The use of mind mapping technique to improve the reading comprehension skill of the 12th students at Thanh Hoa Ethnic boarding high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
PART I: INTRODUCTION
2
1. The reason of selecting the topic
2
2. Aims of study
3
3. Research questions
3
4. Research method 
4
5. Scope of the study
4
PART B: SOLVING THE PROBLEM
5
1. Rationale 
5
2. Reality
6
3. The use of mind mapping technique to teach reading comprehension skill
7
3.1. Definition of mind map
 7 
3.2. The strengths of mind map
7
3.3. Key aspects of a reading comprehension mind map.
8
3.4. Steps to make mind – mapping implementation to improve students’ ability in reading comprehension skill.
9
3.5. Demonstration
11
4. Findings
15
PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
18
I. Conclusion
18
II. Recommendation
18
1. To teachers
18
2. To infrastructure
19
PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. The reason of selecting the topic 
English has experienced its popularity in teaching and learning in Vietnam over the last few decades. Demand for learning English even gets stronger when Vietnam fosters its international relations. English, in parallel with the knowledge of some other fields, turns out to be a key to open the door into the bustling world. In any walk of life in Vietnam, you can find people use English; from the big cities to mountainous areas; from the international conferences to daily conversations, or just few pidgin words with the foreign tourists. People learn and use English with different purposes, but there is a fact that they are trying to learn English with the hope that they can use it effectively.
In the four skills of English, reading is the one which is difficult to be mastered. Reading is not a passive activity for learners as what people imagine. My students often say to me that they don’t like or enjoy reading. Most of them say they find it difficult to focus on reading, and especially to have effective reading. Some even say it is boring to start reading because there are piles of new words, and lengthy reading texts. In classroom activity, most of teachers tend to use the conventional technique to teach reading that is by giving the text to the students and they should answer the question on it. However, reading is an interactive process combining top-down and bottom-up processing; as a result, it is very important for students to use appropriate reading strategies to increase their comprehension. A good technique is needed to teach reading. The teacher should understand about student’s psychology that they need something fun and not a boring activity. When students learn English, they are developing their intellectual. English has an important role in developing intellectual, social and emotional of the students. Teaching reading at high school must be seen as a whole processes where the teacher need to focus on reading skill itself. On national examination, it cannot argue that most of the questions are in reading text. The fact is that the students have low ability in reading text. It needs to be a fun activity for teaching reading and effective for them. 
Based on the experience in teaching English, the writer found the difficulties on students reading comprehension. That’s why a good technique should be used in order to get a good result. By using a good technique, the students are able to obtain the main information form the text faster and easier. All the above-mentioned reasons and factors have inspired the writers to conduct my initiative titled “The use of mind mapping technique to improve the reading comprehension skill of the 12th students at Thanh Hoa Ethnic boarding high school”. 
2. Aims of study
          The study aims at:
	- describing the implementation of mind map technique on teaching reading comprehension lesson at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school.
	- describing the students’ reading improvement after they are taught by using mind map .
3. Research questions.
Based on the background of study above, the problem of this research is:
How the reading skill could be improved by using mind mapping of the 12th students at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school, by following research question:
How does mind mapping improve student’s ability in reading comprehension?
4. Researching method
Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
5. Scope of the study.
This study is concerned with the improvement of reading comprehension skill to the students in the 12th grade at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school. The researcher is not planning in study a large population of all students at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school, just on the students in grade 12 in order to find out the problems experienced by these students and teachers of English and then using mind map technique to improve the students’ reading skill.
I apply my search to students in grade 12 such 12B, 12C (School year 2015 - 2016) at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school.
PART B. SOLVING THE PROBLEM
1. Rationale 
In the late 20th century, linguistic teachers and learners have witnessed the “birth” of a new way in teaching foreign language, the so-called “communicative language teaching”. In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training has reformed English textbooks concentrating on the four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing for secondary school students since the school year 2006 –2007. Reading is one of the four skills which is difficult for students. It’s not a productive skill which makes the students to produce language in words but it’s the skill which gives the students for good input so they can get the information from what they read. Even though for junior high school reading is not for getting the information, but in reading it’s a good way to get the language input. Ediger (1999) noted that Reading is not a passive process. Information doesn’t not merely flow on one direction from the page to the readers’ brain” (Ediger, 1999, 1999:vii). As the explanation above, we can see that reading is a complex process; it takes a serious effort to make students become fluent readers 
In reading section in the current textbook “English 12”, students are faced with a variety of topics with many tasks such as True – false statement, answering the question, etc. However, it seems that some of the tasks in the current textbooks have not supported students’ language acquisition appropriately. Most of students try to translate the passage in to their mother language and they cannot overcome their tasks. Besides, teachers tend to use the conventional technique to teach reading that is by giving the text to the students and they should answer the question on it. Hence, students feel bored with the reading comprehension lesson. From these facts, I try to find effective solutions to improve the reading skill of 12th graders at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school by employing mind map as a technique of teaching reading skill, that is a flexible technique, and it can be adapted to nearly every proficiency level. 
