(SKKN 2022) using mindmaps to promote english learning in class 5a at van xuan primary school

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THUONG XUAN DIVISION OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE “USING MINDMAPS TO PROMOTE ENGLISH LEARNING IN CLASS 5A AT VAN XUAN PRIMARY SCHOOL” The writer: Cam Thi Huong Position: Teacher School: Van Xuan Primary School The aspect of the research: English THANH HOA, 2022 Table of content INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason to choose the topic 1.2 The aim of the research 1.3 Subjects of the action research 1.4 The methods of study .2 CONTENT 2.1 Theorical background .2 2.2 Current status of the problem before applying research * The general situation * The teachers .4 *The reality of teaching English at Van Xuan primary school .4 * Result of the current reality 2.3 Some solutions are used to solve the problems Solution Using mindmaps to revise old lessons .5 Solution Using mindmaps for warm-up activities Solution Using mindmaps to teach vocabulary and sentence patterns .9 Solution Using mindmaps to improve students’ speaking skill .12 2.4 The results of applying new solutions 13 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .14 3.1 Conclusion 14 3.2 Recommendations 14 REFERENCES 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason to choose the topic Due to the rapid development of the society and the integration of all the nations in the world, English plays more and more important role in many aspects of our life English, nowadays, is considered to be not only language of international aviation but also language of international business and diplomacy This makes English become the most international language in the world In recent years in our country, students, parents and all the society have recognized the importance of acquiring English and using English as means of communication It is considered the golden key for students to be successful and confident in the future As one of the instrumental subjects in school, English not only enables students to formulate and develop their communicative competences in English but also contributes to the formation and development of general competences to live and work more effectively, to learn other subjects well and for lifelong learning English provides students with an important international communication tool, enabling them to exchange information, advanced scientific and technical knowledge, explore cultures, thereby leading to intercultural understanding and promoting a sense of global citizenship, contributing to the development of personal qualities and competences Through learning English and understanding different cultures, students can better understand and love their own language and culture As a compulsory subject in the general education curriculum, English is also directly inter-related with many other subjects/educational areas such as Literature/Vietnamese, Natural and Social Sciences, History and Geography, Arts, Physical Education, Computing, Experimental Activities English is also a tool to teach and learn other subjects, especially Mathematics and natural sciences The main objective of the General education English language curriculum is to enable students to formulate and develop their communicative competences through practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing and linguistic knowledge (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar) Communicative competences and linguistic knowledge are built on the basis of specific units of communicative competences, in themes and topics relevant to the needs and abilities of students to help them meet the levels required in the Vietnam 6-level language proficiency framework (promulgated under the Circular No 01/2014/TTBGDDT dated 24 January 2014 of the Minister of Education and Training), specifically, students who finish primary school will have mastered Level At primary level (grades 3-5), English teaching and learning enables students to initially formulate and develop their communicative competences through the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with more focus on listening and speaking skills The general education English language curriculum is built with the view that communicative competences are the targets of the teaching process; linguistic knowledge is a means to formulate and develop communicative competences through listening, speaking, reading and writing At primary level (grades 3-5), priority should be given to developing listening and speaking skills From the reality of the years I have taught English at Van Xuan primary school together with the English teaching methods I have learned from training sessions, good teacher classes and teaching sessions, I usually wonder about how to teach my students in a suitable way, help them no longer feel difficult and stress when speaking English as well as speak English fluently and logically, therefore their English result is getting better and better With the desire to improve students’ communicative competence by speaking English logically and fluently with a variety of vocabulary and grammar as well as improve their English learning, I carried a method of using mindmaps This method not only creates excitement of learning English but also motivate them to remember and practice logically the English words and sentence patterns of each topic that they have learned From the above thought, I have researched and done experiment in class 5A at Van Xuan Primary School and got the desired results Therefore, I boldly give my experience on "Using mindmaps to promote English learning in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school" for my friends and colleagues to refer 1.2 The aim of the research The aim of this research is to investigate some problems that elementary students often face up in studying English, the