Ứng dụng thủ thuật sơ đồ tư duy giúp học sinh tổ chức ý tưởng cho bài viết tại trung tâm trí huy

STUDENT DECLARATION I declare that this study is original and has not been submitted for assessment elsewhere I declare that this study is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion I give my consent for the electronic version to be examined by relevant plagiarism software programs I have made a photocopy or electronic copy of my study, which I can produce if the original is lost for any reason Dated: January 5th, 2017 Signed: NGUYEN THI NGOC ANH i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper would not have been completed without the support of many people, to all of whom I am profoundly indebted In the first place, I would like to express my very deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.Prof Nguyen Van Do, who has allowed me to carry out this research and guided me patiently during the process of accomplishing this graduation paper In addition, I would like to give a special thanks to all of my lecturers at PostGraduate Faculty, who instructed and gave us a great number of precious lessons serving as basic knowledge to carry out this research Besides, I would like to say thanks to all of my classmates at Post-Graduate Faculty, who willingly assisted me in terms of spirit and shared previous experience, which helped me avoid drawbacks and shortcomings during study process Last but not least, this graduation paper could not be achieved without the support and encouragement of all teachers of English and my dearest students at Tri Huy Learning Center Thanks to all of them, I could conduct the research without facing up to any severe difficulties Although I have made my greatest efforts to finish this graduation paper, I believe that there are many shortcomings remaining Therefore, I hope there will be critiques and suggestions for the completion of this graduation paper so that it will be useful for me, the readers, and the further researchers in the years to come Ha noi, January 5th, 2017 The Writer Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh ii Abstract This is a classroom action research aimed at identifying whether the use of Mind Mapping strategy was effective in improving the students’ writing achievement In addition, the second purpose of the research is to describe the process of teaching writing through Mind Mapping The research was conducted over six lessons at Tri Huy Learning Center (THLC) in the academic year of 2016 – 2017 and the target population consisted of 30 students in Grade 10 The paper-based questionnaires were delivered to students to explore the situation of the research problem Informal interviews with the students were then conducted to get their ideas about applying the new teaching and learning method During the lessons, it did not seem to be difficult for students to follow the teaching-learning process In particular, they showed their excitement and interest in the lesson Employing the data analysis, the writer comes to a conclusion that students at Tri Huy Learning Center can improve their writing skills through mind mapping Keywords: Mind Mapping, Writing, Writing Skills,… iii Table of Contents STUDENT DECLARATION ………………………………… …i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………… … .ii ABSTRACT …………………………………………… …… iii TABLE OF CONTENT …………………………………… … iv LIST OF FIGURES ……………………………………… vi INTRODUCTION ………… …………………………….…… 1 Rationale of the study ……………………………………… ……… ….… Aims of the study …………………………………………………………….…3 Research questions …………………………………………………………… Scope of the study ……………………………………………………… … The Significance of the Research …………………………… …………… Methods of the study……………………………………………………… … Thesis Organization………………………………………………………… CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW………………… … 1.1 Writing …………………………………………… ………… …………… 1.1.1 Definitions of Writing ……………………………… ………………… … … 1.1.2 Definition of Writing skills ………………………………………………… 1.2 Mind mapping …………………………………………………… … ….9 1.2.1 Definitions of Mind mapping…………………… ……………………….…… …9 1.2.2 How to create mind mapping ………………………………………………… ….11 1.2.3 The Use of Mind mapping in classroom …………………………………… ….17 1.2.4 The difference between mindmapping and modeling for teaching writing 18 1.2.5 Theoretical background………………………………………………… …… 19 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY……………………… ….…21 2.1 Research setting……………………………………………… ……… ….21 2.1.1 General description of Tri Huy Learning Center (THLC) and the teaching and learning of English……………………………….………………………………… …21 2.1.2 Teachers of English and students at THLC ……… …………………….… …21 2.1.3 The materials……………………………….………………………………… …22 2.1.4 The Setting of Time………………………………………………………….… 22 2.2 Research Methodology ……………………………… ……………… … 22 iv 2.3 Participants ………………………………… ………………………… ….23 2.4 Implementation of the Action Research ………………………………….