VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
********************
PHẠM THỊ THÚY VÂN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUES TO DEVELOP
LY THUONG KIET HIGH SCHOOL 11
TH
GRADE STUDENTS'
READING TEXT SUMMARY SKILLS NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG BIỂU ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ PHÁT
TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG TÓM TẮT BÀI ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11
TRƯỜNG THPT LÝ THƯỜNG KIỆT M.A MINOR THESIS

HANOI – 2012

Field: English Teaching Methodology

HANOI – 2012
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: ĐỖ BÁ QUÝ, M.Ed. iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of abbreviations iv
List of figures and tables v
Part A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research hypothesis and questions 2
4. Method of the study 2
5. Significance of the study 3
6. Scope of the study 3
7. Organization of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
Chapter I: Literature review 5
1.1.
Reading and reading comprehension
5
1.1.1. Definition of Reading 5
1.1.2. Definitions of reading comprehension 5
1.1.3. The stages of a reading lesson 6
1.1.3.1. The pre- reading stage 6
1.1.3.2. The while- reading stage 7
1.1.3.3. The post- reading stage 7

1.5. Summary 19
Chapter II: The study 20
2.1. The context of the study 20
2.2. Participants 21
2.3. Rationale for using quasi-experiment 22
2.4. Experiment design 23
2.5. Research Variables 24 vi

2.5.1. Independent Variable 24
2.5.2. Dependent Variable 24
2.6. Data collection instruments and procedure 24
2.6.1. Data collection instruments 24
2.6.2. Data collection procedure 25
2.7. Data Analysis procedure 26
Chapter III: Data analysis and discussions 27
3.1. Data analysis 27
3.1.1. Tests 27
3.1.1.1. Comparison between pretest scores of experimental class and control class 27
3.1.1.2. Comparison between pretest and posttest scores of experimental class and control
class 28
3.1.1.3. Comparison between posttest scores of experimental class and control class 29
3.1.2. Questionnaires 30
3.2. Discussion 33
3.2.1 The effectiveness of mind mapping technique in developing students' reading
text summary skills at LTK high school 34
3.2.2 Students' attitudes towards using mind mapping techniques 34
3.3. Summary 34
1

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LTKHS Ly Thuong Kiet high school
C Control class
E Experimental class
S.D Standard deviation
M Mean
MM Mind Mapping
MOET Ministry of Education and Training

Nowadays, English is a compulsory subject in the school curriculum in
Vietnam, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been
recently paid great attention to. Together with teachers‟ help and guidance, students
have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and
speaking in order to communicate in English successfully. Among these four skills,
reading skill is an essential skill for further learning. Especially, reading text
summary skills after reading is very beneficial to students to gain better
understanding and memorizing of the text. Thus, students can consolidate or reflect
upon what has been read and relate it to their own knowledge. In addition, reading
text summary contributes enormously to develop writing, speaking and listening
skills. However, reading text summary is not easy for students to do. It needs more
useful techniques to help students summarize texts easily. Because there are still a
large number of students having poor reading comprehension not only in rural areas
but also in urban ones.
As a teacher of Ly Thuong Kiet high school (LTKHS), I find that teaching
and learning reading comprehension here still focus on grammar, vocabulary and
structures. Hence, students always find it difficult to understand the content of the
reading text, to find the main idea, synonym or antonym of the words, and general
message of the text and most of them lack of motivation to read. Beside that, there
are still many teachers who seem not to pay enough attention to the importance of
teaching reading text summary in post reading stage due to the limited time.
Consequently, Students can not remember and summarize the text after reading.
From the above reasons, I decided to choose
: “
Using mind-mapping
techniques to develop LTK High school 11
th
grade students‟ reading text summary
skills” for my thesis of the MA course to help students read the text effectively and
can summarize the text easily.