writer find out some solutions to improve vocabulary and grammar for students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school and to help students remember words and sentences more easily so that they could speak English fluently and get better English final scores 1.3 Subjects of the action research 23 students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school Mindmaps to improve English learning for students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school The steps are taken in English lessons 1.4 The methods of study During the study, I used the following methods: - Survey and investigation are applied to investigate the quality of students when they learn English through class activities and tasks in the textbook - Observation is applied to observe the activities of students during the time they are included in the English lessons - Practice is applied when the teachers organize activities for students Analysis, statistics, synthesis, comparation and assessment are applied to assess the progress of students when they study with mindmaps CONTENT 2.1 Theorical background Nowadays in Vietnam, it has become very important for students to learn one or more foreign languages to use in daily communication as well as in work, especially English English is used everywhere and every time It is popular that many children who sell books for tourists can advertise their products in English or professionals and translators are fluent in English However, the question is why so many people learn English for a long time but when communicating with native speakers, they find it difficult to speak out The answer is due to the shortage of logic vocabulary, grammar as well as the confidence of expressing ideas relating to topics Using mindmaps in teaching English will help pupils recall the knowledge of vocabulary and sentence patterns, therefore enhance speaking logically and coherently The pupils will acquire knowledge actively, gentle way and will remember better As a result, their learning result will be better The mind map is an expression of radiant thinking and is therefore a natural function of the human mind It is a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain (Buzan, 1993) According to Sujana (2006), mind mapping is recommended as a good technique to absorb information presented in the text they need to take the key words and connect one key word to other key words in order to connect one idea to other idea and get the main idea or the big idea of the text, get the specific information and to be able to retain the information That’s why the students will have a good ability to rewrite what they have learnt and as the consequences, they had a good ability in recalling words or sentence patterns Mind mapping is a good technique to solve the students problem in recalling old lesson In order to create a mind-map, people usually start in the middle of the page to draw the central theme or main idea Then, draw wider in all directions to create a growing diagram composed of keywords, concepts, facts, and information Furthermore, mind-map graphically show ideas in a relational framework,with the main topic at the center of the paper, major subtopics on branches derive from the main topic, and subsubtopics around each major subtopic Mind map can be created using paper and pens or using one of several computer applications (Murley 2007) Based on the explanation above, mind mapping can help the students to generate their mind Besides, teacher can use mind mapping as a strategy in teaching Mind map is easy to create, students can create it on a blank of paper using pen or pencil What is more, they can use computer to draw a mind map 2.2 Current status of the problem before applying research * The general situation Van Xuan primary school is situated in the mountainous area in the West of Thanh Hoa province The living condition is low A large number of parents work far from their children and not have time to teach them to study, especially teach their children to study English at home In addition, the number of students in a class is rather crowded, so in the teaching process, teachers cannot cover and support students in time Moreover, infrastructure and teaching materials for students and teachers such as dictionaries, books, tapes, radio, projectors,… are not fully invested * The teachers We have well-trained teachers who are willing to learn and update new teaching methods 5 The teachers initially approached using relatively good teaching techniques The teacher has been familiar and active with how to organize a language lesson The teacher has flexible coordination of teaching techniques and has creation of teaching aids in accordance with the content of lessons, so many lessons to learn become lively, charismatic and effective * students Students are interested in learning English and curious to discover the topics in the book *The reality of teaching English at Van Xuan primary school From the beginning stage of teaching English at Van Xuan primary school, through the regular practice of the first semester, I noticed that the English speaking of students in class 5A was too weak, they were afraid of speaking English, as well as having difficulties in writing or describing a problem even though it is very simple Most students have no contact with native speakers, so they also have limitations in reacting to English From the fact, I personally think that it is absolutely necessary to have a method that helps my students improve their speaking as well as their vocabulary, so I have studied and created a method for my students * Result of the current reality In order to have measurements and methods to improve students’ learning scores and speaking skill, I have surveyed the speaking ability of students at class 5A from the beginning of the school year and obtained these following results: Total Fluency