The effects of mind mapping on the 6th graders’ vocabulary retention

This study aims to help the students to be more successful in English vocabulary retention and to motivate them in learning words.. In this study, for example, the English teacher can us

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TRẦN THỊ VÂN NGA

GRADERS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT THANH MY

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng bản đồ tư duy đến khả

năng nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 6, trường THCS Thanh Mỹ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching MethodologyCode: 60140111

HANOI - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TRẦN THỊ VÂN NGA

GRADERS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT THANH MY

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng bản đồ tư duy đến khả

năng nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 6, trường THCS Thanh Mỹ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching MethodologyCode: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN VĂN TRÀO

HANOI - 2016

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare this thesis is the result of my own research and that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, October 2016

Trần Thị vân Nga

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my special gratitude to my advisor, Mr.Nguyen Van Trao, Assoc.Prof.Dr for his patience in guiding and supervising

me during the process of this thesis writing

My special thanks go to my colleagues from Thanh My Junior high school for their cooperation and support during this study

The writer would also like to express appreciation to the staff menbers and the teachers of post-graduate department of University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University for giving me favourable to completing the thesis

Finally I would like to dedicate my big appreciations to my family who have support me a lot during my study

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ABSTRACT

The aims of this research are to find out the effects of mind-mapping on

6th graders‟ vocabulary retention at Thanh My junior high school To limit the aspects to be analyzed in this study, I formulate two research questions: (1) To what extends does the use of mind-mapping affect the students‟ vocabulary retention? (2) What are the students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary learning?

In the study, I carried out an action research with the 6A1 students of Thanh My junior high school Data of this study were obtained from the results

of questionnaires and from pre-test and post-test results Two instruments for collecting the data were (1) questionnaires toward vocabulary learning before and after applying the mind -mapping in teaching vocabulary and (2) the pre-test and post- test

The findings of the data analysis showed that (1) Mind-mapping can help the students to improve their abilities in memorizing English vocabulary items; (2) the students had positive attitudes toward the mind-mapping Mind-mapping is hoped to be a promising technique to teach and learn vocabulary

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I.LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

1.Table 1: Research schedule

2.Table 2: Result of questionnaire 1

3 Table 3: The causes of the problems encountered by the 6A1 class students 4.Table 4: The activities applied in the study

5.Table 5: Relationship between causes of the problems and the activities

6 Result of questionnaire 2

II LIST OF FIGURES

Figure I: First step in creating mind-mapping: „drawing a central image‟

Figure II: Second step in creating mind mapping: „drawing main branches‟

Figure III:Third step in creating mind mapping: „drawing second branch‟ Figure IV: Environment diagram

Figure V: Sports and games diagram

Figure VI: Completing the mind-mapping diagram

II LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Result of the pre-test

Chart 2: Result of the post-test

Chart 3: Comparison between the pre-test anhd the post-test

Vocabulary is one of the language components that play a significant part in the development of the language skills In the sixth grade, building up a useful vocabulary

is important to the teaching of a foreign language (Cameron, 2001: 72) It shows that English materials for sixth grade students focus on enriching the students‟ vocabulary

To have a good memorization on vocabulary, the students are expected to be able to use the language successfully and efficiently including using it to develop their language skills in class activities

Nevertheless, learning English vocabulary is challenging for the sixth grade students at Thanh My Junior High School (TMJHS) After observing and conducting

an interview at the school, the teacher found that there were two problems that involved the learning English vocabulary of the TMJHS Firstly, the students felt difficult to memorize and recall English vocabulary items including their pronunciation, their spelling and especially their meaning The students usually cannot remember the words for long and recall them when needed Secondly, the teaching technique was not very interesting and motivating The students got bored with the way of teaching the teacher used The teacher often asked the students to find the new words then he or she explained the meaning of the words After that the students had

to write the list of the new words in their notebook and learn them by heart

To learn English vocabulary, memorization is very important In mastering English vocabulary, the students do not only need to learn a lot of English words but also to remember them (Thornbury, 2002: 23) Accordingly, low proficiency makes students find an obstacle in acquiring the language knowledge and taking part in class activities It is clear that they could not communicate well because they lack words they need

One of the causes of the students‟ low vocabulary retention is likely their learning habits The ways they learn new words are various: such as writing down

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words on a piece of paper, learning words by heart, heavily depending on wordlists in textbook, passively waiting for teacher‟s explanation for new words These ways do not seem to be effective and make them bored with learning vocabulary So as to memorize new items, students often use rote memorization techniques As some of the students said, they used to write down the words for several times, to speak aloud the words and to make sentences with words They admitted that they could not recall most of the words they had learnt before because there were no clues It can be seen that the students‟ bad memory is due to the lack of appropriate vocabulary learning technique They are not given different ways of learning vocabulary and are not encouraged to use them as a strategy of learning vocabulary Therefore, learning new words is not very enjoyable for the learners

This study aims to help the students to be more successful in English

vocabulary retention and to motivate them in learning words For this purpose,

mind-mapping is used as a technique to improve the students’ vocabulary retention and motivate them in learning vocabulary

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are to find the way to improve vocabulary retention of the 6A1 students of TMJHS and to motivate them in learning English vocabulary

3 Research questions

To obtain the stated aims, the following research questions are formulated:

(1) To what extent does the use of mind-mapping affect the students‟ vocabulary retention?

(2) What are the students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary learning?