….23 2.5 Research design ……………………………………… ………………… 24 2.6 Data collection instruments …………………………………………… … 27 2.6.1 Questionnaires ……………………………………… ……………….…… … 27 2.6.2 Informal Interviews …………………………… ……………………….…… 28 2.6.3 Student’s writing samples……………………………………………… …… 28 2.7 Data collection procedures…………………………………….………… 28 2.8 Data analysis procedures ………………………….………….……….… 29 CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………… ….… 30 3.1 Results of Survey questionnaire ………… …………………… …… ….30 3.1.1 Figure - Interest towards mind mapping …………………………… …….… 30 3.1.2 Figure 2- Usage of mind mapping …………………………………… …….… 31 3.1.3 Figure 3- Anxiety in preparing the test …………………………… ………… 32 3.1.4 Figure - Using mind mapping to write a lot of topics………………………… 34 3.1.5 Figure - Relating new information to the old……………………………… … 35 3.2 Informal interviews ………………………….…… ………………….…….36 3.2.1 The first question……………………………………………………………… 36 3.2.2 The second question ………………………………………………………………36 3.2.3 The third question……………………………………………………………… 37 3.2.4 The fourth question…………………………………………………………… …38 3.3 Findings and discussion ……………………………………………… ……39 CLOSURE……………………………………… …………… 41 Conclusion …………………………………………………… ………….….41 Difficulties during the study process ………………………………… …… 42 Suggestion………………………………………………… …………….… 43 3.1 To Teacher………………………………………………………………… ………43 3.2 To Students …………………………………………………………………………43 3.3 To further researchers ………………………………………………………………44 REFERENCES … ………………………………… … ………I APPENDICE Appendix A: Questionnaire ……………………….………………………… …III Appendix B: Questions for Informal Interview ……………………………… IV Appendix C: Lesson plan Sample ……………………………… ………………VI v LIST OF TABLE Table 1: The schedule of the action implementation…………….25 LIST OF FIGURE Figure - Interest towards mind mapping …………… …….…30 Figure 2- Usage of mind mapping ………………………….… 32 Figure - Anxiety in preparing the test …………………… ….35 Figure - Using mind mapping to write a lot of topics…………36 Figure - Relating new information to the old……………….…37 vi INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study It can’t be denied that writing as well as other language skills plays an important part in language teaching and learning process Without writing, the learners not know how to write even informal letters to their relatives, birthday cards for their friends or Curriculum Vitae helping them apply for jobs More seriously, great works of literature, scientific reports, famous learning skill books, as well as textbooks cannot be recorded and transmitted from generation to generation Like other skills, writing is considered one of the most significant connecting devices which help us exchange information, communicate, and update news or events occurring throughout the world every day Only with a double click will we receive thousands of results relating to what we want to know under written form in a very short time, even less than one second Due to the importance of writing skill, people have a tendency to show more concern about this issue and make attempts to find out a lot of different new approaches and techniques to meet the learner’s need Accordingly, the questions of which is suitable to most of the learners and how to teach writing effectively are catching a mixed variety of attention from not only linguistic professionals but also learners all over the world Nevertheless, many language learners claim that it is too difficult for them to write in another language and they regard it as the most complicated language skills to be learned, in comparison with other language skills Heaton (1988: 135) asserts that “Writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical device but also of conceptual and judgmental elements” Therefore, if learners want to master writing skill, they need to master both grammatical norms and have ability to use correctly at least 2000 word families As a matter of fact, in addition to being full of grammatical mistakes and lacking vocabulary and structures, another serious problem emerging in Vietnamese learners’ writing skill is that many of them not know how to organize or arrange ideas for their writings They often write all possible ideas in their mind using their own experience in those given topics without outlining Occasionally, they also write what they understand about the topics in Vietnamese employing a lot of Vietnamese common words, then translate into English, and regard it as perfect version By this way, they use Vietnamese way of thinking to perceive the topics in another language without understanding anything about that of native speakers Nevertheless, it may take time to choose the most beautiful words and complicated structures, which accidentally make them forget time pressure required in writing process In addition, choosing the wrong words in translation process is unavoidable and simultaneously they have difficulty in finding English equivalent terms as well In fact, they