Using the mindmap in teaching the relative pronouns for the students in class 11a2 in quan son high school

PART I THE INTRODUCTION I THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME English plays an important role in life nowadays If we can communicate well in English, we will have an opportunity to get a great deal of benefits, a well-paid job, an oversea study slot and access to new civilization Correspondently with the development of science and technology, the demand of learning English is dramatically increasing The government as well as the locals have been paying great attention to teaching and learning English all over our country In Thanh Hoa province, teachers of English have been enabled to attend a lot of workshops and courses so that they widen their professional knowledge and renovate their teaching methods and share valuable experiences with collegues and even lecturers in universities All are aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning English in the local Teachers, therefore, are obliged to find out new tecniques to make the lesson more interesting and easier to understand Teaching methods which must increase the initiative and creation of students are applied fexibly in high schools In the same way, teaching grammartical points should have something new, more colorful and intriguing In this school year I have spent much time on finding out the best way to help my students in Quan Son high school learn English grammar effectively And I have chosen relative pronouns as the main points for my research Relative pronoun is not a very difficult part in English grammar but very important in English tests and exams Making right option for each question related to is really valuable for students because it is directly proportional to the mark they will get for the test Hence both teachers and students need to take advantage of it to get little mark That’s why I have made a decision to teach the topic “relative pronouns” in a new way And I choose the theme: “Using the mindmap in teaching the relative pronouns for the students in class 11A2 at Quan Son high school.” for my research in school year 2019-2020 I hope my finding will make differences when teaching this popular topic II THE PURPOSE OF THE INITIATIVE The purpose of this theme is to find out a suitable method which helps students learn relative pronouns the most effectively, understand the usage of each pronoun and can flexibly apply them in real situations and get maximum mark in each English test Moreover, both teachers and students can apply this method in teaching and learning other grammartical points This contributes to increasing concentration of student, developing logical memory and eliciting learners’ curosity It means that students are attentively engaged in the lesson, work with excitement without being under pressure of study Because they can naturally memorize the structure without any attempt of learning by heart Moreover, working in groups motivates the team spirit, helps students share one another and assist each other in group In fact, they both study and relax in the same time so the lesson is not stressful but interesting After the lesson, students can list all the relative clauses and their usage at once III THE REEARCHED SUBJECTS When researching this theme, I watn to concentrate on students who comes from mountainous areas such as Quan Son, Lang Chanh, Ba Thuoc districts in the West of Thanh Hoa province Because it’s them that have difficulty in learning languages, lack of objectives of learning and even hortage of a good environment to learn English Few of them have a good command of English For them, English is considered as one of the hardest subjects in the national curriculum So it’s far difficult to attract them to learn English lessons As the result, the rate of students who get bad marks in exams has been rather high This raises serious questions for the educators and especially English teachers in Thanh Hoa province This urges me to make effort to something and improve the situations In the limited scale of this initiative, I mainly focus on the students in grade 11A2 at Quan Son high school And then I will widen to apply to teaching other ones in our school the next school years PART II THE CONTENT I.THE THEORICAL FOUNDATION OF THIS THEME English as a compulsory subject is aimed at preparing the students to develop science, technology and culture, and making them competent and good citezens who are ready to participate in the national development This subject included four skills equally However grammartical points take up the geater proportion of mark of a test or exam for high school students Therefore, it is very important to master English grammar and prepare all well for each lesson Nowadays, mindmap is a rather new technique for useful for students In the teaching-learning process, mind mapping is very important to help students to automatically inspire interest in them, thus making thme more receptive and cooperative in the classroom They make lessons and presentations more creative and enjoyable both for the teachers and the students Mindmap is one of new teaching techniques which can be used in numerous aspects mathematics, history, physics …ect