the reviewing become easier, students could use the checklist comprising points

to review in their writing The final process is editing It engages in going back over the writing and changing to its structure, style, grammatical and lexical accuracy, and suitability The processes specified above do not inevitably happen in a determined sequence Some students may love to regularly review what they write, editing it, and undertaking with the writing Harmer (2004) also has his own notion about the process of writing The process is presented in the „process wheel‟

Figure 2.2 The process wheel (Harmer, 2004, p 6)

Harmer (2004, pp 4-5) explains the four main elements as follows:

Planning

In this phase, students must make decision on what they are going to produce There are three key problem to deal with The first one is the objective of their writing The language they apply, the information they select, and the kind of text would be founded on the target of writing The second issue is about the target audience The kind of audience will influence the form of writing and the selection of the language, for instance, it is formal

or informal form The third problem is correlated with content format It consists of how to arrange the facts and choose which dispute and opinions they would like to produce

Drafting

The first writing could be known as a draft Students could create several drafts as the writing process gets into editing Creating drafts boost students to figure out what writing manner is the best and to make decision which dispute and opinions they literally want to cover

Editing

For editing phase, there are process of giving back and revising In mirroring, students could go through their drafts and they may discover mistakes in their writing, for examples the information is not apparent, the paragraph is not structured well, and there are grammatical mistakes Occasionally, other readers supported to perform the reflection They would give judgment and recommendation to get the best revision

Final Version

The next step after students have made revision that they see to be necessary, they will come with the final version The final version might be dissimilar from the first draft but is available to be shown to the target audience

The writing process depicted above works if students are writing mails, texting for their friends, writing diary note, or presenting compositions for their English teachers The degree which students give attention to different stages of the process will greatly rely on the kind of writing, the medium employed, the content and the length of the piece, and for whom students are performing it

Figure 2.3 Mind-map about writing process taught to the students

2.1.4 Teaching and the learning cycle of writing

The language learning approach employed asks for an accompanying approach which could allow students to grow the knowledge and skills to deal with spoken and written texts in social context The most efficient approach for conducting a text-based syllabus is the type-based methodology

In line with Feez and Joyce (1998), the method gives some benefits Firstly, type-based method permits a student to work together with other students and teacher It is in conjunction with assumptions that language learning is a social activity and the process of learning language is a course of framed developmental stages In order to study language efficiently and to understand meaning of the language, students have to learn language via using social activity and with the framing from teacher Secondly, the method equips students with specific knowledge about language In the starting of learning process, the teacher supports students to create their background knowledge Hence, students could determine what is to be studied and what is

to be evaluated

2.1.5 Assessing writing

In recent years, English as a foreign language (EFL) writing has started

to play an important role in EFL/ESL research, and complexity has become a salient construct to assess and investigate EFL writing performance and development (Cristina & Martínez, 2018) This present research employed the analytic rubric which is an adapted version of Bachman and Palmer (1996)

We contributed a fifth sub-domain to Bachman and Palmer‟s referenced rating scale for the assessment of writing ability This addition was driven by context-specific considerations The end product is a five-point scale with five sub-domains of writing ability: content, cohesion, syntactic structures, vocabulary, and mechanics of writing Within each domain, there are several well-defined standards of performance points that each rater understands (see Appendix 2)

criterion-The rating procedure was carried twice to validate the test results Each rater worked independently and in two separate sessions In the first session, my associate teacher was given the 35 (anonymous) writing samples and a copy of the holistic rubric She was instructed to assign a single

„holistic‟ score to each narrative writing from 0 to 5 The scores were then converted into 10 and the total score written next to the number assigned to each participant The scored writing samples and the rubrics were returned to the researcher in three days The second session took place a day later to allow a gap to ensure a more independent judgement In this session, the researcher was given the same 35 (also anonymous) writing samples and a copy of the analytic rubric They were instructed to assign a score from 0 (zero knowledge) to 5

2.2 Mind-mapping definition

2.2.1 Mind mapping

Buzan and Buzan (2003) view mind mapping as a greatly productive way of obtaining information in and out of brain, and an imaginative and sensible ways of note-taking and note-making which truly arranges out your opinions They further claim that mind mapping is particularly the layout or the overview about the information, the concept and the idea that drew on the paper or on the computer with our mind, and support us to see, imagine, remember, plan, and choose information It is structuring form which is like

in the three layout and its acceptance expedites for the remark, note and the overview about the information to another