are learning English; therefore, they need to follow British or American straightforward way of thinking Their writings will not be appreciated by foreign examiners in international standard exams like IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC and so on because of lacking control of length as well as time and using a large amount of difficult and strange vocabulary Another point is that traditional teaching methods are commonly used in English classes in Vietnam Teachers usually supply students with particular topics and some vocabulary cues and ask them to write the content From my own experiences, teachers mainly focus on spotting grammatical mistakes that students make and asking for corrections without paying attention to teaching them how to organize the content, because they believe this is the best way to improve students writing skills Accordingly, students begin to be mistaken that the greatest written assignments are those which contain the fewest grammatical mistakes instead of having good content Nevertheless, it becomes further noticeable by some teachers that the students’ results in writing assessments which rely heavily on correctness of grammar and spelling only were not a true measure of students writing abilities As a result, students begin to face up to difficulties in developing their ideas and producing meaningful text, focusing more on the mechanical structure of the written piece To deal with it, many new techniques and strategies have been applied, and they have soon become phenomena in learning and teaching writing process And, mind mapping strategy is one of them According to Tony Buzan, mind mapping is the most excellent tool helping mind to think regularly (Buzan, 2006:4) He claims that not only Mind Maps show facts, but also show the overall structure of a subject and the relative importance of individual parts of it It helps students to associate ideas, think creatively, and make connections that might not otherwise make (Tony Buzan, 2010) Using color pencils, pictures, images connected by flexible lines may enable learners to become more creative and pay more attention to writing lessons Moreover, mind mapping can also help them narrow their given topics, generate and develop ideas more logically, not just listing all the things they have in mind without any certain orders To specify, it is one kind of teaching method that can be considered effective in writing activity and may raise learners’ motivation with visual illustration in order to upgrade their skills and get better achievement On account of the case above, the writer selects to conduct a research entitled “Using mind mapping to help students organize ideas for their writings at Tri Huy Center” with a view to finding out the improvement of this technique The author chose writing skills as a choice of doing research because of the fact that writing is the same importance as any other skills In addition, there have been a lot of researches carried out to measure the effectiveness of using mind mapping in teaching Listening skills, Vocabulary, and Reading skills; therefore, the author wanted to put more efforts into writing skills with a view to helping her own students improve these skills Last but not least, students at Tri Huy Learning Center mainly focus on grammatical rules and sometimes forget to develop other skills, which leads to their inefficiency in language skills Those are the reasons why the author made a decision to select writing skills as a theme of the study Aims of the study This study aims at: Finding out the improvement of writing skill of students at Tri Huy Learning Center (THLC) in the academic year of 2016-2017 through mind mapping Describing the process of teaching writing through mind mapping to students at THLC and making some suggestions on how to apply this technique in teaching and learning writing as well Research questions In order to address the aims of the study, the researcher can formulate the problem in this research as follow: To what extend does mind mapping improve writing skill of students at Tri Huy Learning Center (THLC) in the academic year of 2016-2017? How is the process of teaching writing skill using mind mapping to students at Tri Huy Learning Center (THLC) in the academic year of 2016-2017? Scope of the study First of all, due to the limitation of time and resources, the study could not cover all aspects in writing teaching and learning It only focused on the use of mind maps as one technique to teach writing Regarding the population of the study, students at Tri Huy Learning Center were the participants and respondents to trial lessons, survey questionnaires, and informal interviews In details, survey questionnaires were delivered to 30 students and out of these students chosen randomly were involved in informal interviews The Significance of the Research The writer expects that the research can prove