THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION &TRAINING TINH GIA I HIGH SCHOOL Minor thesis in education USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA 1 HIGH SCHOOL 10TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS ([.]
THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION &TRAINING TINH GIA I HIGH SCHOOL Minor thesis in education USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA HIGH SCHOOL 10TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS (Áp dụng sơ đồ tư học nói nhằm cải thiện kỹ nói tiếng Anh cho học sinh khối 10 trường THPT Tĩnh Gia 1) Người thực hiện: LÊ THỊ XUÂN Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Tĩnh Gia Tổ chuyên mơn: Tiếng Anh Thanh Hóa: 2022 skkn DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA HIGH SCHOOL’S 10TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS is the result of my own research to improve 10th grade students’ speaking skills at Tinh Gia high school and that, it has not been published or submitted for any other purposes Teacher in charge LÊ THỊ XUÂN skkn TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Research methods of the study PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 1: Theoretical background 1 Definition of speaking 2 Components of Speaking Nature of language teaching and speaking teaching Definition of Mind Mapping Technique of making mind maps Types of mind map 2 The factual problems 2 Students’ difficulties in speaking classes 2 Teachers’ difficulties in speaking classes Suggested solutions Advantages of using mind map in teaching speaking Sample lesson plans using mind map strategy Effectiveness of the research CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion Suggestions References Page 2 3 11 11 11 13 13 13 18 21 21 21 skkn INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study In language teaching, the main objective is to prepare students for communication in the real world and it is very important for a learner to efficiently equip himself with four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, together with relatively sufficient background knowledge In order to achieve the language teaching aims, in our contemporary English curriculum, new learning and teaching approaches are required The new curriculum advocates process-oriented language learning and teaching approaches, such as experiential learning and cooperative learning: students are encouraged to experience the language, learn the language by self-discovery, participate in discussion and negotiation activities It emphasizes the role of positive affective states on the part of the students It advocates the task-based approach to language learning and teaching, which means learning by doing and by using the language It incorporates learning strategy development into the classroom instruction Besides, the new curriculum brings out a lot of changes accompanied with a new vitality At the same time, it sets incomparable challenges for teachers However, in reality, most of our students, even though start to learn English since the very early year of school (even from the first grade), cannot communicate with people from English speaking world with confidence From my experience as a teacher of English at Tinh Gia (TG1) high school for 16 years, I have realized the bitterly disappointing truth that after about seven years or more of studying English, what our students get is almost a “dead” language In other words, many students who have studied English for many years (7 years ) leave school unable to communicate in it That is why I felt the urge to research about it and took appropriate actions It is time that great efforts were made by teachers to improve the quality of English speaking lessons as well as to meet the teaching goals and to help students overcome difficulties in expressing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings in English Therefore, this issue has brought me a great desire to conduct an action research entitled “Using mind map in speaking lessons to improve Tinh Gia high school’s 10th grade students’ speaking skills” in order to examine factors that cause barriers in English speaking for students at TG1 high school as well as to skkn find out how mind map strategy can help to tackle these problems With this study, I hope to make some contribution to improving students’s English speaking skills Aims of the study The study aims at: - Investigating and discovering obstacles or difficulties that both students and teachers have encountered in English speaking lessons at TG1 high schools - Suggesting some solutions of using mind mapping strategy in the post-speaking activity (production stage) to address those problems and to help students develop presentation skill in particular, and improve speaking skills in general Subject of the study Within this study, I put focus on teaching speaking by using mind mapping in the post-speaking task in the tenth-grade classes at TG1 high schools I used mind mapping as a technique to improve students’ speaking skills in describing things and people In this research, students’ accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility in speaking were assessed From these findings, some sample lesson plans are suggested The study was conducted on the students of grade 10 at TG1 high school with the current textbook “Tiếng Anh 10” Research methods of the study In order to get the goals of the study, a wide range of data from observation are gathered, questionnaires and sample speaking test results are analyzed Therefore, all comments, remarks, suggestions, and conclusions provided in the study are based on the results of the data analysis skkn PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 1: Theoretical background 1 Definition of speaking As we all know, speaking is a productive skill in two- way process of social communication which includes the use of verbal and non- verbal language to convey meaning When people have conversation with others, they include the process of producing language and receiving massages It can be said that speaking is one of the most significant elements of communication since it