2. Reality
Nowadays, no one can deny the importance of English for international interaction. English is one of the language in the world that master in many various field globally. English is a media for communicating both speaking and writing. Now many companies have policies to their employments to have English both oral and written. And English also has an important role in transferring science and technology. 
English, as a foreign language, is a basic compulsory subject in the curriculum of secondary education. However, learning English is not easy and it may bring problem. In fact, there are many students having problem on understanding English context. It is difficult for them how to read the text, how to identify the key word, how to find the important information, how to understand the text correctly in order to do the task. This proves that reading comprehension in learning English is complex and often causes embarrassment to them. Because many students get some problems to do it, the teacher feel difficult to teach reading, too. There are many problems that occur in teaching reading. Firstly, the students who feel bored with the teaching reading comprehension process make them difficult to do the tasks. Secondly, the teacher still uses the traditional technique. Thirdly, the students do not know variety of vocabularies and how to use correct skill to read the text and do the tasks. Those problems are faced by students in the 12th form at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high school. How to improve students’ reading comprehension skills? Using mind map helps me to do this.
3. The use of mind mapping in teaching reading comprehension skill.
Definition of mind map
According to Buzan (1993), the mind map is an expression of radiant thinking and is therefore a natural function of the human mind. It is a powerful graphic texhnique which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain. The mainmap can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance. The mind map has four essential characteristics:
The subject of attention is crystallised in a central image
The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image as brances
Brances comprise a key image or key word printed on an associated line. Topics of lesser importance are also represented as brances attached to higher level branches.
The branches from a connected nodal structure.
Mind maps may be enhanced and enrich with color, pictures, code and dimension to add interest, beauty and individuality. These in turn aid creativity, memory and specifically the recall of information.
Mind maps help you to make a distinction between your mental storage capacity, which your mind map will help you achieve. Storing data efficiently multiples your capacity. It is like the difference between a well packed or badly packed warehouse, or a library with or without an ordering system.
3.2. The strengths of mind map
 	Mind map helps one become more creative because it emphasizes brainstorming, free association and radiant thinking. Your present level of comprehension of ideas is graphically represented, which then translates to a higher level of understanding when extended to other ideas or sub-topics. The human mind does not function the way a computer.
Since every word you can think of can trigger a host of associations in your mind, creativity is encouraged. One person may be able to generate one set of relationships between concepts using one key central idea, while another person could produce another set of relationships between concepts using the same key central idea. It is possible for just one word/term/concept/idea to be related to many others. Mind maps help us look for different and creative ways that ideas are related to one another within our minds. If you are persistent enough, you may be able to come up with a unique combination of relationships of ideas that may translate into a new product or service.
Making a mind map should be a spontaneous pre-writing activity. Students start with a topic at the centre and then generate a web of ideas from that, developing and relating these ideas as their mind makes associations.
Mind maps work well as their visual design enables students to see the relationship between ideas, and encourages them to group certain ideas together as they proceed. Mind maps work especially well when created in groups, since the discussion this engenders aids the production of ideas, and makes the task livelier and more enjoyable. 
3.3. Key aspects of a reading comprehension mind map.
Here’s a list of the main components of a reading comprehension mind map. Each one of these components lives as a node branching off from the center and will give the students deeper insight into the literary themes, characters, and more.
3.3.1. General information.
Students use this section to collect information about the author, when he/she lived, what his/her background was and how all of this might influence the book. Connections between the author’s life and parts of the book can be visualized with arrows. The setting of the story should be captured as well. Depending on the book, it may make sense to provide an overview of all chapters and give the setting for each individual chapter.
3.3.2. Characters.
Comprehending fictional texts is largely about understanding the characters; what they are driven by, what they care about, and how they’re connected to one another. Using a mind map, students can visualize the relationships between individual characters, both on the surface and on a literary level.
3.3.3. Plot
You can help your students recognize plot points by providing them with a plot framework in the mind map template which they can “fill out” themselves.
3.3.4. New vocabulary
A major obstacle in reading comprehension is new vocabulary. To ensure that your students understand and retain all the new words (instead of just skipping over them), tell them to add the terms they don’t understand to their mind map, either in a separate vocabulary branch, or as part of the topic, theme, chapter and character branches the words are related to.
3.3.5. Themes, motives and symbols.
For a more advanced literary analysis, create a branch for themes, motives and symbols, and add definitions of each to remind your students what each term means.
3.4. Steps to make mind – mapping implementation to improve students’ ability in reading comprehension skill.
The explanation below is the procedures of teaching narrative text through mind mapping: 
First: introduce the procedure of making mind mapping and review about narrative text. Later, tells the students about the advantage of using mind mapping in learning text, especially narrative text.