Many scholars are of the view that mind mapping is an innovative and efficient way to document, ability to read, and map our thoughts This technique can offer ways of thought, ideas and connections that your brain can make, not limited as defined by Buzan and Buzan (1994) In the meantime, Manktelow (2003) argues that mind mapping is a useful

instrument that enhances the method you note, support, and improve students‟ innovative issue solving

2.2.2 Mind mapping techniques

A mind map is the visualization of mind mapping technique According

to Buzan and Buzan (2003), a mind map has four features as follows

 The topics, the main image or the keyword is placed in the center of image

 The key opinions of the keyword expansion as its branches

 The branches are grown to interpret the principal opinion in summarized words, brief sentence or simple image

 All of the branches shape a connected nodal outline

A mind map is often improved with color, figure, and codes These features will enhance students‟ creativity and ideas Below is an example of a mind map:

Figure 2.4 A student’s mind map about animal

It is crucial to add outline in the mind map, as for Buzan and Buzan (1994) The first phase is to decide the basic ordering ideas These are main ideas that could divide ideas They are the vocabulary that would initiate the brain to consider the greatest figure of associations The basic ordering ideas

is determined based on the purpose of the mind map For instance, the term animal could be divided in many ways To support young English learners,

remember types of animals, teachers could categorize animal in the manner that is relevant to daily life, i.e pet, poultry, and cattle In the other side, in a biology class, animals could be specified on the foundation of the diet that they eat meaning carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore

When producing a mind map for writing preparation, students could alter the technical definitions, i.e direction, courses of events, and closing paragraph into words that they love or familiar with as long as the vocabulary does not replace the meaning of the technical definition Technical definition might make students tired so replacing it into the vocabulary they love would let students feel involved in the task After students create the mind map, they could begin to write a draft by applying mind map as a framework

Mind mapping techniques used in this research contains four steps:

Step 1: Preparing

In order to create a mind map, Buzan (2013) suggests the following steps to be taken:

 Prepare blank papers and employ some color pens or markers to

produce the mind map

 Draw or write a word in the central of paper that depicts the

keyword

 Create lines that scatters from the central image and classify it based

on the basic ordering ideas These branches are the principal opinions of the keyword

 Produce other lines that expands from the principal opinion and

adding explanations or helping ideas about it The helping ideas should be written in points, phases, or very summary sentences

 Employ same color to show things that has same level For instance,

all of the key ideas are written in black color It is valuable to show the connection of each idea

 Add images that could be supportive to recall memories

At first, students may find it hard to place only summary sentences in mind map They still think long sentences are better to recall memories and create ideas Meanwhile, writing long sentences is not the features of mind mapping To produce a well-structured mind map, students should practice creating it After practicing a lot, students would create a more organized mind map and may build their own mind map style Writing tasks can consume much time and are annoying for the students

Step 2: Brainstorming

This is a constructivist learning activity when students can organize

their ideas into a knowledge map (O'Donnell, Dansereau, & Hall, 2002) which

connects related ideas through a series of links Learning from maps is, then, enhanced by active processing strategies via cooperative activity of brainstorming

 Use a piece of paper to write down everything students can think of

about a particular topic

 Write the name of the topic in the center of the page

 Do not try to organize the information at all - the purpose is to get it

out and onto the page

 Use key words or phrases to write your ideas

 Always use the paper horizontally as this way students can fit more

information

Step 3: Organizing the information

Organize the information in the brainstorm by identifying the main categories and linking the other information Students recall more central ideas when they learn from a knowledge map than when they learn from text and those with low verbal ability or low prior knowledge often benefit the

most The use of mind maps also appears to amplify the benefits associated with scripted ideas (O'Donnell et al., 2002)

 circle the main categories

 connect sub-points to main categories

 use colors and visuals where helpful

Step 4: Completing the mind map

Rewrite the information under headings and sub-points to make the mind map easy to read In this example the use of graphics and colors helps clarify the mind map At this point, mind maps can be used as primary sources for knowledge acquisition, aids for text processing, communicating ideas and retrieving cues (O'Donnell et al., 2002)