A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically without worrying about order and structure It allows you to visually structure your ideas to help with analysis and recall A mind map is a diagram for representing tasks, words, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around a central concept or subject using a non-linear graphical layout that allows the user to build an intuitive framework around a central concept A mind map can turn a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain's natural way of doing things Therefore, mindmap is an powerful tool for teaching English grammar It allows learner to brianstorm related things intelligently It activates learner’s creation and activeness It also helps children logically think, impact their brain positively So it is necessary to use mindmaps in teaching English as well as other subjects to make big difference between new and one method Moreover, relative pronoun is a main point of grammar which is rather suitable to be taught with colorful lines, shapes and maps This makes it possible to have a successful lesson with all purposed achieved II THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE THEME Although most teachers of English seem to apply new teaching methods in teaching English grammar, it is still a controversial topic among educators to choose the most suitable one to teaching English grammar for their own students And they recognize the important role of teaching English topics at school because its effect will be reflected in the result of the exam which both educatioal managers and students’ parents always care It can’t be denied that mastering English grammar will improve learning effect and learners’ school report Since structures take up a drammartically great rate in each test or exams There have been a lot of ways to teach English grammar such as giving structures, rules and practice, using pictures or showing some situations …etc However, these methods remains some drawbacks, students have to take notes a lot, the lesson takes much time and it’s so confusing for students can understand and remember systematically Furthermore, students have an inappropriate learning habit that is learning by heart structures and vocabularies which they may forget right after closing their books because they not know how to apply them in real situations as well as not knowing how to logically analise the core of the matter Therefore, teachers need to find out an alternative measurement which encourages students’ creation and initiative in learning English grammar To achieve the objective, teachers themselves have to dedicate whole time to modifying the lesson so that the content is not only interesting but also simple and easy to understand So I want to share a new method to aid the teaching more effective That is using the mindmap in teaching English grammar in general And in this initiative, I used mindmaps to guide students to learn relative pronouns With the theme, I hope to help reduce difficulty in teaching English structures and enable students to show off their intelectual ability and accumulate knowledge actively III THE METHODS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM When researching this theme, I have studied the role of mindmaps in teaching generally and in motivating learners’creation, deduction and systematical memory in particular Besides, I also asked my friends and collegues for help We have worked together to find out the advanges and the disadvanages of this technique from which we draw experienced lessons for the later studies In short, I have used the following methods - Reading the reference books related to teaching English grammars - Surf the internet to discover ways to create suitable mindmap and use them effectively in teaching English - Asking the collegues for advice and help - Conducting real surveys on students in my school and changes the ways of teaching in time - Investigating and estimating the result of each survey so as to find out useful tips and experiences IV.THE CONTENT OF THE INITIATIVE WHAT IS A MINDMAP? A mind map is a diagram for representing tasks, words, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around a central concept or subject using a non-linear graphical layout that allows the user to build an intuitive framework around a central concept A mind map can turn a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with our brain's natural way of doing things.A mind map can be used as a simplified content management system It allows us to store all our data in a centralized location to stay organized With the various mind mapping software programs out today, we can attach files to different branches for even more flexibility We can also change to various different views in order to find one that suits our purpose best HOW TO CREATE A MINDMAP? 