could be used as a medium of social interaction Speaking means conveying the message through the words of mouth This skill is also called “Oral Skill” or “ Communicative Skill” English speaking is a very important skill that has to be possessed by students in studying English in order to be able to communicate with other people from different countries In other words, speaking is a tool of communication in conveying ideas, information, and feeling to others It is the most important way for a speaker to express himself through a language Formerly, teachers rarely teach speaking in any classroom However, nowadays the process of speaking activities has a lot of progress since the teachers try to encourage the students to improve their speaking ability In conclusion, speaking is the activity to deliver the information by expressing it orally, coherently, fluently, and appropriately as an interaction to something, negotiation, solving a particular problem and establishing social relationships and friendships The speaking is considered good if the listener and the speaker understand each other 2 Components of Speaking Every skill has a component to fulfill its needs Speaking also needs many components because speaking is the most natural way to communicate Without speaking, people must stay in almost total isolation from any kind of society For most people, the ability to speak a language is similar to understanding a language since speaking is the most basic way of human interaction In addition, speaking is one of the language arts that are mostly used by people from all over the world The art of speaking is very complex, it requires the simultaneous use of a number of abilities which often develop at different rates skkn There are generally five components of speaking skill, they are; comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and fluency: Comprehension Comprehension focused on students’ understanding of conversation and it measures how much explanations are required to understand students’ responses In other words, it means that if a person can answer or express idea well, it shows that she or he have a good comprehension Vocabulary People cannot communicate effectively or express their ideas both orally and in written form if they not have enough vocabulary since vocabulary means the suitable articulation which is used to communicate Grammar Grammar is needed for students in order to arrange a correct sentence in conversation It is important for students to use a correct structure and appropriate grammatical in speaking The function of grammar is also used to learn the correct way in order to gain expertise in a language in oral and written form Pronunciation Pronunciation is the way of producing certain sounds In process of communication, students need to be able to pronounce and produce phonemes clearly and correctly in order to avoid misunderstanding They must be able to articulate words and create the physical sounds that carry the correct meanings Fluency The last component in speaking is fluency Riddel (2001) stated that fluency is the ability to speak freely without too much stopping and hesitating Similarly, Gower, Harmer (2007) believed that fluency can be thought as the ability to keep speaking spontaneously When students speak fluently, they should be able to get the message from the speaker resources and the abilities they have learnt, regardless of grammatical or other mistakes Nature of language teaching and speaking teaching According to H Douglas Brown in Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, the second edition, "Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learners to learn, setting the conditions for learning” Foreign language learning, like other subjects, is part of the overall development of all skkn students Through learning a foreign language, the students can enrich their experience of life, broaden their world vision, and enhance their thinking skills Language learning is the most effective when students' interest, motivation and attitudes are taken into consideration Therefore, evaluation should be summative, formative, designed and administered to encourage the learners rather than to frustrate them It should be carried out in terms of what students can rather than what they cannot In addition, learning a foreign language is a process which requires learners to integrate many language skills including: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing Learners of a second or foreign language can not only read different texts in different subjects with varying degrees of detail and difficulty but also communicate with native speakers orally It is generally accepted nowadays that speaking is a key skill for most students learning a foreign language In short, Speaking skill plays a vital role in teaching and learning a foreign language This fact calls for suitable teaching methods to help the students become more active in English speaking lessons Definitions of Mind Mapping According to Buzan (2000), mind mapping is the easiest way to bring information into the brain, and to bring information out from the brain Mind mapping is the way to take a note which is creative and effective Mind mapping also can be said to be great for memory to arrange facts and thoughts in such a way that the way of brain work involves from the firts It means remembering information by using mind mapping will be easier than using national registration techniques Then mind maps are amazing, organizational and creative learning method that can improve memory, concentration, communication, creativity, and time management Mind mapping is one of techniques which use of whole brains in learning that can make the students more enjoyable and interested in studying English From the explanations of mind mapping above I can conclude that mind mapping is a graphic organizer that can be used to get or to deliver the information Buzan opined that mind mapping is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged in radial around a central key word or idea It is used to generate, visualize, organize, and classify ideas It is skkn an image-centered diagram that