At the end of the step 4, the mind map will be linked with the narrative writing skill The information will be divided into the following structure of a narrative essay:

Figure 2.5 A narrative writing form

It have bene proven that mind mapping techniques are useful and appropriate for use in the writing classroom Buzan and Buzan (2003) claim that the tool brings some benefits which are shown as followings

 Time consumed for making writing preparation is lowered as our

mind is well organized by the basic ordering ideas

 It improves emphasis on the keyword that boost memory and

creativity

 The apparent structure inspires potentially endless flow of thought

 Overall, mind mapping approach stresses on the writing

preparation Therefore, asking students to apply mind mapping tool will also reveal them to the process of writing and motivate them to scan the process of writing

The benefits of mind mapping can balance the brain, help to organize thoughts, improve the creativity, speech of learning and memory (Buzan,

2003, 2013; Buzan & Buzan, 2003) For Nurlaila (2013), mind mapping can become the way to solve the problem of writing difficulties

2.3 Previous studies into using mind mapping techniques

This section reviews previous studies on mind mapping in education in general and pays a special visit to previous studies on using mind mapping techniques in teaching writing from different perspectives For the recent decades, mind mapping has been proved beneficial to boost students‟ memory (Thuỷ, 2013; Toi, 2009), to facilitate the learning process (Cain, 2001; D‟Antoni & Zipp, 2006; Polson, 2003); to foster creativity (Al-Jarf, 2009; Payko et al., 2004); to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving (Peterson & Snyder, 1998) and in teaching language skills such as speaking (Anggraeni, 2014; Fun & Maskat, 2010; Holland, Holland, & Davies, 2003/2004) and reading (Rizqiya, 2013; Syafrizal, Fitriani, & Gailea, 2018)

Wai-ling has studied mind mapping to enhance secondary one and secondary four students' writing in a CMI school and he concluded that Mind mapping can form of writing (Wai-ling, 2004) Besides, Mind mapping can help students with more detail of writing skills and more vocabulary (Al-Jarf,

2009; Hakim, 2018; Koster, van der Wilt, van Kruistum, & van der Veen, 2017; Ningrum, Latief, & Sulistyo, 2016; Syafrizal et al., 2018)

In teaching writing, teachers can use mind mapping to help learners organize and connect ideas (Al-Jarf, 2009; Holland et al., 2003/2004; Irwandi, 2012; Naqbi, 2011; Ningrum et al., 2016; Nurlaila, 2013) Other scholars prove that students have positive attitude towards using mind mapping techniques (Al-Jarf, 2009; Cain, 2001; Polson, 2003; Riswanto & Putra, 2012; Vijayavalsalan, 2016)

The research results about the application of mind-mapping approach

in teaching writing could come from the scholars over the world Riswanto and Putra (2012) presented in their research result that there was a dissimilar between the outcome of students‟ writing without mind mapping tool and students‟ writing with mind mapping tool Not only enhancing students‟ writing performance, mind mapping tool also enhanced students‟ confidence and inspiration in writing in English

Wai-ling (2004) revealed that the students created better writing when they employed mind mapping tool Wai-Ling argued that mind mapping method enhanced students‟ capability in understanding the topic clearly, growing a paragraph systematically, and selecting the suitable and attractive ideas in their compositions Furthermore, after using the method, the students began to perceive the importance of going through the writing process

Naqbi (2011) claimed that after applying mind mapping method, the students wrote more structured writing Additionally, she interpreted that mind-mapping were proper to support students in planning their writing as the approach motivated students to arrive at and adapted a deeper degree of understanding the writing subject

In Viet Nam, a reasearch “ Intergate the digital Mind mapping into teaching and learning Psychology “ studied by Mr Bang Khanh Nong, Mr Tuan Anh Pham, Ms Thy Nu Mai Tran which mentioned to examine the

effect of digital mind mapping over paper –based mind mapping and conventional teaching method on students‟ academic achievement and attitudes in teaching and learning Psychology

Our review of the literature, though limited, shows that mind-mapping has a positive impact on student‟s development of writing skills The skills of the students in organizing as well as developing the ideas for writing are improved Consequently, using mind-mapping techniques can positively improve the writing ability of the students