2.1 Determine your central topic The most important step in creating a powerful mind map is to have a relevant central topic A mind map is utilized to explore and further elaborate a certain main topic placed in the core of the mind map that later will be mapped out in a number of topics and subtopics Mind maps resemble trees with many branches and sub-branches so imagine that our central idea is the core of the tree that holds together all the branches and sub-branches 2.2 Branch out the map The topics or so-called ‘branches’ are an integral part of mind maps They are used to define the most important areas about a certain topic To put it in perspective, a mind map that in the center has the key subject ‘Travel Plan’ could span out in branches that cover the essentials about planning a traveling – itinerary, accommodation, budget, transport, and agenda However, the list of branches should be determined according to one’s needs, and this is what makes mind maps flexible, versatile and transformative 2.3 Expand the branches with sub-branches Once we have expanded your central topic in different topics, it’s time to split those further into sub-topics or so-called sub-branches It may sound confusing but, it’s actually very simple – you have a central idea that spreads in different topics that further develop in sub-topics Every branch is connected to its sub-branches and all of them, together, elaborate the main idea put in the center 2.4 Elaborate and grow the sub-branches The sub-branches are what makes a mind map complete in terms of content In other words, if we leave our topics general and unelaborated, our mind map won’t be as much powerful as it should We have to always focus on expanding the mind map and its topics until you are sure that there is nothing left to add to a certain branch.Radiate out the map with ideas and associations of all the information we know and every idea you have on your mind that correlates with the main subject Once you are finished adding branches and sub-branches, we can go onto the more creative steps - decorating the map with different colors and images which will make it bold and eye-catching 2.5 Choose a font and start coloring the mind map A mind map becomes a powerful tool once we give its content a suitable font and we embellish the topics and sub-topics with different striking colors We can use any solfware to add as many colors and shades as we like to our mind map in order to make it unique and personal The software is versatile enough to allow us to color-customize each branch and sub-branch of our mind map according to your personal preferences.The role of the colors is not only to make our map more attractive It has been found that colors have a beneficial impact on people’s memorizing skills To be more precise, several studies have shown that people have a greater ability to memorize and recall a certain color than a word Therefore, using diverse colors when creating a mind map is always a good idea as it will help you to memorize information more easily as you will connect that information with a color 2.6 Add visuals to the topics and subtopics Once our mind map is expanded and all relevant topics and sub-topics are emphasized with an array of different colors, we can continue with the next step, which may be the most interesting one – putting images and/or symbols to the content As we specified earlier, colors help in memorizing things more easily, but when attached to color and content, visuals provide even greater benefit for the brain Images and symbols that are associated with a certain concept or an idea can help to memorize and recall information better 2.7 Add a background image to the mind map After finishing all previous steps and creating a mind map with branches and sub-branches and decorating them with different colors, images, and symbols, it is time to add a background image or pattern that will accentuate the content and make the mind map a statement piece.When choosing an image as a background, we should always look for a style that will correspond to the main idea or topic of our map Inserting background pictures make mind maps more engaging and appealing to the eye, which is the reason why this step is important and shouldn’t be overlooked 2.8 Share or present our mind map We have come to the last piece of the puzzle – sharing and presenting our mind map Whether we create a mind map for ourselves or to present it to our friends or colleagues or students, we should strive to make it as appealing as possible The more effort we put into creating a mind map that is worth to be presented the more we will benefit from it.The mind mapping technique is a creative and engaging alternative for the PowerPoint presentations because it enables us to visually present ideas and information in a different format which always sparkles the audience’s interest So it is useful for teaching in the class 3.APPLYING TO TEACHING RELATIVE PRONOUNS A.GRAMMAR 1.The ralative pronouns English Use a mindmap to brainstorm all the relative pronouns the lesson on the board: 2.The usage of each relative pronouns 2.1.Usage of the relative pronoun: “Which” Use the mindmap to elicit all the matters ralated to “Which” and specific example as the picture below: 2.2The usage of the relative pronoun: “whom” -Show the usage of whom and give some examples to clarify its role, fuction in the clause 2.3The usage of the relative pronoun: “who” 2.4The usage of the relative pronoun: “whose” 2.5.The usage of the relative pronoun: “that” 2.6.The usage of the relative adverb: “when” 2.7.The usage of the relative adverb: “where” 2.8.The usage of the