4 Scope of the Study

In this study, the researcher uses one class and the research is done at the sixth grade of Thanh My junior high school The researcher hopes that the findings of this study will give benefits and contribution for some parties Firstly, for the English teachers, the results of the study can be applied for the betterment of the English teaching and learning process especially in presenting English vocabulary to the students The study will be considered as the first step to improve the effectiveness of the teaching learning process by using mind-mapping to introduce lesson materials at TMJHS Secondly, for the sixth grade of TMJHS students, they are expected to enjoy learning vocabulary with mind-mapping The use of mind-mapping as the technique in learning English vocabulary can be considered as an effective way of note-taking to

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memorize English words easily The last is for other researchers The study can give general knowledge of materials that can be done for research studies in relation to vocabulary learning in the secondary level of education

5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

Part A: Introduction introduces the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the

scope and the design of the study

Part B: Development is divided into 3 chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review presents theories related to vocabulary, mind-mapping

Previous studies on mind-mapping are also reviewed

Chapter 2: Methodology presents the research methods, the setting of the study, the

participants, the research data and the research procedures

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the analysis of initial collected data to

determine the problems, then the action plan The analysis of post-treatment data was then presented along with which the discussions were given

Part C: Conclusion provides the pedagogical implications, some limitations of the

study and suggestions for future study

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHARPER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Vocabulary

1.1.1 Vocabulary definition

McCarthy (1990: 32) defined vocabulary as words in a specific language or freestanding items of language that have meaning According to Penny Ur (1996: 122) vocabulary is defined roughly as “the words we teach in the foreign language” She also stated that “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words (e.g., bus stop, father -in-law), and multi-word idioms (e.g., call it a day)”

As can be seen, vocabulary is defined in many different ways It refers to words or

a group of words in a language and knowledge of words regarding its meanings, forms, and how to use it correctly in the context In this study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and phases in a language that could be use to exchange information in oral and written communication

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary

Vocabulary plays a significant role in language learning activities It consists of all the words that we usually used when the other language skills are studied Learning vocabulary does not mean learning word isolation We should learn words in context because a word may have different meanings in different contexts According to French (1983: 1), the meaning of the word will be dependent on the context itself and word in isolation usually does not associate with the intended meaning The English words and their meaning should not be useful unless we know how to organize the words meaningfully in a sentence However, vocabulary growth depends on the students‟ experiences Words must match with the meaning so as to be useful for communication Vocabulary has an important role in mastering a language Whoever wants to master well

a language needs to have good vocabulary retention Memorizing vocabulary is the first step to master English well Therefore the students will have problems in mastering English when lacking the vocabulary They find it hard to express their idea clearly and also they could not understand the teacher‟s explanation because they do not know the meaning of words used by the teacher Moreover, they have difficulties in understanding books, newspapers, magazines written in English, or even in understanding the radio

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broadcast or television programs So the retention of a great number of vocabularies is necessary to use English In other words, vocabulary as an important tool helps the students to understand when they listen or read something in English Harmer (1991: 23) said that we should ensure that our students memorize the vocabulary they need for their level and that they can recall them when needed The vocabulary is one of the language aspects along with grammar and pronunciation which is considered a tool to support the ability to communicate in English

1.1.3 Kinds of vocabulary

In vocabulary learning, the words to be learned can be classified into two categories which are content words and function words Content words carry a lexical meaning, and function words cover grammatical meaning In language, to understand functions of words students can arrange words in a correct sentence and analyze the sentence (Cameron 2001: 82) Based on the meaning of words, content words are the word classes

of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs In teaching content words, the teacher can explain the words and their meanings in a direct and explicit way (Cameron 2001: 82) On the other hand, function words are the classes of articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns In teaching function words, the teacher teaches words incidentally and uses them continuously in a range of different discourse contexts (Cameron, 2001)

However, according to Nation (2001: 78), groups of English vocabulary have been categorized by frequency of overall occurrence in order to determine which words are most necessary for students to learn There are two common divisions: high-frequency words and low-frequency words High-frequency words which, include function words and content words, account for a very large proportion of the running words in spoken and written texts and occur in all kinds of uses of the language Low-frequency words cover over 5 percent of the words in an academic text In fact, English students try their best to master a large amount of vocabulary Based on the learners‟ English level and the discussed issue, vocabulary and its compounds and idioms focused in the present study will be chosen basing on frequency and usefulness to the need of the learners

1.1.4 Vocabulary teaching

According to Thornbury (2004), vocabulary is usually a problem of memorizing

In order to teach it effectively, it is important for the teacher to know how to make students remember words and store them in students‟ mind for long-term

Therefore, the language teacher plays an important role in helping their students determine the easiest way to convey new words into the already existing web of the mental lexicon (Thornbury, 2004) In addition, it is necessary for the students to acquire the capacity to store the information for long-term

Research into memory of Thornbury (2004) suggests principles to support the process of permanent remembering In this research, he listed some techniques to make vocabulary teaching effective

The first technique is repetition for example in reading Moreover, he also focuses

on the importance of use and retrieval of the new words: eg, use the new words to complete the sentences

Furthermore, Thornburry thinks that the presentation of new words should be divided into separated sequences that are followed by repeated revision later in the next sections or periods

Motivation, which is another helpful element, is closely linked with attention Thornburry states that an arousal (a very high degree of attention) seems to relate with improved recall

Finally, according to Thornburry (2004), visualization of a picture for a new vocabulary item or link an abstract word with several metal images should be done by the teacher Images can help students draw themselves the best outcomes Thornburry claims one more time that the students‟ own images give the best influence on memorizing

To concern this problem, Gairns and Redman (1986) emphasized the significance

of activities in the classroom They thought that the activities need to be presented in detail so information is more likely to be remembered in long-term memory Moreover, they together Thornburry presented the positive influence of imaging, repetition…They also suggest a good technique “word diagram” to support retention which might be useful for “storage of lexis”

