Using mindmapping to improve essay writing skill for 12th grade learners m

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THI HANH USING MINDMAPPING TO IMPROVE ESSAY WRITING SKILL FOR 12TH GRADE LEARNERS MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION NGHE AN - 2016 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THI HANH USING MINDMAPPING TO IMPROVE ESSAY WRITING SKILL FOR 12TH GRADE LEARNERS Field: Theory and Methods of Teaching English Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Ngo Dinh Phuong NGHE AN - 2016 DECLARATION I, Phan Thi Hanh, certify that the thesis entitled “ Using mind mapping to improve the essay writing skill for 12th grade learners” is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any universities or institutions Nghe An, 2016 Phan Thi Hanh i ABSTRACT The principal objective of the study was to investigate the impact of applying Mind Mapping technique as a pre-writing tool on enhancement of organization (as the major purpose) and overall quality of 12 grade learners’ essay writing To so, 80 students at the same level were divided into two experimental and control groups Prior to treatment, participants of the both groups were given a pretest in order to ensure comparability of their essay writing skill Having introduced the mind mapping technique to members of the experimental group and finished the treatment period, a posttest were administered to measure the effect of the intervention During the treatment period, participants were instructed how to make mind maps work in brainstorming and organising ideas,and finally creating a wellorganized piece of writing The findings were analyzed and the results showed improvement in essay writing ability of the experimental group ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To fulfill this thesis I have been fortunate to receive support and assistance from many people First and foremost, I would like to express my enormous thanks and special appreciation to my supervisor, Dr.P h u o n g ,who provided me with his beneficial suggestions and invaluable support during my research I am also grateful to all the professors, lecturers of my M.A course (TESOL) at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vinh University, Nghe An province for their interesting and useful lectures I also wish to give my thanks to the 12th grade students at Thanh Chuong High School who have actively participated in answering my questionaires and my experiment Finally, my sincere thanks go to my beloved family, my colleagues and my friends who encouraged me and helped me to carry out the thesis iii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Pretest results two groups Table 4.2 Post test results of two groups Table 4.3 Mode, Mean and SD of two groups Table 4.4 Students’ response to the use of mind mapping iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Writing Continuum Figure 2.2: Producing Piece of Writing Figure2.3: An example of mind mapping v LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1 The change in Pre and Post tests Mean for each group Chart 4.2 The Control Group’s score type distributrion Chart 4.3 The Experimental Group’s score type distribution vi TABLE OF CONTENT i DECLARATION ii ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES iv v LIST OF CHARTS vi TABLE OF CONTENT vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Rationale 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Thesis design CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies related to the research 2.2 Writing 2.2.1 Definition of writing 2.2.2 Writing skills 10 2.2.3 Teaching writing skills 13 2.2.4 Writing tasks 16 2.2.5 Strategies to learn writing 16 2.2.6 Writing process 17 2.2.6.1 The Control to Free Approach 17 2.2.6.2 The Free writing Approach 18 2.2.6.3 The Paragraph Pattern Approach 18 vii 2.2.6.4 The Grammar-Syntax Organization Approach 18 2.2.6.5 The Communicative Approach 18 2.2.6.6 The Process Approach 19 2.2.7 The stages of teaching writing 20 2.2.7.1 Pre-writing 20 2.2.7.2 While –writing 20 2.2.7.3 Post- wrting 21 2.2.8 Principles for teaching writing 21 2.3 Essays 22 2.3.1 Definition of essay 22 2.3.2 Basic structure of essay 2.3.2.1 Introduction 23 2.3.2.2 Body 23 2.3.2.3 Conclusion 23 2.3.3 Types of essay 23 2.3.3.1 Expository 23 2.3.3.2 Compare and contrast 24 2.3.3.3 Cause and effect 24 2.3.3.4 Argumentative 24 2.3.3.5 Informal 25 2.3.3.6 Critical review 25 2.3.3.7 Research 26 2.3.3.8 Literary 26 2.4 Language features of essay 27 2.5 Mind mapping 27 2.5.1 Definition of mind mapping 27 2.5.2 The use of mind mapping 28 2.5.3 The effectiveness of mind mapping 30 2.5.4 Conventional outlining 31 viii Writing Journal of Education and Practice, 5, 88-109 Sayer, P (2005) An Intensive Approach to Building Conversation Skills ELT Journal 59(1), 14-22 Scrivener, Jim 1994 Learning teaching: A guidebook for English Language Teachers Macmillan Heinemann Tran, X L (2008) English to be an advantage in communication in Vietnam – Tieng Anh se la the manh giao tiep cua Viet Nam Vietnamnet Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://cleverlearn.edu.vn/index.php/TiengAnh-se-la- the-manh-trong-giao-tiep-cua-Viet-Nam.html White, R.