relative adverb: “why” -Used to explain a reason, WHY Function as “for which” E.g I don’t know the reoson WHY/ FOR WHICH she lost her job -Followed by a subject Some notes related to relative pronouns 10 Some tips used to applied exercises Example The stories she told us are funny Step The stories (thing) she told us are funny Step The stories (thing) She (S) told us are funny Step The stories WHICH She told us are funny 5.Some kinds of exercise related to relative pronouns -Eliciting students to find out all kind of exercise they have met about relative pronouns Make a mindmap on the board as the flowwing image: 11 B PRACTICE 1.Some applied questions in real examinaion in recent years As mentioned in the research, relative pronoun is a popular topic in English test or exam at all level I believe that after the lesson with useful tips and experiences, my students will have right option to have better result These are some examples in real examinations in our coubntry lately * The question in the GCSE 2016, code 168 Question 32 The science of medicine, which progress has been very rapid A B C lately, is the most important of all sciences D * The question in the GCSE 2017, code 402 Question The people _live in this village are very friendly A Who B where C which D when * The question in the GCSE 2018 12 In Atlanta, in the US, this has even led t thunderstorms 24 occur in the morning rather than, as is more common, in the afternoon Question 24.A.when B what C which D where * The question in the model test 2019 The biggest criticism levedled at social networking is that young people are losing their friends to online friends 26 are unable to provide the same deep connection and emotional support Question 26 A what B who C which D whom *.The question in the first model test 2020 The primary aim of ecotourism is to educate the traveller and bring him or her closer to nature Participants are given the chance to visit parts of the world 25 _ are untouched by human intervention and to engage in conservation work and various other kinds of environmental projects… Question 25.A who B that C when D why *.The question in the second model test 2020 ….They can alson provide reasurance to people _27 _ are alone in dangerous situations … Question 27 A which B when C where D who Some applied exercises in textbook English UNIT THE POST OFFICE – ENGLISH 11 PART E :Language focus Exercise Explain what the words below mean, using the phrased from the box Guiding students to create a mindmap basing on the task And these are some hints for the map: -Central idea: is someone who -branches out: + a burglar + a customer + a shoplifter + a coward + a tenant And this is the product: a mindmap with a central idea, branches 13 Exercise Complete each sentence, using who, whom or whose In the same way, teachers explain the intruction and ask students to find out the central idea of the mindmap and develop branches as well as sub-branches And these are the answers: - Central idea: Gap-filling - Branches: who, whom and whose -Sub- branches: the answers Let’s look at the product 14 Exercise Join the sentences, using who, that, which I guide student to make a mindmap about steps to the exercise, and then create their own mindmap 15 And then divide the class into groups to the task This is the answer of the students Exercise Join the sentences below using who, whose or which -In the same way of the exerise 3, students give their product mindmap as below: 16 And then students can finish their own mindmaps with their excitement without pressure of studying PART III CONCLUSION In conclusion, the advantages of implementing the mind mapping technique in your everyday routine are enormous We can use mindmaps in almost lessons, in all subjects For English, I use mindmaps to teach vocabularies, grammar and even when checking old lesson It can’t be dinied that it is really an useful tool which helps me a lot in teaching Everyone could become a mind map user or, for that matter, a mind map master All you need is an appropriate mind mapping software to get started.Starting from brainstorming and note-taking to project or event planning, studying and public speaking or presenting, the mind maps can help you stimulate both the creative and logical way of thinking and encourage you to let your ideas and thoughts flow freely If used in the right way, mind mapping will surely stimulate your creative thinking and allow you to solve problems more effectively You just need to follow all the previous steps we included in this guide and you will be closer to becoming the master of mind mapping Be based on what we have done in our school, I have to admit that the interest of students in English increases clearly The asmostphere of each lesson makes students comfortable and relax They have chance to learn and play They are not limited in class scale but free to show their ideas and abilities The 17 position estimate has been recorded as a clear evidence for what I have been mentioning in the research During the school year, I have conducted a lot surveys And this is surveys conducted with the students coming from class 11A2 in my school The first survey with students in grade 11A2 in September (when the technique was applied) 1-5 points 5-8 