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Traditionally, students have not been taught vocabulary in a particular lesson but along with lessons of listening, speaking, reading or writing Some learners make a list then put into it the meaning of new words in their mother tongue without any real context Learners often look up the meaning of the words in the dictionary or ask the teacher to

translate the words and try to learn them by heart There are some other traditional

techniques such as illustration, mime…For those techniques, the learners are usually passive and the lessons center on the teachers Consequently, the students usually have difficulties in memorizing and recalling the words

The current trends in teaching vocabulary stress on helping learners memorizing the words that they have learn and relate words with others or in different contexts Learners should not learn words in isolation (Harmer, 1991)

Mind-mapping is considered as an example of current trends in teaching vocabulary Mind-mapping is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development Mind-mapping is a creative note-taking strategy which makes us easy to memorize the information Buzan (2009) thinks that mind-mapping is a powerful technique graphic, which provides universal key to unlock the potential of brain Mind-mapping technique imitates the thinking process, makes it possible for us to move from one topic to another topic back and forth A pattern with pictures, color, symbol not only makes the learners understand the vocabulary knowledge but also makes them feel good and enjoyable and it can attract them to pay attention to the vocabulary knowledge then retain the words In contrast with the traditional technique, the current ones are considered the positive change for a new teaching and learning process The teachers are now not only the knowledge provider but also the initiator, the guider and the controller The students also get engaged with the learning process They could discuss and interact with their teachers, exchange information with their classmates

Despite the advantages it can bring, mind-mapping exhibits some limitations Mind-mapping can give the danger of introducing closely related new vocabulary items at the same time Learners find troubles in relation with too many vocabulary items This makes learners‟ task more difficult

1.1.5 Vocabulary retention

1.1.5.1 Vocabulary retention

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The Longman dictionary defines retention in some way It is also the condition of being retained or the act of retaining It is the power and capacity of retaining and ability

to recognize or recall what has been experienced or learned

According to Oxford dictionary, vocabulary retention is the fact of keeping information in one‟s memory or is the power or capacity of holding and absorbing a certain number of words in their memory Vocabulary retention can refer to short-term memory and long-term memory retention

1.1.5.2 Short-term and long-term memory

Memory is divided into short-term and long-term memory base on duration of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after the original input Long-term memory is used to retain information in anything but the immediate future Short-term memory is to store or keep information while it is being processed The object of vocabulary learning is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory to the more permanent long-term memory (Schmitt, 2000) However, we can not distinguish clearly short-term retention and long-term retention Information entering short-term memory may pass quite effortlessly into long-term memory, and some learners may find repetition a very effective way of transferring information into long-term memory

When learning vocabulary, learners often have difficulties in retention of words for

a long time They do not usually succeed in putting the words into long-term memory In the present study, short-term memory is referred as the initial memory of the word meaning at the end of the lessons whereas the number of words can be recalled at the next lessons or at the end of the study is considered as one form long -term memory because the participants in the study have only three forty-five-minute lessons per week

1.5.3 Major factors affecting word retention

There are many reasons why students remember words better than others For example, nature of the words themselves, situations under which the words are learnt, how the words are taught to students and so on affect word retention Gairns and Redman (1986) pointed out that learning new items involves storing them first in the short-term memory and afterwards in the long-term memory, and the long-term memory can hold any amount of information They showed that our “mental lexicon” is highly organized and efficient, and that semantic related items are stored together Another factor affecting

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storage is word frequency because the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve

We can facilitate the leaning process by classifying items of vocabulary in semantic fields such as topics

Besides, retrieval is another difficulty faced by the learners when learning vocabulary According to Nunan (1990) learners can be motivated to develop their own personal learning styles for vocabulary, in such areas as memorizing and retaining new words However, Cater et al (1989) showed that the storage of information does not guarantee its retrieval Learners need to increase the effectiveness of retrieval probability because they need techniques to recall appropriate words for particular occasion Cater also pointed out that the meanings of words are focused rather than on their forms to enhance production, as most of our production has to do with searching for an appropriate meaning to fit the specific situation The most effective is to associate bonds for production, therefore, connect the words with their meanings

1.5.4 Indicators of students’ vocabulary retention

In vocabulary teaching learning, both teacher and student will happy if teaching learning process gains good result Teacher can be said to be successful in his teaching language if the students can mastery four skills in language, they are listening, reading, speaking, and writing, of course vocabulary retention become a basic aspect to support that skills

These are some indicators of vocabulary retention suitable with the school curriculum especially for Junior High School They are:

* Students can identify, understand, grasp and remember the meaning of words in the text

* Students can pronounce the words correctly

* Students can use and write the words correctly, so they can write a composition well

* Students have high score in the vocabulary test

According to (Nation, 2001), vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies Gu, Y (2000, p.85-86) cites some vocabulary learning strategies such as cognitive, metacognitive memory and activation strategies

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Metacognitive strategies entail selective attention and self-initiation strategies Cognitive strategies consist of guessing strategies, skillful use of dictionaries and note-taking strategies Memory strategies are grouped into rehearsal and encoding categories Word lists and repetition are instances of rehearsal strategies Encoding strategies include such strategies as association, imagery, visual, auditory, semantic, and contextual encoding as well as word-structure Activation strategies encompass those strategies through which the learners actually use new words in different contexts