2. What are the students‟ attitudes towards teaching reading text summary in
post reading stage through mind mapping techniques after the experimental
period?
4. Method of the study
This study was conducted based on quasi-experimental research with pretest,
posttest, and questionnaire in order to determine the causal relationship between 5

teaching reading text summary through mind mapping and the enhancement of
students‟ summary skills.
Two groups of students were not chosen randomly, they were two intact
groups of students involved in the study, one group was labeled the control group
and the other the experimental group.
5. Significance of the study
Summarizing the reading text in the textbook series for high schools is
presented in a traditional way which often focuses on the sentence based
summarization. Thus, this study will give an answer to the question whether it is
practical to teach reading text summary in the post reading stage through using
mind mapping technique in the context of the high school in Vietnam.
6. Scope of the study
The study was designed to test the hypothesis that it is possible to teach
reading text summary presented in the textbook through mind mapping. Because of
the time constraint, the researcher could just carry out an experimental research
upon a small sample of 11
th
grade students who were not randomly chosen to a
control class and an experimental class, (40 students for each class) at LTK High
school. The pretest and posttest scores were used to measure both groups‟ reading

Part C
is the conclusion that presents the author‟s reflection and the outcomes of
the study as well as indicates some limitations of the study, and finally gives some
suggestions for further research.
7

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents a brief review of the literature relevant to the study. It


Roe, Stood and Burns (1987:2) consider: “reading comprehension is
reconstruction, interpretation and valuation of what author of written content
means by using knowledge gained from life and experience”.
According to Grellet (1981:3): “reading comprehension or understanding a
written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as
possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims
at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way
and students can show their understanding by re-expressing the content of the text
in many ways such as summarizing the text, answering questions etc.
From these theories above, it can be understood that reading for
comprehension is the primary purpose for reading; raising students' awareness of
main ideas in a text and exploring the organization of a text are essential for good
comprehension.
In conclusion, reading comprehension is a process of understanding what is
conveyed in the text. It does not mean that the reader needs to understand every
single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract the required
information efficiently.
1.1.3. The stages of a reading lesson
A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre- reading
stage, while- reading stage and post- reading stage. Each of these stages carries its
own features and purposes and requires different techniques and strategies.
1.1.3.1. The pre - reading stage
In a reading lesson, the pre- reading stage is an important one because it
creates motivation and positive attitude towards the reading text for students. This
stage is to prepare the learners for what they are going to read. Williams (1984:37)
gave three purposes of pre-reading as follows:
- To introduce and stimulate interest in the topic
- To motivate students by providing a reason for reading
- To provide language preparation for the text.

The post- reading stage is the final but not the less important stage of a
reading lesson because it is time for students to apply what they have got from the 10

text into real life communication. Williams (1984:39) pointed out the aim of the
post- reading stage.
- To consolidate or reflect upon what has been read
- To relate the text to the students‟ own knowledge interest or views
- To provide a stimulus for other language activities
After students finish tasks in while-reading part, a wide range of activities in
the post - reading stage are suggested as follows:
Skills
Activities
1. Summarize the text

- Gap fill
- Write a summary paragraph
- Rewrite the text from jumbled sentences/
words/ visual cues…
- Summarize the text either orally or in writing
- Make a spider map/ diagram or mind map
2. Role play, Interview
- Integrated skills from reading to speaking
- Students take the role of the interviewer and
interviewee about the topic of the reading
comprehension
3. Give comments, opinion
on the characters/ matters in

original. It adds no interpretation of evaluation and retains the approach and tone of
the original author. It omits minor details, illustrations, quotations, anecdotes, and
other inessential material.
In addition, Byrne (1987:76) states that summarizing - producing a shortened
version of a text which has been read or heard - is best viewed as a skill which is
realized through different kinds of writing, rather than as a special form of writing.
In short, summaries are made to reduce the amount of information to be
remembered and to organize the information in a way that aids understanding and
remembering.
1.2.2. Steps to writing a reading text summary
In teaching a reading text summary, some preliminary steps are presented
below by Swales, John M. and Christine B. Feat (1994:105-130).
Step 1: Skim the text, noting in your mind the subheadings. If there are no
subheadings, try to divide the text into sections. Consider why you have been
assigned the text. Try to determine what type of text you are dealing with. This can
help you identify important information.
Step 2: Read the text, highlighting important information and taking notes.
Step 3: In your own words, write down the main points of each section. 12