pionts 8-10 points Total students 25 13 40 The second survey conducted in March 1-5 points 5-8 pionts 8-10 points Total 20 18 40 The third time conducted in May 1-5 points 5-8 pionts 8-10 points Total 15 20 40 Although the improvement is not very outstanding, it is a positive evidence for teaching and studying foreign language in a mountainous school like Quan Son I hope that this model will be applied in all the schools in our province to activate learners’ intelligence and excitement If it is done from Primary shool, I believe that the result will be empressive! The advantages -Mindmaps allow students to brainstorm theories in a strange way without worrying about orders It helps students list what they have learn organically and fully, it assists them a lot in analyse and recall -Students can memorise what they have learnt quickly, not word by word, but only the number of branches and draw out anything they have been taught This encourages them to master English grammar in a logical way and never forget as the traditional learning way -Mindmap can flexiblly be applied in teaching Grammar and communicative skills, it is making positive differences in teaching and learning so I myself will take advanges of it in my lesson so that my job is more intriguing and effective 2.The disadvantages -Due to the limited time, the theme hasn’t been widely applied in all classes in the school year Besides that , there has been a lot of troubles caused by coronavirus recently, I actually can’t focus on the research completely.So the initiative may exist some drawback - Some students did not cooperate well during the lesson, so teachers always have to try best to achieve the initial purpose - To create lively mindmap for each lesson and applying exercises for students to practice, teachers must prepare the lesson carefully in advance, and observe totally all the groups in the class So that we can give a help properly and reduce learning pressure Some suggestions 18 - In order to enable for students to learn English well, the management of schools need to pay much attention to learning foreign language by adding necessary equipments for learning English; building professional room, lab, - Schools also have to create a good opportunity for the teachers of English meet each other and exchange experience, and teaching method Mastering English grammar is an essential requirement of English learners And it is better for the teacher to divide in to small topic So that students can focus and distinguish the usage obviously With perfect gerund and infinitive form of verbs is the same Students certainly have difficulty if we only base on the designed exercise in the textbook without widening with specific explanation and practice test Our long – term purpose of learning English is communicating with the others But the short-term one is rather crucial In each test or examination, students can meet hundreds of English patterns, It’s better for them to answer precisely what they have already known Therefore, giving students careful preparation is really important This contributes to increasing the effect of learning as well as the result of the test and exam With limited experience, I hope to help friends and colleagues teach English with high effect, especially when preparing for students before examinations Surely my analization of theme remains certain mistakes, I hope to be shared and remarked by all readers Thank you very much! XÁC NHẬN CỦA HIỆU TRƯỞNG Quan Sơn, ngày tháng năm 2020 Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Nguyễn Thị Thu 19 TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO 1.Ngữ pháp giải thích ngữ pháp tiếng Anh, tác giả Vũ Thị Mai Phương, nhà xuất Hồng Đức 2.English Grammar In Use, tác giả Raymon Murphy, dịch giải Trần Mạnh Tường, nhà xuất Hồng Đức Bộ đề thi THPT Tiếng Anh, tác giả Vĩnh Bá, nhà xuất ĐHQG Hà Nội phần mềm tạo sơ đồ tư Iminmap7, Xmind Trang web: https://www.tienganh123 20 DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Thu Chức vụ đơn vị công tác: Tổ trưởng chuyên môn – giáo viên Tiếng Anh TT Tên đề tài SKKN Phương pháp giảng dạy mệnh đề quan hệ cho học sinh lớp 12A2, 12A3, 12A4 trường THPT Quan Sơn Phương pháp giảng dạy mẫu câu tiếng Anh lớp 12A2 trường THPT Quan Sơn Hướng dẫn học sinh trường THPT Quan Sơn làm tốt dạng tập ngữ âm “Guiding students in Quan Son high school to improve their communicating their skill through the activities of school English speaking club” Cấp đánh giá xếp loại (Phòng, Sở, Tỉnh ) Kết đánh giá Năm học đánh xếp loại giá xếp loại (A, B, C) Sở GD&ĐT C 2010-2011 Sở GD&ĐT C 2011-2012 Sở GD&ĐT C 2012-2013 Sở GD&ĐT C 2016-2017 21 ... situations In the limited scale of this initiative, I mainly focus on the students in grade 11A2 at Quan Son high school And then I will widen to apply to teaching other ones in our school the next school. .. the teaching more effective That is using the mindmap in teaching English grammar in general And in this initiative, I used mindmaps to guide students to learn relative pronouns With the theme,... 3.APPLYING TO TEACHING RELATIVE PRONOUNS A.GRAMMAR 1 .The ralative pronouns English Use a mindmap to brainstorm all the relative pronouns the lesson on the board: 2 .The usage of each relative pronouns