The effect of concept mapping on efl learners writing performance at vinh dinh high school in quang tri province

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - - NGUYEN TRUONG QUYNH TRANG THE EFFECT OF CONCEPT MAPPING ON EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE AT VINH DINH HIGH SCHOOL IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr TRUONG VIEN HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - - NGUYỄN TRƢƠNG QUỲNH TRANG SỰ TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA PHƢƠNG PHÁP LẬP BẢN ĐỒ KHÁI NIỆM ĐẾN VIỆC NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG VIẾT CHO HỌC SINH TẠI TRƢỜNG THPT VĨNH ĐỊNH TỈNH QUẢNG TRỊ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS TRƢƠNG VIÊN HUẾ, 2013 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere Author Nguyen Truong Quynh Trang iii ABSTRACT Traced back to 1972, concept mapping was the early work of Novak and his research team at Cornell University This study examined the potential of concept mapping in an attempt to improve EFL learners’ writing performance The one-group pretest-treatment-posttest procedure was adopted with 35-tenth-grade students participating in the study The study comprised of three major parts Initially, students’ perception towards using concept mapping in writing yielded, pertaining to questionnaires and interviews, showed their attitudes towards this strategy Next, pairwise comparison regarding five subscales, namely Content, Organization, Vocabulary, Language use, and Mechanics at two points of measures was analyzed to illuminate the impact of concept mapping on students’ writing performance Recommendations stemming from teachers’ interviews and class observation sheet were, by the same token, proposed to strengthen the effect of concept mapping The findings were that positive attitudes pervaded the utilization of concept mapping and the students’ writing performance measurably improved in the light of Content, Organization, Vocabulary, and Language use The ideas of providing students with more training sessions and incorporating the strategy in other skills was heartily recommended to facilitate the effect of concept mapping in educational purposes iv Acknowledgements This research is a milestone in all my personal and professional endeavors I am eternally grateful to a number of people who helped to bring this project to fruition My thanks first go to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Truong Vien, for his constant encouragement, invaluable assistance and suggestions throughout this long journey despite his many other academic and professional commitments I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work I would like to thank Dr Luu Trong Tuan, currently a teacher at National University of Ho Chi Minh City, for enlightening me the first glance of research and his insightful comments I wish to send my appreciation to all the teaching staff and students at Vinh Dinh High School who participated in this study for their willingness to help me with questionnaires, class observations and interviews My thesis would not have come to a completion without the help from my colleague, Nguyen Thi Yen, who kindly provided technical guidance during the adoption of Inspiration software for my research I am also deeply indebted to all my friends, especially to Tu Liem, Minh Tri, Tram Hang, for their whole-hearted help and encouragement when I deal with the data In particular, I am grateful to Nam who helped me download the precious reference materials I would like to show my deep gratitude to my beloved family- my grandmother, my father, my mother and my siblings who shared all of the ups and downs of my academic endeavors with their boundless love and continuous support – both materially and spiritually; my mother-in-law for all her tender care and profound understanding There are not words to express my gratitude to my husband, Hong Viet, for his endless encouragement and unfailing belief in my ability to conduct this research amidst the distance that separated us In a word, my sincere gratitude goes to all of those without whose support my study would not have been made possible v v TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim of the study .7 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Research questions 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview of Concept mapping 2.1.1 Definition of concept maps and concept mapping 2.1.2 The theory pertaining to concept mapping 10 2.1.3 The construction of concept maps 12 2.1.4 Procedures for constructing concept maps 15 2.1.5 Application of concept mapping in language learning 16 2.1.5.1 Concept mapping facilitates