Step 4: Write down the key support points for the main topic, but do not
include minor detail.
Step 5: Go through the process again, making changes as appropriate.
To write a good summary, they also recommended three main requirements
as follows:
- The summary should cover the original as a whole
- The material should be presented in a neutral fashion
- The summary should be a condensed version of the material, presented in

aspects of it. Besides, the evaluative summary includes the writer‟s thoughts,
feelings and reactions, unlike the other two kinds of summaries. However, many
people except writers and critics may not have experience of preparing this
summary.
1.3. Mind mapping
1.3.1. Definition of mind map
Mind map, according to Buzan (2006), is a technique of making outline
which used the represent words, ideas, tasks, or another linked to an arranged
radically around a central key word or idea by lines and typically it contains words,
ideas, short phrase or pictures.
Furthermore, Marton & Booth (1997) state that Mind map is a tool for
enhancing learning and thinking. It provides a structure to reveal various aspects of
a story such as the sequence of events, the key points, the cause and effect, the
relation of ideas and so on. Students can use mind maps for revising and clarifying
thoughts so as to get the deep meaning of a story. Additionally, Murley (2007)
affirms that mind maps are a non linear visual outline of complex information that
can aid creativity, organization, productivity, and memory. With the same opinion,

Paul Emmerson (cited in the article “Using Mind Map in BE”, 2010) affirmed that
“a mind map is a way of making notes that is intuitive and highly personal. You put
„your world‟ down on paper as a visual diagram and then use it as the basis for a
speaking activity. There is a central topic in the middle, surrounded by sub-topics
linked to it with lines. The sub-topics have further branches, according to the 14

ideas/imagination of the person who draws the mind map (or the instructions of the
teacher)”.
In brief, mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. It is

7. Use images throughout. - Because each image, like the central image, is also
worth a thousand words.
(See the example of mind map guidelines)

1.3.3. Definition of mind mapping techniques
Buzan (cited in Yusuf Effendi 2004) states that a mind mapping is a
powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential
of the brain. It is visual map of ideas, laid out in a radial format around a central
thought and it involves a unique combination of imagery, colour and visual-spatial
arrangement which is proven to significantly improve recall when compared to
conventional methods of note-taking and learning by rote. It needs imagination and
association to activate our brain in remembering something.
Based on DePotter and Hernacki as translated into English (2008) mind
mapping is the use of whole brains technique by using the visualization and other
graphic infrastructure to make an impression.
Antonacci (1991) advocates that mind mapping as an effective post reading
strategies as well because it provides students with a tool to recall, organize, and
represent visually the new information in conjunction with the old information.
In summary, Mind mapping can help poor readers to read more effectively
because the format can show the relative importance of individual points and the
way in which facts relate to one another. 16

(see the example of mind mapping Buzan‟s principles below)
1.3.4. The Classification of mind mapping techniques

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1.3.5. Advantages and disadvantages of mind mapping techniques
1.3.5.1. Advantages of mind mapping techniques

Buzan (2007) proposes to use mind mapping technique because it makes
students to be imaginative, to find new idea, to save time, to be creative, to keep
note, to develop a concept, and to perform a presentation.
Similarly, Hofland (2007) argues that mind mapping can contribute to
learner‟s motivation because of its creative aspects. This statement is supported by
Bono (1969 cited in Hofland) who states that “creativity is a great motivator
because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope
that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of
achievement everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting”.
Additionally, Stanley (2004) affirmed that mind mapping techniques can
help students generate their ideas more easily.
Based on theories above, it can be concluded that the use of mind mapping
technique in classroom is effective because it could increase student‟s motivation
and make the teachers easier to explain the learning material.
1.3.5.2. Disadvantages of mind mapping techniques