the effectiveness of mind mapping technique in applying to teaching and learning writing process The researcher also hopes that the research of using mind-mapping strategy in teaching and learning writing skills will be beneficial for both teacher and students - For the Researcher: The researcher will understand more about the effectiveness of using mind mapping strategy improving students’ writing skills - For the Teacher: This research can enable the teacher to motivate students in learning writing by using visual illustration and help them create a link between the given topics and their background knowledge CLOSURE Conclusion The main objective of this study was to investigate whether mind mapping is effective to improve the students’ idea generation and organization in writing or not In this action research, the questionnaires and interviews were conducted to verify the theory The result of this study yields that the students who received mind mapping demonstrated higher quality in their idea development This finding is in agreement with earlier findings of Tony Buzan that mind mapping as a planning step is effective to improve student’s writing skill It can be clearly seen that linear notes cannot show the relationship among ideas and after brainstorming stage, students only have a number of unorganized ideas without associations and connections It is the spatial layout of Mind mapping that can help students gain a better overview and make new connections more visible; therefore, they can create an infinite number of thoughts, ideas, link, and association on any topic For this reason, mind mapping is claimed to enable student to generate new ideas in brainstorming sessions In light of the result of the research’s questionnaires, students show a positive attitude towards the technique According to the data presentation of research, there is a significant improvement in students’ writing skill after they got writing practice using mind mapping A large proportion of them agree that they enjoy generating ideas in writing by drawing mind maps and after learning how to use mind mapping in writing, they feel encouraged to study this skill Besides, they also admit that mind mapping is quite easy to use and they feel less stressful when encounter writing test Last but not least, students say that they can use the method to write a lot of topics and they want many more topics to be taught using mind mapping Also, in understanding the topic they can relate new information to their background knowledge In light of the result of the researcher’s informal interviews to the students, they actually enjoyed writing being taught using mind mapping because it is a funny and interesting strategy Although it is quite time-consuming as they have to try to give 41 the picture by drawing, most of them show interest in using this technique The positive attitude given by the students toward the implementation of mind mapping as a strategy in brainstorming ideas by confirming that it is fun and interesting shows that mind mapping can raise students’ motivation in learning writing The process of teaching and learning writing using mind mapping method is going smoothly and most of the students are enthusiastic to make hand writing using mind mapping with color pens It can be seen from the result of questionnaires and interviews that most of the students feel enjoyable and happy in the teaching and learning process It also can be proven that the students are active to answer some questions and create their own hand writing using mind mapping The implementation of mind mapping method in writing of the students at Tri Huy Learning Center can be done effectively The students can make their own writing project using their creativity Limitations during the study process When conducting the research, the first obstacle the researcher had to deal with was the uncooperative behavior of some students in writing class Some of them did not pay attention to what the teacher said by talking with their friends or looking outside Some of them sat without saying and doing anything Therefore, introduction of a new technique did not catch their fancy immediately To deal with this, the teacher showed several games using mind maps to the whole class to attract their attention These games were related to expressing the relationship among items or filling missing items in the incomplete maps to help them get started with the new method Secondly, there were few of the students who had known about the technique before it was introduced; therefore, the teacher had to recommend some mind mapping samples to assist them to have a general overview of how to construct a mind map Besides, some of the students argued that they were very bad at drawing pictures or creating colorful things To deal with this, the teacher suggest that they should use the simplest forms of mind maps such as lines, arrows or tree-shaped