represents meaning or other connections between portions of information It can be said that mind mapping is an effective tool to generate idea and draw it into a paper or express it orally In other words, mind mapping is a graphic organizer in which main idea and subidea are represented as branches from larger branches It is a visual tool that can be used to generate ideas, take notes, organize thinking, and develop concepts 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 sub-subtopics around each major subtopic Mind map can be created by using paper and pens or using one of several computer applications Based on the explanation above, mind mapping can ease 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 Technique of Making Mind Map There are a number of computer applications that can be used to create mind maps on a computer Regardless, to draw a mind map using pen, it is recommended to use a large sheet of white blank paper and turn it horizontally in a landscape orientation Pens that are used are in multiple thicknesses colors The following procedures are presented to describe how to make a paper-pen based mind map: Step 1: Place the central theme or main idea in the center of the paper We may find it easier to place our page in landscape orientation, which is easier to draw a mind map Step 2: Use lines, arrows, branches, and different colors as ways of showing the connection between the central theme or main idea The relationships are important in order to keep the idea related to main topic Step 3: Avoid creating an artwork Teachers should draw quickly without major pauses or editing It is important in the first step of mind mapping to skkn consider every possible idea even those that we are not going to use Step 4: Choose different colors to symbolize different things The method is fully up to us, but we should remain consistent so that we can be better in drawing our mind map at a next step Step 5: Leave some space on our page due to the reason that we can continue to add to the idea over a period of time If A4 sized paper is small, we may like to use A3 Below is a mind map model: Figure 1: A model of Mind map Types of mind map According to Buzan, mind maps can be divided into three categories according to the objectives of using: library mind maps, presentation mind maps, and tunnel timeline mind maps Type 1: Library Mind Maps Library mind maps can also be called reference maps This type of mind maps is mainly used to organize information, so that you can have a clear and 10 skkn Figure 4: Type - Marketing Plan Mind Map Mind maps can be a very powerful tool to analysis ideas, build project plans and solve problems The types of mind maps mentioned above can cover almost all the mind map types Knowing the features and purposes of each type can help you achieve the outcome required with mind maps Based on the three types of mind mapping above, the writer used presentation mind maps type because this type is used to present the process of an idea to the audience and how the information should be positioned on the map depends on whether the audience understand it or not So that the writer will ask students to present the materials by these types 13 skkn 2 The factual problems 2 Students’ difficulties in speaking classes In the reality of language teaching, we have found out that there are many problems faced by students in speaking and these disturb speaking abilities The following are four common problems faced by my students in speaking classes: Inhibition Speaking activities require listeners to have all attention on speakers and the exposure from the listeners that can often give a stage fright to the speakers The speakers may also be worried about making mistakes or being criticized in front of others This is one of the factors that discourage my students from actively participating in my speaking classes Nothing to say Another common problem is that students mostly have nothing to say related to the topic In fact, the students may be bored or they may feel that the topic is unrelated to the conversation Consequently, the students will have less motivation to speak even they know they have to participate in speaking activities The students even lack of confidence to express what they want to say Low of Participation On the one hand, there always will be dominant students in English class that will make other students difficult to express themselves freely On the other hand, The students who interrupt frequently or look for the teacher’s attention constantly tend to create a situation where the timid students are quite happy to sit in the corner of the class and watch the lesson unfolding rather than participating Mother tongue use In EFL classroom where a number of the students have the same mother tongue language are found that their English is mostly influenced by that background language They feel inconvenient to speak to one another in foreign language 2 Teachers’ difficulties in speaking classes There are many problems in the process of teaching English speaking skills One of them is how to make the students interested in the English lesson especially 14 skkn for speaking so that the situation in the class can make the students enjoy learning Speaking is an important part of English to communicate or telling something to other people When people can communicate in English they can inform their idea easily Besides, if students always practice speaking English they will not be shy or nervous when they are speaking in front of the public So, it is important parts to make the students interest to improve their speaking skills In fact, teaching speaking is activities which require students to focus on meaning in communication, students need to be able to use and pronounce words and structures correctly in order to be understood Furthermore, the effective teaching speaking is also a collection of various parts, a new way of looking at oral communication will make it easier to teach the skills involved and will make it easier for students to become component communicators Then, according to Brown (2009), principle of teaching speaking skills are focused on both fluency and