MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI HUONG USING MIND MAPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN READING COMPREHENSION IN NGHE AN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION NGHE AN - 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI HUONG USING MIND MAPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN READING COMPREHENSION IN NGHE AN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Nguyen Gia Viet, Ph.D Nghe An, 2014 i DECLARATION I certify my authority of the paper submitted entitled USING MIND MAPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN READING COMPREHENSION IN NGHE AN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS (NACE). In total fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Vinh, August 2014 Student’s signature Hồ Thị Hương ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT On the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ph.D. Nguyen Gia Viet, who gave me precious guidance, comments, suggestions and encouragement throughout my research. My special thanks are for all my teachers of my M.A. course (TESOL) at the Post-graduate Department at Vinh University, Nghe An province, for their interesting and useful lectures. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and the first - year students at Nghe An College of Economics, for their contribution to the data collection and their attendance in the reading lessons for this research. Finally, I am grateful to my friends and my family, especially my husband who gave me a lot of support and encouragement during the time of my study iii ABSTRACT USING MIND MAPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN READING COMPREHENSION is a case study about reading comprehension at Nghe An College of Economics in 2014. The objective of this study is to investigate if using mind maps can help to encourage students in reading comprehension, especially for the reading texts in “New Headway” (pre-intermediate) at the first- year students of Nghe An College of Economics. The subjects of this study were 97 students and 7 teachers in the English group.The study concentrates on answering 3 research questions: Firstly, the researcher wants to investigate students’ and teacher’s attitudes towards the reading texts in “New Headway” textbooks. Secondly, the researcher wishes to examine students’ and teacher’s perception about mind mapping. Thirdly, she hopes to find out if mind mapping technique can help to increase students’ interest in reading comprehension.To solve these research questions, the mix-method (both qualitative and quantitative methods) was used in the study which was carried out in two classes. The data were gathered through questionnaires and interviews. The two sets of questionnaires were delivered before the seminar and classroom observation and after that. The interview was carried out at the same time with the second set of questionnaires. The results of the study showed that mind mapping technique is effective to be used in teaching reading comprehension of the reading texts in “New Headway” (pre-intermediate). The findings of the research revealed that mind mapping technique really helps to improve students’ interest in reading comprehension. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale to the study 1 1.2. Aim of the study 4 1.3. Research questions 4 1.4. Scope of the study 5 1.5. Significance of the study 5 1.6. Methodology 5 1.7. Outline of the thesis 6 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1. Definition of reading and reading comprehension 7 2.1.1. Definition of reading 7 2.1.2. Reading comprehension 8 2.1.3. Effective reading comprehension 8 2.2. Teaching reading in the second language learning classroom 9 2.2.1. The importance of teaching reading in the L2 classroom 9 2.2.2. Reading purposes of second language learners 10 2.2.3. Different ways for L2 learners to process a text 10 2.2.4. Teachers’ roles in a reading lesson 10 2.2.5. Students’ roles in a reading lesson 11 2.3. Mind mapping 11 v 2.3.1. The definition of mind mapping 11 2.3.2. Application of mind mapping technique in teaching 12 2.3.3. Benefits of teaching with mind maps 14 2.4. Literature review 14 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 19 3.1. Context 19 3.1.1. The setting 19 3.1.2. Participants 20 3.2. Instruments for data collection 21 3.3. Data collection procedures 22 3.4. Analysis 23 3.4.1. Questionnaires 23 3.4.2. Interview 24 CHAPTER 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 25 4.1. Data analysis from the questionnaire 25 4.1.1. For teachers 25 4.1.2. For students 37 4.2. Summary of the questionnaire survey 53 4.3. Data analysis from the interview 54 4.3.1. For students 54 4.3.2. For teachers 57 4.4. Summary of the interview findings 59 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 61 5.1. Introduction 61 5.2. Summary 61 5.3. Limitations and recommendations for further study 61 REFERENCES 63 APPENDICES vi LIST OF TABLES Pages Table 3.1. Topics and the related reading texts from “New Headway” (pre-intermediate) 20 Table 4.18. Before and after the seminar and clasroom observation 47 Table 4.19. Students’ views about mind mapping application before and after seminar when dealing with statement 9. 48 Table 4.20. Before and after the seminar and classroom observation. 49 Table 4.21. Before and after the seminar and classroom observation. 50 Table 4.24. Students’ views on finding ideas from reading texts 54 Table 4.25. Students’ attitudes towards reading comprehension after using mind mapping 55 Table 4.26. Students’ perceptions about mind mapping technique 55 Table 4.27. Students’ views on the texts after applying mind maps in the reading lessons. 56 Table 4.28. Students’ attitudes towards the task of preparing their own map for the text 56 Table 4.29. Students’ attitudes towards the next lessons 57 Table 4.30. Teachers’ ideas about students’ attitudes in reading lessons 57 Table 4.31. Teachers’ views on mind mapping application 58 Table 4.32. Teachers’ views on weak students through the reading lessons with mind mapping 58 Table 4.33. Teachers’ views on mind mapping 59 vii LIST OF FIGURES Pages Figure 4.1.a. Teachers’ attitudes towards the reading texts in textbook before seminar and classroom observation. 25 Figure 4.1.b. Teachers’ attitudes towards the reading texts in textbook after the seminar and classroom observation. 26 Figure 4.2.a. Before students approached mind mapping through seminar and classroom observation 27 Figure 4.2.b. After students approached mind mapping through seminar and classroom observation 27 Figure 4.3.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 28 Figure 4.3.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 29 Figure 4.4.