maps 42 Last but not least, the serious problem that the teacher had to encounter was students’ lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures Besides, some of them had many ideas about the given topics in Vietnamese but could not transfer them into English Some lacked general knowledge about the given topic as well as language competence; therefore, constructing a mind map was too difficult for them To deal with this, the teacher organized group work instead of individual work so that students can support each other in building up the ideas Furthermore, the teacher also gave them some necessary vocabulary and grammar structures to help them develop the ideas into complete paragraphs Suggestions Based on the result of the study and conclusion above, the writer would like to suggest as follow: 3.1 To Teacher Teacher should have one thousand ways to develop his students The findings of the present study suggest that Mind mapping can be one of alternative strategies in brainstorming ideas for students who get problems in writing skill Mind mapping can be something interesting and motivating for students, because they can express their creativity there especially drawing skill Using mind mapping can make students enjoy the learning It can remind their memory in their mind as well To deal with the weak point of being time-consuming, teachers should instruct students to use some mind map softwares such as Idraw Mind Map, Imindmap and some other softwares 3.2 To Students Students should always be active in teaching learning process They should study continually in the classroom and at their house They don’t need to be afraid to study English Mind mapping can help students to express their creativity and memory about something It appropriates to remind their memories about things to be described to be descriptive text, in this case is people and animal 43 3.3 To further researchers For the future researchers, the results of the study should also be complemented by further studies Some recommendations are directed to the future researchers by considering the limitation of this study First, it was stated earlier that the subjects of the current study were only 30 students of THLC In this connection, the study should be carried out in a greater dimension, in order that the effectiveness of Mind Mapping in writing could be further validated Second, this study only verified the effectiveness of students’ writing skill when using mind mapping in comparison with the traditional method With this regard, the study could be replicated with different strategies on the prewriting stage; for example, clustering, concept mapping, etc It may be another area that is worth investigating in relation to planning in writing A comparative research of the effectiveness of different planning strategies in writing might further shed light on the issue Next, this study is only limited to ask the students to write paragraphs on some easy topics to help them get started with the new method Therefore, replications are necessary with different types of writing and with different themes to see which type(s) of writing would benefit most from the use of this planning technique Finally, in terms of the design, this study adopted an action research design which lasted only for five meetings for applying the technique It is possible that the finding shows no significant difference with the other group because the length of the treatment is not enough It is suggested that the study be replicated with longer time As learning writing needs a relatively long time, it is also recommended that it remains to be established how students transfer the Mind Mapping into a structured and organized piece of writing by conducting case studies of the composing process of students for more in-depth observation and investigation 44 REFERENCES Al-Jarf, R (2009) Enhancing freshman students’ writing skills with a mindmapping software In Conference proceedings of» eLearning and Software for Education «(eLSE) (No 01, pp 375-382) Universitatea Nationala de Aparare Carol I Alamsyah, M (2009) KiatJituMeningkatkanPrestasiDengan Mind Mapping Yogyakarta :MitraPelajar Brown, D (2003) Language Assessment Principle and Classroom Practice San Francisco: United State of America Budd, John W (2004) Mind maps as classroom exercises Journal of Economic Education, 35, 1, 35 Buzan, T., & Buzan, B (1996) The mind map book New York: Penguin Books Buzan, T (2006) Mind Map Untuk Meningkatkan Kreativitas Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama Buzan, T (2010) BukuPintar Mind MappingUntukAnak Jakarta : PT GramediaPustakaUtama Diem, D (2011) Using mind maps and diagrams to teach vocabulary for first year mainstream students, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education Heaton, JB (1998) Writing English Language Test New York : Edinburg Gate Hedge, T (1988) Writing: Resource Books for Teachers Oxford