With regard to word meaning and retrieval, many researchers (Hague, 1987; Cater, 1989; Amer, 2002) agreed that mind-mapping is effective for long-term memory and support the recall Therefore, in this study, the mind-mapping technique will be presented

in the next section

1.2 Mind-mapping

1.2.1 Definition of mind-mapping

Mind-mapping is a creative note taking technique in a visualization and graphic form that is used to make people feel easy in entering information into their brains, keeping information in a long term memory and taking it out from their brains easily by engaging imagination and association (Buzan 2006: 6; Buzan 2009: 10) In this definition, there are five important concepts of mind-mapping Firstly, mind-mapping is one of creative note taking techniques used by people to represent ideas into visualization and graphic forms where one idea is connected to another idea by using branches Secondly,

by using mind mapping, it is easy for people to enter the information into their brains Also, mind-mapping supports to put information into their memory Thirdly, mind mapping helps people to keep information in the long term memory Fourthly, information can be easily taken out from their brain when using mind-mapping Finally, mind-mapping involves the use of imagination and association in its application This means that in presenting ideas into mind-mapping diagrams, people enclose imagination stimulators such as pictures, symbols, and colors to present ideas clearly and use association techniques to help them build their senses to the new concepts These new concepts are connected to the known concepts having a tight relationship with the new concepts

According to Buzan (1993: 1) mind-mapping is a great graphic technique, which gives a general key to unlock the potential of brain Mind-mapping technique copies the thinking process, which enable us to move from one topic to another topic back and forth

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Recording the information through symbols, pictures, emotional meaning and colors, exactly the same like our brains process it A pattern which at least consists of symbol, picture, and color will not only help the students to understand the vocabulary knowledge but also makes the students feel interesting, enjoyable In addition, it can encourage the students‟ brain and leads them to have interest in retain vocabulary knowledge

1.2.2 Functions of mind-mapping

According to Buzan (2009:6), mind-mapping have the following functions:

* To make active all parts of brain

* To make people (learners) be focus in the main topic

* To help show the relation among parts of information

* To give a certain illustration in the whole and detail

* To help group the concept and compare it

1.2.3 Characteristics of mind-mapping

The mind map has four essential characteristics:

* The subject of attention is crystallized in a central image

* The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image on branches

* Branches hold a key image word printed on the associated line-details radiate out

* The branches form a connectedstructure

1.2.4 Procedures in making a mind-mapping

The procedure in making a mind map consists of seven steps:

* Start from the centre of paper that put horizontally

* Use images for the central ideas

* Use color By coloring, it can improve the energy toward creative thinking

* Connect the main branches to the central image; connect the second and third branches to the first and second branches and so on

* Make a curve line as connected line among branches It will be more interesting Use a key word in each line It useful to give the mind map more energy and flexibility

* Use image is like on central image (Buzan, 2009: 15-16)

1.2.5 Steps to read a mind-mapping

The steps to read a mind map, as follows:

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* Start in the centre that is the focus of the mind map

* Words/images closest to the central image show the main themes of the map This is the start of the radiant hierarchical structure

mind-* Select one main theme and read out from the centre along the branch This provides greater levels of associated detail

* Notice links between the branches

1.2.6 The application of mind-mapping to teaching a foreign language

It is obvious that memory plays an important role in learning and mastering a foreign language In the communicative approach, learners need to retain words and use them effectively

Mind-mapping is a helpful memory technique which makes it easier to remember new materials and to visualize the thinking process, so mind-mapping proves to be a very helpful tool to master a foreign language Although it may cost time to use the technique,

it will eventually speed up the learning process when learners know and understand how

to use it

Casco (2009) suggests some applications of mind-mapping in teaching a foreign language which can be presented as follows:

Engage the learners:

Thanks to the map, the learners know easily what comes next and focus the learners‟ attention on the topic Moreover, the map supports a structure to reduce the learners‟ anxiety when they receive input through listening and reading when they speak

Active prior knowledge

The use of keywords stimulates memory of what the student know about the topic

Encourage the learner to ask questions:

The map shows clearly what the students know and what they do not know about the topic Image and interrogation marks widen the information gap and encourage the learners to find out what they do not know

Scaffold reading and listening comprehension:

The map is an efficient tool to facilitate comprehension because it offers the students a globe view of listening or reading contents Furthermore, the cues showing in the map helps the learner to form inferences as an aid to understanding

Scaffold speaking

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The map helps the learner to organize their thought and speech Thanks to the different linked and cross-referenced elements of the map allow the learner to create a various discourse each time he/she use the map

Assess oral production

The map can assess the students‟ oral production by explaining the link of the maps The learner has to use new structure and lexical items to introduce the content of the map

Scaffold written production

The map can be considered the starting point or the outline to write a paragraph or

an essay on the topic explored

Casco (2009) showed that mind-mapping has a lot of benefits in teaching a foreign language in many aspects consisting of reading, writing, reading skill as well as in motivating the learners and activating the prior knowledge

1.2.7 The Use of Mind Mapping in Vocabulary Learning

In vocabulary learning, mind-mapping can be used in some activities: presenting and reviewing English vocabulary In this study, for example, the English teacher can use mind-mapping diagrams to help the students to understand English words and their meaning, and make the words easier to be memorized (Buzan, 2006: 201)

Mind-mapping is a creative note-taking form which applies visualization and graphic forms To create mind-mapping diagrams, the teacher or students need to follow some steps Below, Tony Buzan presented four steps in creating the mind-mapping diagram as examples of the use of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning (Buzan, 2006: 21-23) However, the teacher can use the software to create the mind-mapping diagram The software which is quite convenient and easy to operate, also help the teacher to save the time

 Creating mind-mapping diagrams

A frame of mind-mapping diagram is made by using color pencils, a piece of plain paper in a landscape position, pictures, key words, and association A frame of the mind-mapping diagram can be made by doing the steps below

To make a frame of mind-mapping, we should use color pencils, paper, pictures, keys words and association in traditional way but in this study I will introduce another