and coherence Lexical and grammar resource Good Not good Good Not good 23 18 16 100 % 21,7% 78,3% 30,4 % 69,6 % I also had 23 students in class 5A written tests and the following was the result of their written tests: Total Wellcompleted Completed Not-Completed Amou Perce Amou Percent Amount Perce nt nt nt nt 23 30,4% 26,1 % 10 43,5% From the above tables, I can see that my students’capacity is too bad They are lack of vocabulary and grammar Only students can remember some words and simple sentence patterns that they have learnt This is the reason why their speaking is not coherent and fluent Of course, their shortage of vocabulary and grammar leads to the bad scores in the written tests The figure of well-completed students only accounts for 30,4%, while the rate of not-completed ones reaches 43,5% To improve the situation, I have researched and studied some measurements to improve speaking skill and learning scores for my students in class 5A and get the hopeful result 2.3 Some solutions are used to solve the problems As a language learner, you work hard to expand your vocabulary,or write full sentences to remember sentence patterns You plough through new words every day, make long lists of words and practise with flashcards However, when it comes to speaking, the new words seem to fall out of your head, so you resort to your old friends – words you already know and have used many times – again and again As one of the most effective learning techniques, mind mapping can help students take better notes, improve comprehension, and foster creativity Like other techniques, mindmaps are carried out from simple tasks to difficult tasks, from controlled activities to free activities In the first place, teacher will be the instructer who draws, completes, and sometimes presents the topics to make student be familiar with the use of mindmaps Then, teacher would give students chance to create and present their mindmaps with given topics I the following steps when implementing a mindmap in teaching English: Firstly, I draw a shape or an image in the middle and write your main topic of vocabulary that I intend to develop Or I can ask my students draw the mindmaps themselves to the given task Then, I ask students to develop the related topics around this central topic, connecting each of them to the center with a line by thinking of words or phrases based on the given topic as much as possible (maybe in their native language) After that, I invite students to write words or phrases to complete the mindmap on the board or in their paper Finally, I would ask some student to present the completed topics In the half of the first term, my students presented vocabulary mainly in order to build up their confidence when speaking in front of others Solution Using mindmaps to revise old lessons Revising lessons on a daily basis helps you to remember the topics, facts whatever you have studied It will increase your confidence and will help you in reducing exams anxiety It allows students to study at their own pace without exhausting themselves Revising gives students an opportunity to reflect on what they've learnt This will help them to recall old words/ sentence patterns and remember them better Therefore, their English would be improved - Eg 1: When teaching Unit 1: What’s your address? (lesson 2), the teacher would like to revise the words and sentences patterns in Unit 1(lesson 1), teacher would draw the following map and asked “What’s your address?”, students would stand up and answer “ It’s Bu Don/ Cong Thuong village” Teacher completed the map By answering the teacher’s question and looking at the mindmap, students can recollect all words/ phrase/ sentence patterns relating to the topic “address”, and practise speaking skill Cong Thuong village 105, Hoa Binh Lane What’s your address? Bu Don village 75, Hai Ba Trung street - E.g 2: Using mindmaps to revise the new words of “Unit 15: What would you like to be in the future?” (Lesson 3) + By completing the mindmaps, all the words relating to the topic “Jobs” are recalled, not only in previous lesson but also in old lessons they have learnt in grade Students are fond of speaking out the words 8 Revising vocabulary and sentence patterns Unit 15: “What would you like to be in the future” - E.g 3: The revision of vocabulary and grammar was effectively carried out Students presented their last-weekend activities by completing the mindmaps and talking about them through looking at the finished map 9 e.g Revising vocabulary and sentence patterns: “What did you last weekend?- I…………… ” Solution Using mindmaps for warm-up activities A language warm-up is a simple language task that helps you and your students to recall, review, and introduce information Usually you will want to use this task to begin your class, but you can also use it to shift gears to a new topic or language focus midway through the class session Language warm-ups are an important part of a language learning routine, lesson plan, and classroom environment They’re an incredible tool for increasing student engagement and learning, and they’re one of the best ways to ensure that your students are present in the classroom and ready for the lesson Warm ups are important to create a good environment in your class and to make students feel comfortable with the topic A warm-up activity helps them ease into the classroom and the expectation of learning in a low-key way that isn’t stressful With the use of mindmaps, it not only creates a relaxing environment to prepare students for the new lessons but also promote students to brainstorm about the topics they are going to study - E.g 1: Teacher would like to lead in the topic this weekend activities of “ Unit 5: Where will you be this weekend?” (Lesson 2) + she would draw the following midmap 10 + The students discussed freely, some students might draw pictures relating to the topic + With this