University Press Hau, L (2013) Using mind mapping to help students at Thanh Hoa college of Agriculture and Forestry recycle vocabulary Hayes, David A (1992) A Sourcebook of interactive Methods for teaching with text United States of America Kurniawati, I (2011) Improving student’s vocabulary mastery through mindmapping strategy Linh, B Mind Mapping and Visualization Applications in Learning Consecutive Interpreting I Luchembe, D., Chinyama, K., & Jumbe, J (2014) The Effect of Using Concept Mapping on Student's Attitude and Achievement When Learning the Physics Topic of Circular and Rotational Motion European Journal of Physics Education, 5(4) Matthews, A et al (1985) At the Chalkface: Practical Techniques in Language Teaching London: Edward Arnold Ltd Ningrum, A S B., Latief, M A., & Sulistyo, G H (2016) The Effect of Mind Mapping on EFL Students’ Idea Development in Argumentative Writing across Gender Differences and Learning Styles Dinamika Ilmu: Jurnal Pendidikan, 16(1), 149-166 Purnomo, A (2014) Improving Descriptive Writing Skill Through Mind Mapping Technique (Classroom Action Research in th Grade Students of MTS Muhammadiyah Cekelan in the Academic Year 2013/2014) Suyanto, A (2010) THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MINDMAPPING TO TEACH WRITING SKILL VIEWED FROM THEIR IQ (An Experimental Study in the Seventh Grade Students of SMPN Prambon in the Academic Year 2009/2010) (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Sebelas Maret) Yuliasari, M (2011) Improving Students’ Reading Mastery through SemanticMapping Strategy Unpublished Graduating Paper Salatiga: Educational Faculty STAIN Salatiga II APPENDICE Appendix A: Questionnaire (1) Which skill will be your minor learning subject at your high school? Listening Speaking Reading Writing None Here are a number of statements that may describe how you feel about learning writing using mind mapping You are asked to rate each given statement by selecting a number from to The maning of these numbers is given below Strongly disagree; Disagree; Neutral; Agree; Strongly agree PART A: Interest towards mind mapping (1) I now enjoy generating ideas in writing by drawing mind maps (using color pens, pencils, eraser,…) Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ (2) After learning how to use mind mapping in writing, I feel encouraged to study this skill Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ Usage of mind mapping (1) I understand how to construct a mind map Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ III PART B: Anxiety in preparing the test (1) I felt comfortable preparing for the test Strongly disagree Strongly agree (2) I felt comfortable writing the test Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ PART C: Using mind mapping to write a lot of topics (1) I can use mind mapping when writing a lot of topics Strongly disagree Strongly agree (2) I want many more topics to be taught using mind mapping Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ PART D: Relating new information to the old (1) In understanding this topic I related new information to what I already knew Strongly disagree Strongly agree Give more information: _ _ Appendix B: Questions for Informal Interview Questions for Interview Interviewee Responses Do you have any difficulties in learning writing process? IV (Em có gặp khó khăn q trình học mơn viết luận tiếng Anh? Are you interested in using mind mapping strategy in learning writing skill? (Em có cảm thấy thích thú sử dụng phương pháp đồ tư kỹ viết luận không? Do you understand how to construct a mind map to deal with a writing topic? (Em có hiểu làm để tạo sơ đồ tư giải chủ đề viết luận không?) Has the use of mind mapping been a useful strategy to link between your background knowledge and the given topic? (Việc sử dụng sơ đồ tư có hữu ích việc kết nối kiến thức em với chủ đề giao?) V Appendix C: LESSON PLAN SAMPLE Teacher: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh Subject: English Writing Lesson date: 02/ 11/ 2016 Aims: - To find out the improvement of students’ writing skill at Tri Huy learning center in the academic year 2016-2017 through mind mapping - To describe the process of teaching writing using mind mapping to students at Tri Huy learning center in the academic year 2016-2017 Objects: 30 students learning at Tri Huy learning center in the academic year 20162017 Teaching materials: A0 papers, color chalk, writing sample,… Procedures Teacher’s activities Student’s activities Warm-up: Activity 1: Describe your best friend (10’) - Divide the students into groups - Arrange the words into suitable - Ask students to arrange the following places to make a full map to describe words into suitable places to make a full their best friends map to describe their best friends - Ask students to name their family - Name their family members and members and ask them “Who is the answer the question “Who is the person who