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way to create mind-mapping diagram by using the software iMinMap7 A mind-mapping

can be easily made thanks to the support of this software by doing the following steps Firstly, the teacher draws or chooses a picture as a central image in the middle part

of the paper (Buzan, 2006: 21) The page should be placed in a landscape position Here, the central image is used to describe the main idea or to be more understandable, we should write key words along with the image It is to activate the learners‟ right brains, strengthen the learners‟ memory, and make the learning enjoyable The steps in creating

of “Sports and Games” diagram are presented as an example The first step is shown in Figure I below

Figure I: First step in creating mind-mapping: ‘drawing a central image’

Secondly, the teacher draws curve lines and boxes around the central image to build main branches or basic ordering ideas (Buzan, 2006: 24-25) The main branches have tight relationship with the topic idea Then, a picture or symbol and keyword in every main branch tip is made to strengthen the writing of keywords and make it easy to

be understood (Buzan, 2006: 26).The pictures in the mind-mapping diagram (Figure II) below show the kind of sports as branch keywords

Finally, the teacher makes the second and the third branches and so on The second branches are radiated from the main branches The second branches are created to present ideas related to ideas in the main branches At the tips of second branches, the teacher adds pictures or symbols and keyword Figure III below is an example

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Figure II: Second step in creating mind mapping: ‘drawing main branches’

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Figure III: Third step in creating mind mapping: ‘drawing second branch’

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 Presenting vocabulary by using mind-mapping

The teacher presents the vocabulary items by using the frame of the mind-mapping diagram which has been prepared and places it on the blackboard or screen of projector The teacher can do some steps before when vocabulary items are introduced The teacher presents materials in mind-mapping based on the sequences of the steps in creating mind-mapping These steps are described below:

First, a frame of the mind-mapping diagram should be placed on the middle of the blackboard or screen to make sure that all students could see the content of the mind-mapping diagram Second, the teacher introduces the lesson topic by using the central image of the mind-mapping diagram (Buzan, 2006: 21) Then, the teacher starts to present English words in the main branches one by one based on the pictures in the branches (Buzan, 2006: 24-25) Then, she asks students to guess a word from each picture Then, she writes the word in the available branch (Ellis, 1993:88) In presenting the words in the second branches, the teacher does the same way as the step in presenting the ones in the main branches After the teacher finishes in completing the mind -mapping diagram, she asks the students to pronounce all or some important words presented in the mind-mapping diagram to check whether or not the students pronounce correctly the words

With the support of color and images illustrated in Figure III, mind-mapping could help students a lot in learning words and organizing the ideas systematically In fact, the students have to usually take a lot of effort to retain words and sentences; whereas by visualizing them, it makes us much easier to memorize and recall the words

1.3 Previous studies

1.3.1 Review of related studies worldwide

Looking for studies related to using mind-mapping technique in teaching language

in the world, the researcher found several ones The study Teaching vocabulary through

MM technique to the ten grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang was written by Effendi (2004) Through the analysis of the data collected during the study, the researcher

concluded that it existed a significant difference between the students‟ process in the experimental group (using mind-mapping technique) and the control group (using traditional method) and it can be concluded that mind-mapping is an effective technique

to teach vocabulary to ten grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palebang

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A research on semantic mapping was conducted by DeCarrico (2001) She stated that semantic mapping helps to make conscious about relationship among words in a text and helps to understand deeply by making an associative networks for words The teacher asked the students to draw a diagram of the relationship between particular words from the text chosen She said in her conclusion: “especially at the beginning levels, the teaching of wordlists through word association techniques has proven to be successful way to learn a large number of words in a short period and retain them over time”.(DeCarrico (2001; 288-289)

Beside the above studies, the researcher can find the study related to using

mind-mapping in teaching language The finding of the study Introducing mind map in

comprehension by Moi and Lian (2007) was that students are able to understand and

remember the comprehension passage better in establishing meaningful links, pattern, relationship among concepts and information Visual mapping also help them to develop their thinking skills, sorting of information and ideas, thus developing better understanding in a topic area Students gain confidence in attempting comprehension questions

1.3.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam

It was quiet difficult to look for the studies related to the topic of this study in Vietnam After a long time searching, several related studies–the graduation paper-which

were found, names Using MMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary for the first year

mainstream students, faculty of English language teacher Education by Dang (2011)

She concluded that there was a different achievement on the experimental group and control group, which means, using mind-mappings and diagrams to teach vocabulary can help students have better and longer memory of word items taught Moreover, students after attending a lesson with mind-mapping and diagrams really wanted to have chance to learn with those techniques

Besides, the study The Effects of Semantic Mapping on Vocabulary Memorizing by

Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, Viet Nam pointed that the semantic-mapping was an effective way

of enabling the students to achieve greater progress in vocabulary learning As a result, the students had positive attitudes towards this method The findings were not only consistent with the literature review but also supportive of the research on using the semantic-mapping made before This leads to the implication that the semantic mapping

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can improve high school students‟ vocabulary retention and is promising to vocabulary teaching and learning

Another study Using mind mapping to teach vocabulary to the first year non-

English major students at Bac Giang university of Agriculture and Forestry by Nguyen

Thi Thuy Lan found out the many advantages and effectiveness of using mind-mapping

to teaching vocabulary to language learner First, min-mapping can help students to brainstorm a new topic and activate the prior knowledge Besides, it can be a tool to facilitate students to summarize lesson effectively Last, students can apply mind-mapping to take note during the lessons

In this chapter, the researcher has been concerned with a review of mind-mapping

as a technique model At the first stage, an overview of vocabulary was presented with various aspects of vocabulary: definitions, vocabulary learning and teaching, strategies for vocabulary retention Next, an overview of mind-mapping was exposed with the definition of mind-mapping, the parts and the criteria and the classification of mind-mapping Besides, the implication of mind-mapping in teaching foreign language and vocabulary was also introduced Lastly, some related studies worldwide and in Vietnam were presented with clear description of their findings