Writing is one of important skills of the personnel to communicate with other people or with himself/herself also Based on the observations of Is in fifth grade of English center and be the interviewing activities with the students also, writing is the most important skills for the students but this skill

of the students does not meet the expectation The students do not include enough information, content and text in their writing and the reason behind is because the lack of understanding about the topics, about the text and also about the writing process to develop the ideas for their writing

As the problems in enhancing students‟ writing skills at my center are similar to the learning contexts that the previous research report, the researcher believe that she can use mind mapping to do a better job teaching

my students writing The researcher should mention that the use of mapping to develop students‟ writing generally been under-researched, to the best of my knowledge, especially in relation to learners of a center

mind-2.4 Chapter summary

This chapter explored the concepts of writing and writing skills before

it went on to discuss teaching writing to young learners The cycle of writing and narrative text as an important teaching writing process Mind mapping was defined as a diagram that functions as a way to organize ideas and represent words, tasks, or links that connect to a central key word by branches

and typically it contains words, colors, short phrases and picture (Buzan, 2013; Buzan & Buzan, 2003) Mind mapping techniques were discussed in connection with narrative text in teaching writing skills

Previous studies show that there is a neglect in researching writing using mind mapping in the context of Vietnam, especially in language center and using action research as a research method

Chapter III:

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the problems related to methodology used in the research, including the context of the study, the participants, and the research instruments which were applied

3.1 The context of the research

The research was carried out to apply mind mapping in writing lessons

of the fifth-grade students of a Center in Hanoi The participants were 11 years old and were studying at grade five at their school, in the Center, we did

not call them fifth grade students but the New York class-five

The Center is a new English center in Hanoi, established in 2017 Up to now, the center has a total of 18 branches including 14 branches in Hanoi and

4 branches in Ho Chi Minh City The objective of the Center is to create the highest quality classes The center is also in open mindset for applying new teaching methods to improve the effectiveness of learning and teaching activities

In doing this project, the researcher managed to get the permission letter from the manager of the center The manager gave permission to my associate teacher to conduct and finish the research in three months Thus, this research was eventually conducted from Oct 8, 2019 to Dec 8, 2019 considering the permission above

3.2 Timeline of the research

The detailed action plan for the research procedure is in the table below:

Table 3.1 Research procedure and timeline

Planning: Interviewing the associate teacher about

the situation of the class

Observing the writing sessions

Carrying out pre-test

Informing students about using mind-mapping

techniques in the writing sessions

8 Oct, 2019 - 22 Oct,

2019

Cycle 1: Observing the writing sessions

Interviewing the associate teacher

Reflecting the first circle

8 Nov, 2019 - 22 Nov,

2019 Cycle 2: Observing the writing sessions

Interviewing the associate teacher

Carrying out post-test

Reflecting the second circle

8 Dec 2019 - 22 Dec,

2019

The time was set in order to plan the actions that were going to be used

to teach in the classroom On implementing the actions, we followed the class schedule The topics chosen in each meeting were varied between Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 However, the materials were prepared in advanced and students were well-informed of the action project

3.3 Research method

This type of research was a collaborative action study In this research, the researcher was directly involved in improving students‟ writing skills in collaboration with the associate teacher Classroom action research typically involves the use of qualitative, interpretive modes of enquiry and data collection by the teacher and an academic or associate teacher with a view to teachers making judgements about how to improve their own practices

(Kemmis, McTaggart, & Nixon, 2014, p 11) The classroom action research has a long tradition in which Lewin (1946) was regarded as the father of action research The primacy of an action research is given to teachers‟ self-understandings and judgements A working definition of action research adapted in this study is that:

action research is a participatory process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern

to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities (Reason & Bradbury, 2008, p 4)

According to Kemmis et al (2014, p 18), the spiral of self-reflection is

as follows:

Figure 3.1 The action research spiral (Kemmis et al., 2014, p 19)

According to Kemmis et al (2014, p 19), action research is rarely as neat as these self-contained cycles of planning, acting and observing, and reflecting, but the stages overlap and the most important thing is that the research process needs to be more fluid, open and responsive