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 30 Figure 4.4.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 30 Figure 4.6.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 31 Figure 4.6.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 32 Figure 4.7.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation. 33 Figure 4.7.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 33 Figure 4.8.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 34 Figure 4.8.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 34 Figure 4.9.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation. 35 Figure 4.9.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 36 Figure 4.10.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 36 Figure 4.10.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 37 Figure 4.11.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation. 38 Figure 4.11.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 38 Figure 4.12.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 39 Figure 4.12.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 39 Figure 4.13.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 40 viii Figure 4.13.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 41 Figure 4.14.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 41 Figure 4.14.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 42 Figure 4.15.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 43 Figure 4.15.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 43 Figure 4.16.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 44 Figure 4.16.b. After the seminar and classroom observation 45 Figure 4.17.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 46 Figure 4.17.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 46 Figure 4.22.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation 51 Figure 4.22.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 51 Figure 4.23.a. Before the seminar and classroom observation. 52 Figure 4.23.b. After the seminar and classroom observation. 52 [...]... students interest in reading comprehension skill.It aimes at: 1 Identifying students perceptions about mind mapping and using mind mapping in reading comprehension 2 Examining the effect of using mind mapping on students interest in reading skill 1.3 Research questions The study aims to answering the following questions: 1 What are the students attitudes to the reading comprehension texts in the textbook?... What are the students and the teachers’ perceptions towards mind mapping in reading comprehension? 3 Does using mind mapping help to increase students interest in reading comprehension? 1.4 Scope of the study The researcher carries out the investigation at Nghe An College of Economics to study the result of mind mapping in reading activities to improve the students interest and help them to read better...CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Reading leads into an ever-expanding multidimensional world and the reader is to widen his knowledge through reading The importance of reading comprehension has increasingly been recognized and that helps a lot in learning different fields The researcher is going to examine if using mind mapping helps to increase students interest in learning reading comprehension This chapter includes... Significance of the study This research attempts to examine whether mind mapping will improve students interest in reading comprehension Reading will be the most important aspect in acquiring the target language Reading comprehension will be the premier skill in the English Curriculum in the colleges and universities Mind mapping strategy will help to increase students interest in reading comprehension. .. knowledge to the new information received from the reading text Such reading processes cause students lack of motivation to read One of the teacher’s duties is looking for new and modern technique to help students to improve reading comprehension The researcher has been thinking and studying for a long time about the solution to increase students interest in reading comprehension And using mind maps is... creating students interest in reading texts When they find the texts , the articles or the books interesting, they will try their best to fulfil them Therefore, they can get more understanding about the world There are a lot of ways to motivate students to read such as using games, cards, pictures or developing pre -reading stage, while -reading stage or post -reading stage Using mind maps to increase students ... understanding of content to be learnt In his points of view, teachers may use mind maps at different stages of instruction to prepare students to approach new information and clarify complex ideas After the lessons, teachers may use mind mapping technique to assess and reinforce learning and instruction 2.3.2 Application of mind mapping technique in teaching One of the most powerful ways to use mind maps. .. evaluation of the reading text, mind mapping and the application of mind mapping 21 - Teachers’ and students perceptions about mind maps and their application on reading comprehension - Considering whether mind maps help to increase students interest in reading comprehension 3.3 Data collection procedures The data was collected from July 1st, 2014 The process of collecting data was divided into two stages:... mapping and its use to increase students interest before they approach mind mapping The next step is organizing one seminar for the teachers and one for the students in classes K8.02 and K8.14 about mind mapping at its application in reading comprehension The researcher introduced it to teachers and students and guided them how to apply them to learn and teach reading lessons The students seemed to. .. students interest is still a question that the reseacher is going to study With the real situation of teaching and learning in Nghe an College of Economics, the researcher is going to do this study with the hopes to give some important contributions to improve the quality of teaching and learning in NCE 1.2 Aim of the study The aim of the research is to examine if using mind mapping helps to increase students . 1. Identifying students’ perceptions about mind mapping and using mind mapping in reading comprehension. 2. Examining the effect of using mind mapping on students’ interest in reading skill MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI HUONG USING MIND MAPS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN READING COMPREHENSION IN NGHE AN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS. contributions to improve the quality of teaching and learning in NCE. 1.2. Aim of the study The aim of the research is to examine if using mind mapping helps to increase students’ interest in reading comprehension