( 1987) Approaches to writing In M Long J Richards (Eds.) Woolfolk, A (1987) Educational Psychology New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, Inc Zaid, A (1995) Semantic Mapping in Communicative Language Teaching English Teaching Forum, 3, 6-9 Zhang, X and Jin, C (1989) Techniques to Teaching Writing English Teaching Forum, XXXVII (2) 34-36 https://www.jyu.fi/hum/laitokset/kielet/oppiaineet_kls/englanti/studies/thesis-andacademic-writing/text-types/basic-essay-structure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Mapping www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118952400/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY 58 APPENDIX A A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR EXPERIMENTAL GROUP School: Thanh Chuong High School Class: 12A1 Teacher: Phan Thi Hanh Name of the lesson: Water sports Lesson D: Writing an essay Aims of the lesson: By the end of the lesson, Ss will be able to - Understand mind mapping and how to use it in pre writing activity - Make a quick outline - Write an essay about the benifits of swimming Teaching aids: pictures, handouts, posters Methods: communicative method Anticipated problems: Ss may not have enough vocabularies and structures to write about the benefits of knowing how to swim Procedure: Teacher’s activities Stages Warm-up (5ms) Students’activities Game: list as many names of sports as possible Play the game - Divide the class into teams - Each team choose one representative - The representative goes to the board and write down as many names of sports as possible - The group with more correct words will be the winner Lead-in: can you guess what topic of our lesson today is? Pre-writing Today, we will learn bout the benefits of (10ms) knowing how to swim I About sports Pre-teach vocabulary: - Keep fit: (example) - Survive(v): - Save people’s lives: ( situationtranslation) Interaction: T- Ss, Ss-Ss Questions: Do you know how to swim? How often you go swimming? When did you learn how to swim? - What are the benefits of knowing how Work in pairs and to swim? answer the -ask Ss to work in pairs to answer the questions questions Expected answers: Yes/no Once a week/ sometimes/ When I was small/ years old They are: keeping fit/ relaxing and saving people’s live/ surviving relaxing Keeping fit Benefits of knowing how to swim surviving Saving people’s lives While writing T draws a circle on the board with “benefits of (20ms) knowing how to swim” in the middle T elicits ideas from the students T write them down on the board II Add some more ideas T asks Ss to choose three ideas to write write about -T divides the class into groups -Deliver posters and pens for every group -Leave them 15 minutes to write about 120Post-writing 140 words (9ms) -Go round and give help if neccessary -After 15 minutes, T exchanges posters among Write the essay in groups to underline mistakes and then take it groups Homework back Underline mistakes (1m) -every group has to correct the mistakes of the other pointed out by the other group’s Correct the -ask every group to hang their poster on the mistakes pointed board out - correct common mistakes Hang the poster on - ask Ss to write a sample answer on their BB notebook Write down the Write an essay about benefits of doing sample lesson homework III APPENDIX B Grading Rubric for Writing Essay Student’s writing will be scored according to the following standards: A (4) Focus: Purpose B (3) Purpose C (2) is Shows clear Shows limited No awareness awareness of awareness purpose Main idea Clearly D/F (1/0) of purpose There is a main Vague sense of No main idea presents a main idea supported a main idea, idea and throughout supports it most of weakly the supported throughout the paper throughout the paper paper Organization: Well-planned Overall and Good overall There well- organization, thought out includes Includes title, main introduction, statement main is a No sense sense of of organization the organization, although some organizational of tools of the organizational idea, tools are used transitions and weakly conclusion missing Organization: All paragraphs Most Some Para lack clear Paragraphs have paragraphs ideas clear paragraphs ideas, are have clear have supported with ideas, examples have are ideas, or clear support and supported with from examples smooth some examples may be missing transitions and have and transitions IV Content transitions are weak Exceptionally Well-presented Content well-presented and and argued; sound argued; ideas ideas is Content is not and sound are solid; ideas are are detailed, present but not detailed, well- developed and particularly developed, supported with developed supported with evidence specific or and supported; details, mostly some evidence, evidence & specific but usually of a facts, as well as generalized examples nature and specific details Style: Sentence Sentences are Sentences structure and clear but may generally clear aren’t clear clear varied are Sentences are Sentences in lack variation; but may have pattern, from a few may be awkward simple to awkward and structure or complex, with there may be a unclear excellent use of few content; there punctuation punctuation may be errors patterns of punctuation errors Style: Word There is clear There choice, Tone use of personal is a attempt at and personal unique style of but an There is little No attempt at style a attempt at style style style; reads as of flat and writing, suited writing may be perhaps to audience and awkward V or uninteresting in purpose; the unsuited to content, which paper holds the audience and is reader’s the generalized and interest purpose; with reader ease usually may clichéd lose interest in some sections of the paper Style: Details Large amounts Some use of Little use of No and Examples of specific specific examples and examples specific examples and examples and detailed detailed details; mostly descriptions descriptions generalized May use have examples extended little examples that description and go on for too long Grammar Mechanics & Excellent grammar, A few errors in Shows grammar, a Continuous pattern of errors spelling, syntax spelling, syntax errors in and and spelling, punctuation punctuation, grammar, but not many syntax and/or punctuation Could also be a sign of lack