There were some other models of action research, but they were criticized by Kemmis et al (2014) as being too fixed and inflexible Regardless of the criticisms, action research:

in the face of practical and often pressing issues in their lives in organizations and communities;

o calls for engagement with people in collaborative relationships,

opening new ‘communicative spaces’ in which dialogue and development can flourish;

o draws on many ways of knowing, both in the evidence that is

generated in inquiry and its expression in diverse forms of presentation as we share learning with wider audiences;

o is values oriented, seeking to address issues of significance

concerning the flourishing of human persons, their communities, and the wider ecology in which we participate;

o is a living, emergent process that cannot be pre- determined but

changes and develops as those engaged deepen their understanding of the issues to be addressed and develop their capacity as co-inquirers both individually and collectively (Reason & Bradbury, 2008, p 4)

Action research was chosen for this present study because it provides better practice than theory for the researcher and the teacher to apply into a

specific class and to improve the learning as well as teaching practices Besides the research can get involved in the teaching process

3.4 Participants

The research was conducted in New York class-five at a Center in

Hanoi the researcher and an associate teacher The class consisted of 35 students at the age of 11, they had two sessions a week and each session lasted one and a half hours In which, writing lessons were carried out in the second session of each week The research was carried out with the associate teacher She was an experienced teacher teaching in Vietnam for five years before the research

The course book used in the class was “Write Right 2” by the author Jia

K Johnson published by Ne Build & Grow Press in

2011(https://www.nebuildandgrow.com/pages/book/view.asp?c=BA06000008&ct=BA06), which was a very popular English course book for young

learners In the syllabus, each unit was designed for 2 sessions

This is a small-scale study contextualized, localized and conducted to discovering the real-life problems, develop skills and monitor the changes in education (Wallace, 1998) However, a small-scale project can provide

collaborative investigation and changes are self-reflective (Burns, 2010)

3.5 Data collection instruments

It is very important to collect data in a research because the data are used to get the result of the research In this classroom action research, the techniques of collecting the data used by the researcher are tests, observation and interview

3.5.1 Pre-test and post-test

A pre-test was conducted to determine the ability of the students in term

of writing skill The researcher was able to determine the situations about the writing skills of the students, the problems and the issues of the class in term of

learning and teaching writing skills in order to define a suitable plan to apply mind mapping techniques into the process of learning and teaching writing A post-test was carried out at the end of Cycle 2 The students were instructed to write with several guidelines To make the study reliable and valid, the tests were prepared by the researcher and then delivered to the AT The marking process was conducted dually by the researcher and the AT

3.5.2 Classroom observation

According to Sheal (1989), observations can provide useful reflection

to teachers, and can improve the overall effectiveness of the teaching/learning process In the planning section, the researcher took notes of two sessions to identify the problems of the activities of learning and teaching writing skills

in the class The findings helped to understand the situations and the problems

to design the action and implement the action in the most appropriate ways

When the associate teacher carried out the two sessions in Cycle 1 The researcher carried out the classroom observation again It was also carried out

in order to see the conditions in the classroom when actions were implemented and in order to revise the plan for the Cycle 2

In the Cycle 2, two more sessions were observed by the researcher to draw some conclusion about the effects of the research project and the revision for the next cycles

Before conducting observation The researcher also created the observation checklists which included some steps in implementing the actions Then, the results of the observation were written in the forms of field notes

In doing so, the observation can provide useful feedback to the teacher, while also contributing to objective and reliable evaluations (Sheal, 1989)

3.5.3 Guided Interview

The researcher carried three interviews with the associate teacher The first one was before the implementation of the action, the second one was at

the end of the Cycle 1 of the action, and the last one was at the end of the Cycle 2 of the action

This is a guided interview with the AT According to Burns (2010), this type of interview is organized but also more open Usually the interviewer has

a set of topics in mind that he/she wants to explore and he/she may develop some specific questions flexibly depending on the interviewee‟s responses

„the aim of a guided or semi-structured interview is to enable you to make some kind of comparison across your participants‟ responses, but also allow for individual diversity and flexibility […] the advantage […] is that you are likely to find out about some things in more depth and so will get richer information‟ (Burns, 2010, p 75) Thus, this type of interview is appropriate for this research project so that the researcher can have a more like guided conversation with the AT discussing the real situations and the issues coming

up during the research process

In conclusion, the data instruments in this study are classroom observation, guided interview and students‟ writing tests The data are both qualitative and quantitative as summarized in the table 2 below:

Table 3.2 Data collection instruments

1 Observation

Observation Guideline Observation Checklists