collaborative learning via collaborative concept maps 16 2.1.5.2 Concept mapping as a tool to enhance critical thinking ability 16 2.1.5.3 Concept mapping as a promising tool in planning stage 17 2.1.5.4 Concept maps facilitate reading comprehension 18 2.2 English writing process 19 2.3 Related studies 23 vi 2.4 Summary .28 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD 29 3.1 Research design 29 3.2 Participants .30 3.2.1 Students 30 3.2.2 Teachers 30 3.3 Materials 30 3.4 Research instruments 31 3.4.1 Questionnaire 31 3.4.2 Tests on English writing 32 3.4.3 Interview 32 3.4.4 Class observation sheet 33 3.5 Data collection procedure .33 3.6 Data analysis 36 3.7 Composition scoring rubrics 36 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 Students’ perception towards the use of concept maps in writing class 37 4.1.1 The usefulness of using concept maps in writing 37 4.1.2 Students’ current attitudes towards using concept mapping in writing process 40 4.1.2.1 After practicing concept mapping activities .40 4.1.2.2 Possibility of using concept mapping .42 4.1.3 Ways to conduct concept mapping activities in writing 43 4.1.4 Difficulties in concept mapping activities 46 4.1.5 Mean score of students’ perceptions towards the use of concept maps in writing class 49 4.2 Participants’ writing performance in two measures .50 4.2.1 Pairwise comparison of the mean scores of pretest and posttest 50 4.2.2 Pairwise comparison of mean scores between pretest and posttest regarding five subscales 52 vii 4.2.3 Correlation between pretest and posttest mean scores 54 4.3 Teachers’ perception towards the use of concept maps to writing instruction 56 4.3.1 Credits of concept mapping in writing 56 4.3.3 Recommendations to strengthen the effects of concept mapping to writing instruction 60 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 65 5.1 Summary of research findings 65 5.2 Pedagogical implications 66 5.2.1 For instructors 66 5.2.2 For students 67 5.3 Limitations of the study 68 5.4 Suggestions for further research .68 5.5 Conclusion 69 REFERENCES 70 APPENDICES 79 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation Full version EFL English as a foreign language ESL English as a second language MOET Ministry of Education and Training PASW Predictive Analytics Software Ss Students T Teacher ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Cluster components 32 Table 4.1: The usefulness of using concept mapping in pre-writing stage 39 Table 4.2: Mean score of the usefulness of concept mapping in writing process 40 Table 4.3: Mean score of students’ current attitudes towards using concept mapping 43 Table 4.4: Ways to conduct concept mapping activities 44 Table 4.5: Ways to concept mapping activities 46 Table 4.6: Mean score of difficulties in concept mapping activities 49 Table 4.7: Mean score of students’ perception towards using concept mapping in writing class 50 Table 4.8: The paired t-test to compare the difference between the mean scores of pretest and posttest 52 Table 4.9: The paired t-test to compare the difference between mean scores of pretest and posttest regarding five subscales 54 x APPENDIX 15 SAMPLE LESSON PLAN UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA Lesson 4: Describing a film I Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - Make use of visual technique for pre-writing stage to write a paragraph of 100-120 words about a film II Teaching aids: - Paper and pencil (computers with Inspiration 9) - Post-it notes - A white board (large screen TV) would be handy to illustrate a concept map III Procedure: Stages Warm-up Activities Interaction WARM-UP: Matching (5’) T↔Ss Science fiction film Cartoon P.27 Action film War film Love story film Detective film Lead-in: Have you ever seen those films? In our lesson today, we’re going to write about some kinds of film Pre-writing Activity 1: Answering questions (35’) - T ask Ss to work in pairs and answer the question Ss in task - T calls on some Ss to give their answers T↔Ss - T gives feedback Activity 2: Concept mapping - T asks Ss to define the focus question and some concepts about their favorite film T↔Ss -T asks Ss to arrange key concepts from general to specific - T has Ss construct their preliminary concept maps and add linking phrases in a way that makes sense to them - T has Ss look for cross-links - T ask Ss to review their concept maps Activity 3: Concept maps exhibition Ss↔Ss - T has Ss post their concept maps on the wall - T lets Ss move around and place their sticky notes with feedback on each concept map T - T gives feedback Drafting (15’) - T asks Ss to write their first draft individually, using their concept maps - T offers help if needed