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CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY

2.1 Action research

Harmer (2002:334-345) stated that action research is the name given to a series of procedures teachers can engage in their classroom either because they wish to improve aspect of their teaching or because they wish to evaluate the success and or appropriateness of certain activities and procedures

Action research is a form of collective self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in a social situation in order to improve the rational and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as understanding of this practices and the situation

in which the practices are carried out The researcher used classroom action research because of some reasons, firstly: this research is to find out the causes of poor English vocabulary retention of the 6th students of TMJHS, in the academic year 2015/2016 Secondly: to find out the extent of using the mind-mapping toward the improvement of students‟ vocabulary retention and thirdly: to describe the process of teaching vocabulary using mind-mapping

This action research study aims to show the effects of mind-mapping on the students‟ vocabulary retention In this process, the researcher worked together with the students to identify and investigate the problem which occurs in the vocabulary learning Then, the researcher applied the suitable solution to solve the problem, carried out the action in the class, and finally, analyzed the effects of mind-mapping on the students‟ vocabulary retention The steps taken in this action research include: identifying the problem, planning the solution, doing the action in the class, and reflecting the use of action done (Burns, 1999: 30)

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problems that occurred In the preliminary step, the teacher focused on analyzing the problems which related to the students‟ ability in retaining the English vocabulary The teacher based on the results of the observation to develop the research actions

2.2.2 Planning

Before implementing the action, the teacher had to make preparations First of all, the students were asked to take the pre-test of target words to check the unfamiliarity of vocabulary items learnt during the action Then, the teacher presented the students how to create or read a mind-mapping diagram in order that the students could be familiar to the technique

In this step, the teacher worked to plan some actions to be carried out in the English teaching-learning process based on the problems determined in the previous step The actions aimed to improve the students‟ vocabulary retention by using mind-mapping techniques The actions planned to be carried out were presented below:

The first was to select the vocabulary items tested in the pre-test and post-test In this action, the teacher formulated the test items chosen from the students‟ workbook and textbook that focused on the topics „sports and games‟, „cities in the world‟, „our house in the future‟, and “ our green world” Moreover, the teacher tried to design the test items based on the syllabus of English for the sixth grade of the secondary school in the second semester

The second was to provide mind-mapping diagrams In this action, the teacher created mind-mapping diagrams used to introduce and revise vocabulary items with the topics of „television‟ in unit 7, „sports and games‟ in unit 8, „cities in the world‟ in unit 9,

„our houses in the future‟ in unit 10 and “our green world” in unit 11 of “Tieng Anh 6” textbook To make sure that every student could observe clearly the diagrams, the teacher showed some mind-mapping diagrams in the big size Every time, the English teacher presented a new material topic, she would provide a mind-mapping diagram suitable to the topic

The third was to set up the class activities In this action, the teacher planned some interesting activities to encourage the students to use their English vocabulary in the class activities in order that they could remember the words Some activities were implemented

as follows: The first activity was to memorize vocabulary items in the mind-mapping diagram with the aim to help the students recall all the words mentioned earlier The

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second one was to fill out an incomplete mind-mapping diagram with the correct words so

as to make the students write the words with the correct spelling To explore the students‟ vocabulary knowledge when practicing language skill activities such as matching, role-playing, doing the teacher‟s instruction, describing pictures…etc are the third activities These activities were carried out to make the students use the words learned in the English language either in spoken or written forms

2.2.3 Implementing the Actions

In this step, the teacher carried out the planned actions in the previous step The actions were implemented in fifteen lessons of five units or one research cycle In the first lesson of each unit the English teacher conducted the teaching learning process by presenting new topics and having the students revise the words related to the topics In the three first lessons, the teacher presented the topic of “television” in unit 7, then the topics of „sports and games‟ in unit 8, in the three next lessons, the topic of „Cities in the world‟ in unit 9 was given In the three next lessons, she presented the topic of „Our houses in the future‟ in unit 10 The last topic was “our green house” in unit 11 To complete the diagram of mind-mapping, the teacher asked the students to work together

by having them guess the words through pictures or other clues given The students could explain their knowledge in Vietnamese when they had difficulties in using English They had to participate in building the diagram of mind-mapping in order to remember the new words more effectively After finishing the diagram of mind-mapping, the students were asked to pronounce and memorize the words before completing the incomplete mind-mapping diagram by writing the words near the key pictures in correct spelling In the next activity, the teacher gave tasks or exercises that have the students use new vocabulary items The tasks or activities involved all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing In the following lessons of the same unit, the students had

to revise the vocabulary learned in the previous lessons and the teacher supplied more new words about the same topics In addition, the teacher discussed the developed material from the topics presented in the previous lesson

After each lesson, the teacher observed and evaluated the activities in the class to find problems during the class and find how effective the action was

2.2.4 Reflection

In this step, the action conducted in the implementation cycle was evaluated The teacher evaluated the action by herself after each class and by interviewing the students

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about the teaching and learning process To evaluate the action, the researcher emphasized on the successful activities or failed activities After determining the problem that happed in the class, she would change some techniques of teaching by mind-mapping

to improve the results For example, the teacher should improve the diagram of mapping by adding letter cues in every branch of the mind-mapping diagram to help the students write the English words in the correct spelling Another change was exchanging the role-playing with the speaking activity by focusing on the students‟ readiness in conveying the expression when the English teacher pointed at them at random

mind-2.3 Setting of the Study

This study was conducted in the second semester in the academic year of

2015-2016 in TMJHS in the suburb of Son Tay Town, Hanoi It started on January 5th 2015 and ended on April 28th, 2016 The research was conducted according to the English teaching-learning schedule on weekday morning at 7.15 a.m with time duration of 45 minutes in every session The schedule of the study in the English class can be seen in the Table 1 below:

Table1 Research schedule

January 4th Pre-test Before conducting the treatment, the teacher

has the students do the pre-test of target words and tell them about the materials learnt

Unit 8 The topic was “sports and games”

3rd two weeks Unit 9 The topic was “cities of the world”

of words, they felt scared and discouraged In addition, they are given only three English lessons per week with a big amount of knowledge This makes them under pressure so their English level is supposed to be pre-intermediate

The researcher is an English teacher at TMJHS She has worked there for 9 years and is now taking a Master course TESOL at ULIS

2.5 Data collection instruments

This study adopted questionnaires and tests as instruments for data collection

2.5.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires were used to evaluate teaching and to collect information from every student and helped the teacher to collect quickly a large amount of related information in a short time at a very low cost Two questionnaires were designed, one at the pre-action stage and another at the post-action stage

Questionnaire 1 (Appendix1A)

In order to identify the actual situation of the students‟ learning vocabulary and

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find out the causes of the students‟ low vocabulary retention Questionnaire 1 consisted

of seven questions Question 1 identified the students‟ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary Question 2 determined the level of the students‟ vocabulary retention Question 3 identified the students‟ attitudes towards the English 6 vocabularies Question

4 asked about the classroom atmosphere at vocabulary lessons Question 5, 6 and 7 were designed to get the students‟ attitudes toward the teacher‟s vocabulary technique

Questionnaire 2 (Appendix 2)

This questionnaire was given at post-action stage to evaluate the students‟ attitudes towards the effects of mind-mapping on the students‟ vocabulary retention Question 1 was set up to determine the level of the students‟ vocabulary retention after the action stage Questions 2-4 aimed at the students‟ attitudes toward the classroom atmosphere when mind-mapping was applied Question 5 was designed to pose the students‟ attitudes towards mind-mapping about the feasibility, usefulness, interests, application, and suggestion for the future use

2.5.2 Tests

With the intention to find out the effects of mind-mapping on vocabulary retention, the teacher designed three kinds of test: a pre-test of target words, a pre-test and a post-test to compare the students‟ progress before and after applying mind-mapping in teaching vocabulary

Tests measure a person‟s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004:3) The purpose of a vocabulary test is to measure the comprehension and production of words used in speaking or writing There are four general kinds of vocabulary tests which include:

* Limited respond, is for beginners These test items require either a simple physical

action like pointing at something or a very simple verbal answer such as “yes” or “no”

* Multiple-choice complete, is a test in which a sentence with a missing word is

presented; students choose one of the four vocabulary items given to complete the sentence

* Multiple-choice paraphrase is a test in which a sentence with words underlined is

given Students choose which of the four words in the closest in meaning to the

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underlined item

* Simple completion (words) has students write in the missing part of words that

appear in sentences (Madsen, 1983: 12)

Pre-test of target words (Appendix 3A)

In order to test the students‟ vocabulary knowledge, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale developed by Paribakht and Wesche (1997) was used to measure vocabulary knowledge and retention This instrument uses a score of one to the five points for each subject‟s self-analysis of each target word The scoring criteria were explained as follows: (1) One point is given for words reported both unfamiliar and unknown

(2) Two points are given for familiar words with unknown meanings

(3) Three points are given if a synonym or translation of the target word is correct

(4) Four points are given when the use of a word is semantically correct

(5) Five points are given when the use of a target word is both grammatically and semantically correct, even if other parts of the sentence contain errors

To sure of the students‟ unfamiliarity with the target words, a test of vocabulary was used at the pre-action stage This test was a check list of one hundred items The words were chosen from “Tiếng Anh 6” by Hoang Van Van (2013) In selecting the words, two criteria were considered:

1 All the words were unknown to the learners

2 The words presented in this study had different parts of speech

The check list was handed to the participants The learners had to tick one of the five grades for each given word with the points of Vocabulary Knowledge Scale above:

After the pre-test, 8 familiar words were excluded Hence, a list including 92

(Appendix 3B) new words about which the learners did not have any previous knowledge

contains the target words in this study

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Pre-test (Appendix 4A)

The pre-test was used to check the students‟ knowledge of vocabulary at the pre-action stage The duration of the test was 45 minutes under the supervision of the teacher The results of the pre-test and the post-test were compared to check the students‟ progress The vocabulary items were chosen from the words they had learnt in the previous lessons The test comprised 3 sections with the total score of 10 marks:

Section 1 aimed to check the students‟ knowledge of a word‟s meaning: Matching the

words with its definition or meaning

Section 2 stressed on the lexical relation: Odd one out

Section 3 aimed to check both the syntactic pattern of the words and contextual meaning: Fill in the passage with the suitable words

Post-test (Appendix 4B)

A ninety-two item recognition vocabulary–in- short- context test was also constructed

to measure the learners‟ lexical acquisition and recall The post-test which was given four months after the treatment to test the retention of the learned words in long-term memory included three parts: multiple choice, Odd one out and a short text completion

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS

This action research was in a natural setting The aims of the study are to find ways to help the 6A1 students TMJHS improve their vocabulary retention One of the ways is using the mind-mapping technique The results in two main sections of data analysis and research findings are presented in this chapter In data analysis, the possible solutions to solve the problems are reviewed In the research findings, the researcher shows the report of the actions done, the effects of mind-mapping on students‟ vocabulary retention

The researcher presents the reports of the process of the study in relation to the implementation of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning and teaching and the use of vocabulary items in the class activities The result of the implementation of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning and teaching is discussed in relation to the effects of mind-mapping on the students‟ vocabulary retention