Second: at the first meeting, divides the students into some groups which consist of 3-4 members in each. It is used to let the students learn first about making mind mapping together. For the second meeting, the students are asked to make their mind mapping individually. 
Third: give students instruction to read and comprehend the text first. After comprehending the story, they have to write and draw their comprehension through mind mapping. 
Fourth: the students tell their mind mapping in front of the class, then some others give their opinion; whether they have similar thinking about the text. For the second meeting, there are only some students present their mind mapping. It is used to maximalise the used of time. 
Fifth: the students have to answer some questions related to the text, in order to make sure whether their reading comprehensions are helped by mind mapping. The questions are given after the students present their mind map in front of the class. 
In short, students are explained about the concept of mind mapping and the advantages of mind mapping in the beginning of teaching reading comprehension through mind mapping. Then, they are divided into groups to draw their own mind mapping. After that, they are asked to comprehend narrative text in group which later they are asked to draw its mind mapping based on what they comprehend about the text. Then, they have to present their mind mapping in front of the class. At the end of the presentation, the students discuss whether or not each group of students have similar idea about the text. Finally, the students have to answer the questions about the text. It is used to know their comprehension. In this case, the teacher has role as facilitator. 
3.5. Demonstration. 
Example 1:
Unit 2: Cultural Diversity – Part A: Reading context about love and marriage.
Step 1: Teacher introduce the procedure of making mind mapping and review about the passage about Cultural Diversity on the page 21, English textbook for grade 12.
Step 2: Divide students into groups of 4 and give students instruction to read and comprehend the passage first. After comprehending the text, they have to write and draw their comprehension through mind mapping. 
Step 3: the students tell their mind mapping in front of the class,then some others give their opinion; whether they have similar thinking about the text. 
Key values of love or marriage
Physical atractiveness
Partnership of equals
Confiding
Trust built on love
Step 4: Ask students to answer some questions related to the text, in order to make sure whether their reading comprehensions are helped by mind mapping. 
Q1: What are the four key values in the passage?
Q2: Compare the American students’ attitudes and Asian students’ attitudes toward these key values of love and marriage?
Step 5: Feedback and give some remarks.
Example 2 
Unit 4: School education system – A: Reading about schooling in England
Step 1: Introduce the procedure of making mind mapping and about the passage of Schooling in England on the page 45, English textbook for grade 12.
Step 2: Divide students into groups of 4 and give students instruction to read and comprehend the passage first. After comprehending the text, they have to write and draw their comprehension through mind mapping. 
Step 3: Ask students to tell their mind mapping in front of the class, then some others give their opinion; whether they have similar thinking about the text. 
Step 4: Ask students to answer some questions related to the text, in order to make sure whether their reading comprehensions are helped by mind mapping. 
Q1: How many terms are there in the school year in England?
Q2: What are the two school systems in England?
Q3: Do children have to pay fees when they go to public school?
Q4: How many core subjects are there in the national curriculum?
Q5: When can students take the GCSE examination?
Step 5: Feedback and give students some remarks to their performances.
Example 3: 
Unit 10: Endangered species – Reading a fact about endangered species.
The lesson plan designed follows the steps:
Step 1: Introduce the procedure of making mind mapping and about the passage of Schooling in England on the page 45, English textbook for grade 12.
Step 2: Divide students into groups of 4 and give students instruction to read and comprehend the passage first. After comprehending the text, they have to write and draw their comprehension through mind mapping. 
Step 3: Ask students to tell their mind mapping in front of the class, then some others give their opinion; whether they have similar thinking about the text. 
Step 4: Ask students to answer some questions related to the text by using the mind map they have drawn, in order to make sure whether their reading comprehensions are helped by mind mapping. 
Q1: How many species around the world threatened with extinction?
Q2: What are the causes of species extinction?
Q3: What is the effect of the species extinction?
Q4: Can you list the ways to help save endangered species that mention in the passage?
Step 5: Feedback and give students some remarks to their performances.
Endangered species
State
Causes
Effect
8.300 plant species are threatened
7.200 animal species are at risk of extinct
Habitat destruction
Commercial exploitation
Pollution
Solutions
A loss of biodiversity
Introduction of the Red List
Government have enacted laws
Establishing the wildlife habitat reserves
Findings.
Through the process of applying mind map in teaching reading skill to improve English reading comprehension skills for the 12th graders at Thanh Hoa ethnic high school, I have found out that the majority of students are more interested in reading lesson than they used to. Especially for weak students, less boldly than while answering questions or performing the learning activities. Through the assessment in class 12B, 12C of my charge, only about 45%, which compare to the result at the end of the year has increased by about 75%. Sometimes I poll opinion of students through questions: How you feel about English- reading comprehension lessons in Gra