you most admire?” (1’) person who you most admire?” - Activity 2: Rearrange the following - Rearrange the following clues to clues to make a complete paragraph make a complete paragraph (4’) VI (a) That she loves her own family is proved every day She wakes up before all the others and goes to bed last, so that everyone in the family can receive her care In everything that she does, there is a touch of love Even when she does the household chores, she tries her best to make sure that all family members are taken care of carefully If anyone in the family is ill, she is the one who is the most worried (b) For these reasons, my mother will always be the dearest person to me and my family (c) Of all the people in the world, I like my dear mother the most Everyone knows that mother’s love is the greatest in the world (d) I love her not only because what she has done but also how she behaves towards others She always respects my grandparents, treats us in a gentle and caring way and shows her politeness and friendliness to our relatives and neighbors Rearrange: _ VII - Read the above passage carefully and find out the main idea of each paragraph to help the teacher draw the mind map to describe the person in your family who you most admire Activity 3: Ask students to read the above passage carefully and find out the main idea of each paragraph and write the answer on the board (using color chalk to draw mind map to describe the person in your family who you most admire) (15’) - Ask students to write a paragraph about - Write a paragraph about the topic the topic “Describe the person in your “Describe the person in your family who you most admire.” (15’) family who you most admire.” - Collect student’s papers and give them - Hand in the papers homework as a post test - Do homework: “Make a mind - Homework: “Make a mind map and map and write a paragraph to write a paragraph to describe your describe your school where you are school where you are learning” learning” VIII ACTIVITY PAPER: Arrange the following words into suitable places to make a full map to describe their best friends a long thin face and long black hair always smile friendly and hospitable humorous beautiful eyes and attractive lips make friends easily always listen to other’s problems carefully tell funny stories relatively ideal height modest white skin and slim body never show off be good at study and sports never look down on others help many other classmates in study reliable be always by your side play jokes on others share sadness and joy with you never tell lies help his/ her family with household chores cheer you up encourage you to overcome all your straight nose troubles in life create memorable moments together in life IX Activity 2: Rearrange the following clues to make a complete paragraph (4’) (a) That she loves her own family is proved every day She wakes up before all the others and goes to bed last, so that everyone in the family can receive her care In everything that she does, there is a touch of love Even when she does the household chores, she tries her best to make sure that all family members are taken care of carefully If anyone in the family is ill, she is the one who is the most worried (b) For these reasons, my mother will always be the dearest person to me and my family (c) Of all the people in the world, I like my dear mother the most Everyone knows that mother’s love is the greatest in the world (d) I love her not only because what she has done but also how she behaves towards others She always respects my grandparents, treats us in a gentle and caring way and shows her politeness and friendliness to our relatives and neighbors Rearrange: _ X Activity 3: Draw a mind map to describe the person in your family you admire most OUTLINE Describe the person in your family who you most admire You should say:  What his/her relationship is to you (mother, father, grandmother,…)  What s/he has done in your life (his/ her behavior) - The way he/ she behaves towards you when you make mistakes; get good/ bad marks; disobey; something well… (scold/ advise slightly/ become angry/ keep silent/ praise/ encourage…) - The way he/ she take care of you and others (when someone is ill)  why you admire this person so much - What you learn from him/ her (respect to other people, politeness, sympathy, modesty, …) XI ... of students from many different high schools such as Thang Long high school, Truong Dinh high school, Doan Ket – Hai Ba Trung high school, Viet Duc high school and so on At THLC, several major... THLC are from many different high schools in Ha noi such as Thang Long high school, Truong Dinh high school, Doan Ket – Hai Ba Trung high school, Viet Duc high school and so on They come to THLC... organize ideas for their writings at Tri Huy Center” with a view to finding out the improvement of this technique The author chose writing skills as a choice of doing research because of the fact