3.1 Initial data analysis

At the beginning of this study, the researcher conducted two types of collecting initial data: Questionnaire 1 and pre-test The result of the questionnaire at the pre-action stage presented the students‟ opinions about English vocabulary, their self-evaluation on their ability of vocabulary retention and also showed their opinion about some factors which had bad effects on their vocabulary retention Through the pre-test, the researcher assessed students‟ vocabulary knowledge

3.1.1 Data from questionnaire 1 (Appendix 1B)

Questionnaire 1 consisted of 7 questions Question 1 identifies the students‟ attitudes towards the importance of learning vocabulary The students were asked if learning vocabulary was important and their opinions were presented in Table 2 below

As can be seen from the table, 58% (26 students) of the students agreed that vocabulary learning was important; 31% (14 students), which were neutral, believed that it was neither important nor unimportant; whereas only 11% (5 students) disagreed with the importance of learning vocabulary These above statistics showed that almost all students understood the significance of learning vocabulary in foreign language learning

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Question 2 asked the students to evaluate themselves about their vocabulary retention level To look at the table, the data for this question was not very optimistic: Only 11% (5 students) thought that they had a good memory on vocabulary while up to 73% (33 students) found they had bad vocabulary retention The rest, 16% (7 students) are neutral

Question 3 explored the students‟ opinions on English 6 vocabulary whether it was

easy to memorize About a haft of the students (53%=24 students) expressed their disagreement, only 29% (13 students) agreed and 16% (7 students) were neutral According to the figure, the English 6 vocabulary was not easy to remember Therefore,

it was supposed that the new learning syllabus was considered as one of challenge for the students‟ vocabulary retention

Question 4 showed the students‟ attitudes towards the classroom atmosphere during vocabulary class The figure from the table 2 was quite worrying: 20% believed that the vocabulary lessons were interesting; 64% found it boring and 16% (7 students) neither agreed nor disagreed As a result, vocabulary teaching technique must to be changed and varied to motivate the students in the lessons

The three last questions 5, 6 and 7 asked the students to give their opinion on vocabulary teaching techniques The result did not gain positive attitude: Up to 82% of the students showed their disagreement to their variety Just 22% thought that the teaching techniques were useful and not many students (13%) liked those techniques

Table2 Result of the questionnaire 1

Questions Students‟ opinion on Disagree Neutral Agree

1 the importance of learning

5,6,7 vocabulary teaching techniques

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vocabulary teaching techniques

6 the usefulness of the teacher‟s

vocabulary teaching techniques

7 the interest of teacher‟s

vocabulary teaching techniques

3.1.2 Result of the pre-test

Chart1 Results of the pre-test

As can be clearly seen from that the number of the students (45%) get below average marks while 15% gets good marks

-In conclusion, the result from the analysis of questionnaire 1 and the pre-test revealed that almost all the students were aware of the importance of learning vocabulary but they met problems in learning vocabulary They did not get good grade because they had low motivation in learning vocabulary These are several reasons for this situation: The students had difficulties in vocabulary retention because the teacher did not use appropriate technique which can motivate them or help them learn words more effectively Therefore, the teacher had to intervene to improve the situation

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3.1.3 Identification of the causes of the problem

Based on the result of the first questionnaire and the pre-test, the researcher identified 7 problems related to the vocabulary learning in the 6A1 class The problems are shown in Table 3 below

Table3 The causes of the problems encountered by the 6A1 class students

1 The students had low motivation in learning English

2 The students‟ vocabulary retention was low

3 The students felt difficult in remembering English vocabulary

4 The students easily got bored during vocabulary learning session

5 Teaching techniques used by the English teacher to present materials were not

interesting

6 The students found it difficult in spelling the English words

7 Many students could not pronounce the English words correctly

3.2 Action plan

3.2.1 Determining the Actions

After identifying the cause of the problem, an action expected to solve the problems was carried out The researcher prepared 15 lesson plans and taught them with applying mind-mapping for vocabulary sections In conducting the action, three stages of the teaching learning process was taken: including presentation, practice, and production

Four main activities in vocabulary learning related to the use of min-mapping were applied during the lessons First, the teacher presented and revised vocabulary items by using mind-mapping diagrams Second, the teacher helped the students pronounce the words in the mind-mapping diagram Third, the teacher asked the students to memorize the vocabulary items in the mind-mapping diagrams Fourth, the teacher had the students

to complete the mind-mapping diagrams with the correct words to check the vocabulary

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Table 4.The activities applied in the study

No Activities

1 Using mind mapping to review vocabulary

Using mind mapping to present new vocabulary

2 Asking the students to pronounce the English words in the mind mapping

diagram

3 Using mind mapping to help the students to memorize vocabulary

4 Asking the students to complete the mind mapping diagram with the correct

words

3.2.2 Relationship between the cause of the problem and the actions

After the activities had been designed, the researcher analyzed and related the causes of the problem to the activities designed Each action which the researcher carried out was suitable to solve one or more problems The following table shows which causes

of the problem were related to the actions that had been prepared

Table 5.Relationship between causes of the problem and the activities

1.Using mind mapping to present and

revise vocabulary items

• Teacher did not use interesting teaching technique to present materials

2 Asking the students to pronounce

the English words in the mind

mapping diagrams

• Many students could not pronounce the English words correctly

3 Using mind mapping to help

students memorize vocabulary items

• The students had limited vocabulary retention

• The students felt difficult in memorizing English vocabulary

• The students had low motivation to learn English vocabulary

4 Asking the students to complete

mind mapping diagrams with the

correct words

• The students had difficulty in spelling the English words