P.28 Ss - T gets Ss to exchange their drafts, give their Peer evaluating comments and hand back to their friends (10’) - T reminds Ss to use Editing Checklist as a Ss↔Ss reference Revising - T asks Ss to review their writing Ss (10’) EDITING CHECKLIST CONCEPT MAP WRITING Does your concept map have a Content title (focus question)? Does your concept map have appropriate number of - Is all the information relevant to the topic? Organization concepts? - Do the most inclusive concepts appear at the top of your concept map and the most specific concepts - Do you use connectors where necessary? Do you start with an introductory sentence? Do you include a closing arranged at the bottom? Do your links have arrowheads to show the direction? sentence? Vocabulary - Do you use correct word form/ choice? Do your links have labels (words/ phrases)? Do the propositions make sense? Does it well-organized? Language use - Do you use correct form of tenses/ word order/ articles/ prepositions? Mechanics - Do you use correct punctuation/ capitalization? - Do you check spelling? P.29 APPENDIX 16 PAPER-AND-PENCIL CONCEPT MAPS UNIT 3: PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND UNIT 3: PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND P.30 UNIT 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION UNIT 7: THE MASS MEDIA P.31 UNIT 7: THE MASS MEDIA P.32 APPENDIX 17 COMPUTER-BASED CONCEPT MAPS UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD P.33 UNIT 12: MUSIC UNIT 12: MUSIC P.34 UNIT 12: MUSIC UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA P.35 UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA P.36 UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA SNOW WHITE AND SEVEN DWARFS P.37 APPENDIX 18 TRAINING SESSIONS 2013 CONCEPT MAPPING TRAINING SESSIONS Nguyen Truong Quynh Trang P.38 TRAINING SESSION GIỚI THIỆU VỀ BẢN ĐỒ KHÁI NIỆM (CONCEPT MAPS) Nguyen Truong Quynh Trang Bản đồ khái niệm (concept maps) Bản đồ khái niệm công cụ đồ họa dùng để xếp kiến thức, bao gồm khái niệm mối quan hệ khái niệm Các khái niệm liên kết với đường nối Các từ đường nối gọi từ nối hay cụm từ nối, rõ mối liên hệ hai khái niệm tạo mệnh đề Cấu trúc đồ khái niệm Khái niệm (concepts): rhinos, five different types, heavy bodies, four short legs… Cụm từ nối (linking phrases): have, run, eat, with… Mệnh đề (proposition): e.g Rhinos have heavy bodies Cross-links (Các liên kết) Các bước xây dựng đồ khái niệm Xác định câu hỏi trọng tâm Xác định khái niệm Sắp xếp khái niệm theo hướng phân cấp (khái niệm chung đặt phía – chi tiết đặt phía dưới) Thêm vào cụm từ nối khái niệm Tìm kiếm liên kết miền Chỉnh sửa lại đồ P.39 Exercise 1: Arrange these concepts from more general to more specific and add linking word a Daisy help hard-working friendly beautiful girl good at play badminton maths long hair small house bright eyes scholarship read books b Dalat city Lam Dong province popular 170 C “Stream of the Lat” wine-making industry tourists Waterfalls and lakes tourist destination orchids and roses Exercise 2: Make a list of 10-12 concepts relating to the topic Your birthday party Your favourite film Exercise 3: Construct your own concept map with the above concepts P.40 TRAINING SESSION Exercise 1: Read the article about the ostrich and then build a computer-based concept map: THE OSTRICH The ostrich is the largest bird in the world, and an adult can be more than 90 kilos Most wild ostriches live in Southern Africa, but there are only a few of them left Like all birds, ostriches have wings, but they cannot fly They use their wings to help them turn when they are running Ostriches can run very fast, from 65 to 90 kilometers an hour, so it is very difficult for other animals to catch them Baby ostriches are the same size as chickens and take about years to become adults Ostriches eat plants and can live for many days without water Exercise 2: Read the story “Snow White and seven dwarfs” and then build a computer-based concept map: SNOW WHITE AND SEVEN DWARFS Once upon a time, there was a lovely princess who had fair skin and blue eyes She lived with her father and a cruel stepmother in a big castle The queen became jealous of Snow White’s beauty She asked a huntsman to kill Snow White in the dark forest But the huntsman let her go Snow White found a little house where seven dwarfs was living They loved Snow White and they all lived happily together One day, The queen discovered Snow White was still alive She changed into a witch and made a poisoned apple Snow White bit the apple and fell into a deep sleep The prince was going past the cottage when he found her He kissed her Snow White woke up Prince married Snow White and they lived happily ever after P.41