accuracy, provide intrinsically motivating techniques, encourage the use of authentic language, provide appropriate feedback and correction, capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening, give students opportunities to initiate oral communication, and encourage the development of speaking strategies Based on some explanation above, the writer can conclude that teaching speaking is an instruction that involves students in the class, where the students asked to speak by using vocabularies and exact language structures so that it can be understood Besides, teaching speaking can be called knowledge, instructions, or a personal skill that is given through communicates from the teacher to the students Based on the writer’s observation conducted at Tinh Gia high school especially in the tenth years, where the writer interviewed some English teachers and students at tenth grade , the students learned about speaking but they did not expand their knowledge, they only learned basics of English such as vocabulary and structures Besides, they just spoke by reading in front of the class Moreover, some students said that they had difficulties in pronouncing the words Furthermore, the students often lacked of ideas and vocabulary to express their thoughts so they were afraid to speak up What’s worse, many students were not active in the class Therefore, the students need to learn by using an interesting technique to make them comfortable and motivated to learn English especially for speaking In this case, the writer used mind mapping as a technique to make students interested and easy to understand the materials Mind mapping is a strategy to activate right and left brain balanced when we are teaching English because mind 15 skkn mapping contains pictures, colors, lines, and words that can help students to remember the words and resulting an idea so that they can communicate easily Then, according to Knight (2012), mind maps are amazing organizational and creative methods that can improve memory, concentration, communication, creativity, and time management Suggested solutions Advantages of using mind map in teaching speaking Using mind mapping can help students propose their ideas freely They can work with their friends, their notes are more focused on the material point, which helps the mind to organize, remember, compare and make relationships among the information Besides that, mind mapping gives freedom to search learning materials and so the students are more active and creative in learning process Within the scope of this study, I am not making the attempt to cover all the speaking lessons in the textbook English 10 I just suggest here some typical speaking activities in which I have applied mind map strategy effectively with a view to helping teachers of English at this level apply them in their speaking classes The results of tests have proved that by applying mind map in speaking lessons, my students can understand the lesson better as well as finish the tasks with more effective results The following are some suggested lesson plans applying mind map Sample lesson plans using mind map strategy UNIT 1: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF (Part B SPEAKING) I Aims: - Students can ask and answer about one's daily activities using a timetable or pictures - They can talk about their daily routines II Procedures: Presentation Practice (Controlled- practice) + Task (Text book) + Task (Text book) Production - Aims: sts practise speaking freely, they can express their own ideas 16 skkn - ask Ss to close book - Ask Ss to work in groups of 4, complete the mind map with the information about their daily routine as given in task 2, then appoint a representative to present in front of the class - call one or two students to report in front of class - The mind map should be: Figure 5: A mind map for Unit 17 skkn UNIT 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION LESSON SPEAKING I Objectives Students can talk about someone's school life and actively engage in an interview II Procedures Presentation + Task (Text book) Practice + Task 2(Text book) Production + Task 3: (Text book) - Ask sts to work in small groups to make a mind map using the information they have learnt about from the interview, then appoint a representative to present in front of the class - The mind map should be: 18 skkn Figure 6: A mind map for Unit 3 UNIT 5: TECHNOLOGY AND YOU LESSON SPEAKING I Objectives: Sts can talk about the uses of modern inventions II Procedures: Presentation + Task 1(Text book) Practice + Task (Text book) + Task (Text book) Production + Task 4: - Ask sts to work in small groups to make a mind map about the use of information technology, then appoint a representative to present in front of the class - The mind map should be: Figure 7: A mind map for Unit UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD LESSON 2: B SPEAKING I Objectives: 19 skkn - Students know about some actions to protect the oceans - Students can talk about the protection of the oceans II Procedures: Presentation + Task 1(Text book) Practice + Task (Text book) Production Task 3: Report to the class what your group has discussed - Ask sts to work in small groups to make a mind map using the information they have just learn, then appoint a representative to present in front of the class - Ask some representatives to report their group’s opinions in front of the class Figure 8: A mind map for Unit UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA LESSON 2: B SPEAKING I Objectives: 20 skkn ... USING MIND MAP IN SPEAKING LESSONS TO IMPROVE TINH GIA HIGH SCHOOL’S 10 TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS is the result of my own research to improve 10 th grade students’ speaking skills at Tinh. .. great desire to conduct an action research entitled ? ?Using mind map in speaking lessons to improve Tinh Gia high school’s 10 th grade students’ speaking skills? ?? in order to examine factors that cause... speaking lessons Definitions of Mind Mapping According to Buzan (2000), mind mapping is the easiest way to bring information into the brain, and to bring information out from the brain Mind mapping