of proof-reading VI of APPENDIX C QUESTIONAIRES PartA: Please read each of the following statements about mind mapping carefully Circle the answer that best reflect show you feel about the statement It is difficult to create map (A) StronglyAgree (B) Agree (C)Disagree (D)Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain Mind maps help me organize my thoughts (A) Strongly Agree (B) Agree (C) Disagree (D )Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain I enjoy creating mind maps (A) Strongly Agree (B) Agree (C) Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain Creating a class mind map was a boringexperience (A) Strongly Agree (B) Agree (C) Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain Mind mapping helps me understand concepts and ideas (A) Strongly Agree (B) Agree VII (C) Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain Mind mapping allows me to be creative (A) Strongly Agree (B) Agree (C) Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain 7.Creation of a class mind map helped me understand the relationship between the ideas I wrote and the topic (A)Strongly Agree (B)Agree (C)Disagree (D)Strongly Disagree (E)Not Certain PartB: Please read each question carefully.Write your response in the space provided after each item 1.What are the purposes and advantages of using mind mapping strategy in your writing? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… 2.Did the use of mind mapping help you in writing essays?How? Explain your answer? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… VIII APPENDIX D: PRE TEST RESSULTS OF CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS CONTROL GROUP EXPERIMENTAL GROUP A1 B1 A2 B2 A3 B3 A4 B4 A5 B5 A6 B6 A7 B7 A8 B8 A9 B9 A10 B10 A11 B11 A12 B12 A13 B13 A14 B14 A15 B15 A16 B16 A17 B17 A18 B18 A19 B19 A20 B20 A21 B21 A22 B22 A23 B23 A24 B24 A25 B25 A26 B26 A27 B27 IX A28 B28 A29 B29 A30 B30 A31 B31 A32 B32 A33 B33 A34 B34 A35 B35 A36 B36 A37 B37 A38 B38 A39 B39 A40 B40 X APPENDIX E: POST TEST RESULTS OF CONTROL AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS CONTROL GROUP EXPERIMENTAL GROUP A1 B1 A2 B2 A3 B3 A4 B4 A5 B5 A6 B6 A7 B7 A8 B8 A9 B9 A10 B10 A11 B11 A12 B12 A13 B13 A14 B14 A15 B15 A16 B16 A17 B17 A18 B18 A19 B19 A20 B20 A21 B21 A22 B22 A23 B23 A24 B24 A25 B25 A26 B26 XI A27 B27 A28 B28 A29 B29 A30 B30 A31 B31 A32 B32 A33 B33 A34 B34 A35 B35 A36 B36 A37 B37 A38 B38 A39 B39 A40 B40 XII APPENDIX F: A SAMPLE PRE TEST OF EXPERIMENTAL GROUP Topic: write an essay ( 120-150 words) about the following topic: some people prefer to live in the city, but others like to live in the country Which place you prefer? Give evidences to support your answer Nowadays, human’s life is developing faster It means that it become more and more convenient Therefore, it will become many big centers- is called the city However, some people prefer living in small town to living in a big city because there where are still having lots of things to attract their In my opinion, I agree with this idea It’s much better to live here Firstly, it makes us relax and so quiet For example, we think that today how we work? Who you meet? Moreover, we avoid being noisy city and transport In town, when we get up, we go to the field or drink a cup of tea with relatives, then feed few cows The more small town hhave been known, the more peaceful has been felt it Living here becomes more interesting When we know more culture For exam, we can spend our free time learning this In conclusion, for me, living in small town is more enjoyable It not only offers fresh air, peace but it also is a friendly place with our relatives and neighbours XIII APPENDIX G: A SAMPLE POST TEST OF EXPERIMENTAL GROUP Topic: write an essay of 120-150 words about the following topic: our environment is being seriously polluted It affects people’s health and lives Give some measures to protect the environment Environment plays a vital part in our life, without it, human can’t exist However, it is heavily polluted due to the bad habits of the people This is resulting in severe consequences that directly affect people’s health and life In order to reduce the pollution, some measures should be taken Firstly, we should raise the people’s awareness of protecting environment Programmes about environment protection, slogans should be shown on TV or on the street so that they know its importance Secondly, laws about environment protection should be passed and come into effect so that any groups or individuals destroying the environment will be heavily punished For example, some of the factories in the Southern city were punished because they discharged the pollutants into the rivers, which made a lot of fish die Finally, everybody should join hands to protect the environment At schools, students should be encouraged to join in volunteer groups such as Green Sundays to collect the rubbish At public places such as parks or markets, more dustbins should be put so that people can put the waste into them In conclusion, only when everyone is aware of the importance of the environment they know how to to save it Let’s start from now to make our environment clean and healthy XIV ... learning and improve the exam result Based on the case above, the researcher is interested in conducting a study entitled : ? ?USING MINDMAPPING TO IMPROVE ESSAY WRITING SKILL FOR 12TH GRADE LEARNERS. ”...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY PHAN THI HANH USING MINDMAPPING TO IMPROVE ESSAY WRITING SKILL FOR 12TH GRADE LEARNERS Field: Theory and Methods of Teaching... Therefore, students become readers for each other is a good way of organizing communicative writing act Students read other’s writing, comment and rewrite in another form, summarize, or make comments