warm-up technique, students are well-prepared for the new lesson, they can imagine what they are going to learn E.g: elicit vocabulary Unit 5: Where will you be this weekend? (Lesson 2) - E.g 2: Unit 15: What would you like to be in the future? + Teacher drew a bubble map with a familiar topic to students “Jobs in the future” + Students completed the map by thinking of the jobs they would like to be in the future (maybe in Vietnamese) + I discovered that all students in class took part in this activity actively Teacher president Jobs in the future Police businessman 11 Famous singer + The students are very interested in this topic, they freely talked about which jobs they would like to be in the future + On behalf of the completed mindmap, teacher leaded to the new lesson Therefore, students are well-prepared for the new topic Solution Using mindmaps to teach vocabulary and sentence patterns Vocabulary is the most important skill when learning /teaching a foreign language It is on vocabulary that all the other skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening are based and developed Vocabulary helps students express themselves more precisely and sharpens communication skills it also requires students to cognitive academic language proficiency Without a sufficient understanding of words, it’s difficult for students to understand others or express their ideas Teaching vocabulary is important across the curriculum from language arts and social studies to mathematics and science By learning several words at the students’ disposal of describing events or emotions, they can be that explicit when sharing ideas their ideas and opinions Vocabulary is an important element in second language (L2) acquisition By learning new words, learners can enhance their listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as improve comprehension and production in L2 When a person’s vocabulary is limited, he may find himself incompetent in learning English as he cannot make full sentences Grammar is rules of a language Grammar is a system of meaningful structures and patterns that are governed by particular pragmatic constraints‖ (Larsen-Freeman, 2001) In another definition, grammar is a description of the rules for forming sentences, including an account of the meanings that these forms convey (Thornbury, 1999, p.13) In foreign language acquisition accurate understanding of the language structures is the key part so teaching grammar is an essential aspect of foreign language instruction In the primary level, teaching grammar is teaching sentence patterns, from the 12 model sentences, students make correct sentences and produce dialogues or write a passage Determining the crucial role of vocabulary and sentence patterns, I have used a lot of techniques in teaching process I am sure that mindmaps are one of the most helpful techniques for eliciting, teaching, checking and revising both vocabulary and grammar Mind mapping can help students learn vocabulary easier According to Murley (2007: 175), “mind maps are a nonlinear visual outline of complex 241 information that can aid creativity, organization, productivity, and memory” Students can easily speak out or write down words relating to the given topics it would be easier to communicate reasonably without many problems if you could use enough appropriate vocabulary in context So, mindmap is one of the best ways to connect words with their equivalent topics - E.g 1: Teaching vocabulary “Unit 15: What would you like in the future?” 13 Teaching vocabulary “unit 15: What would you like to be in the future?” + Teacher used flash cards as a topic to elicit jobs and actions + Teacher wrote words/phrases + Teacher read and students repeated in chorus, then individually + By looking at these visualizing data, students remember words/ phrases faster and more deeply + Teacher could check vocabulary by mixing the flashcards, students reorders correctly and easily repeated words/ phrases aloud Their vocabulary is built up, so their confidence of speaking English is gradually expanded Mindmaps are also effective tools to teaching sentence paterns When looking at the finished minmaps, students easily produce other skills like speaking or writing - E.g 2: Using mindmaps for teaching sentence patterns “Unit 4: Did you go to the party? (Lesson 1) + Teacher drew a bubble map with topic “Last weekend” on the board + Teacher students call out the words/phrases first + teacher leaded to the sentence patterns with yes/no questions + Students practised in pairs 14 15 Solution Using mindmaps to improve students’ speaking skill I find that mindmaps are one of the best ways to promote my students to speak coherently, confidently and fluently In order to encourage and evaluate students ability in speaking, the teacher asks students to speak about each topic in front of the class.He/ she asks the students to make a simple mind map about each given topic He/she tells them how to convey idea structurally using mind map application The students present their mind mapping in front of the class The researcher gives homework to the students about given topics on mind mapping The researcher checks old lessons by asking students to speak about given topics, they speak based on their mind map that the researcher asked them to create as their homework - E.g 1: Using mindmaps for presenting vocabulary and sentence patterns “Unit 6: How many lesson you have today? (Lesson 1)” + The speaking lesson is getting more interesting and attracted with the help of bubble maps More vocabulary and ideas are collected in a presentation Subjects and days in a week are all memorized + Students would prepare for their speaking first by completing the map as a mean of taking note + Students’ speaking is fluent and logical by looking at the maps when speaking 16 Students’ presentation on topic “Timetable” - E.g 2: Unit 18: “What will the weather be like tomorrow?” + Homework: Watch the weather forecast on TV and draw a map of weather + Each students would draw a map of weather and complete it by watching the weather forecast on TV + In the next lesson, the teacher would invite some students to talk about the weather that they have written + Suprisingly, almost students did the homework well and their presentations were excellent 17 E.g: Homework on topic “The weather” 2.4 The results of applying new solutions After a year of using these solutions, I have found that my students’ learning records as well as their speaking has been improved Before there were lots of students afraid of presenting their ideas in front of others but now they are more confident and excited in speaking English in English class After having a survey of speaking ability, I evaluate them based on these criterias and I have obtained these following result Tota Fluency and coherence Lexical and grammar l resource Good Not good Good Not good 23 13 10 20 100 56,5 % 43,5 % 87 % 13 % % I also had 23 students in class 5A written tests and the following was the result of their written tests: WellCompleted Not-Completed completed Total Amou Perce Amou Percent Amount Perce nt nt nt nt 23 17 73,9% 26,1 % 0 Comparing with the result of the survey in the beginning of the school year, overall, both speaking ability and study results have significant changes The rate of students with good fluency and coherence increases to 56,5 %, this was over two times higher than that figure in the beginning of that school 18 year The rate of students who are not good at Lexical and grammar resource decreases from 69,6 % to 13% Their speaking is getting better, as a result, their last second semester tests have improved greatly The percentage of wellcompleted students is 73,9% and there are no bad students Besides, the study on mindmapping teaching methods for students has contributed to improve my pedagogical skills and abilities as well as contribute to the innovation of English teaching methods In the condition of mountainous area, the lack of teaching facilities, the opportunity to interact with native speakers is little; the initial success I obtained is a very happy thing for me When applying the mindmaps, the English lessons have become more interesting The pupils remembered words and sentence patterns in the class and especially, they could practise these patterns fluently This method can be applied to every lesson in grade 3, 4, However, each lesson has different topic; teachers need to apply it wisely and creatively CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Conclusion From the fact, we see that the English teaching for elementary students is not simple It requires teachers to have a creative teaching method that is easy to understand In the coming time, I will continue to learn from documents, friends and colleagues as well as from practical experience to have methods to teach English that is suitable for my students, at the same time improving my English teaching methods I see that when mind mapping has been applied to teach English at Van Xuan primary school It is like a key which unlocks memories, mind mapping benefits students in many respects First, it helps associate new information to prior knowledge Instead of rote learning, it forces students to find connections in their head that leads to meaningful learning Second, it is an effective tool to figure out complex issues Once all the ideas are presented, they can be grouped and illustrated in a highly organized structure that gives students a deeper understanding than before Third, mind mapping ignites creativity and makes learning more spontaneous, flexible and enjoyable Students are allowed to empty out their heads once any ideas strike them 19 3.2 Recommendations * To Thuong Xuan Chamber of Education and Training: English teachers need to have more exchanging idea activities to help them enrich their experiences in teaching English Therefore, Seminars should be organized to introduce the topic to all colleagues for discussion to have positive teaching methods for elementary students * To Van Xuan primary school leaders: English Club should be held regularly so that students have more chance to improve their speaking skill as well as their confidence Equipments for teaching English such as dictionaries, books, newspapers, tapes, pictures, flashcards and projectors should be well furnished This is my experience of improving English speaking and English learning at class 5A I am looking forwards to receiving faithful comments from colleagues to help my theme become more successful I would like to put my ideal of having functional rooms for teaching foreign language I sincerely thanks! Thuong Xuan, March 20th, 2022 THE CONFIRMATION OF THE I hereby undertake this PRINCIPAL is my own experience initiative, not copying the contents of other people Writer Nguyễn Đình Quý Cầm Thị Hương 20 REFERENCES English Teaching Methodology Nguyen Thi Vân Lam, M.A, Ngo Đinh Phuong, Ph.D, 2007 English textbook Vietnam Education Publishing House of Website: https://www.mindmeister.com/blog/teach-mind-mapping/ https://www.mindmeister.com/blog/mind-mapping-benefits-whoneeds-mind-maps/ https://www.mindmeister.com/blog/teach-mind-mapping/ ... "Using mindmaps to promote English learning in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school" for my friends and colleagues to refer 1.2 The aim of the research The aim of this research is to investigate... that they could speak English fluently and get better English final scores 1.3 Subjects of the action research 23 students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school Mindmaps to improve English learning. .. are used to solve the problems Solution Using mindmaps to revise old lessons .5 Solution Using mindmaps for warm-up activities Solution Using mindmaps to teach vocabulary and sentence patterns