MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

THE EFFECTS OF MIND MAPPING ON THE 12TH GRADERS’
VOCABULARY LEARNING AT NGUYEN VAN KHAI HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by DO NGUYEN XUAN THAO

Supervisor: NGUYEN THANH TUNG, Assoc. Prof. Dr.

HO CHI MINH City
November 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
------------------------------------------

DO NGUYEN XUAN THAO

THE EFFECTS OF MIND MAPPING ON THE 12TH GRADERS’
VOCABULARY LEARNING AT NGUYEN VAN KHAI HIGH SCHOOL

Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES
Major code: 60140111

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL



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ABSTRACT
The teaching and learning of vocabulary at a high school has recently been paid much
more attention to by teachers and learners. However, many students still have some
trouble in lexical learning due to the lack of a suitable learning strategy. Thus, this study
was carried out to examine the role of „mind mapping‟ in improving vocabulary of the
12th graders at Nguyen Van Khai High School in Dong Thap Province.
Based on the theoretical framework of mind-mapping, the quasi-experimental research
was carried out during the first semester. Fifty-six students of the two classes at Nguyen
Van Khai High School were divided into two groups: control group and experimental
group. Data were collected from three sources: (1) the final Grade 11 exam of the second
semester of the previous academic year and post-test to estimate the students‟ vocabulary
improvement after the treatment, (2) the pre- and post- questionnaire to assess what the
changes in their attitude towards vocabulary learning with mind-mapping were, and (3)
interview with ten students in the experimental group to clarify their attitude.
The findings of the study reveal that mind-mapping affects the Nguyen Van Khai High
School students‟ lexical ability a lot. In fact, it not only helps them remember words
longer but also do tests better. Moreover, questionnaires and interviews show that they
feel more relaxed, active, creative, and learner-centered. Thanks to this, their motivation
to learn vocabulary increased.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ...................................................................................... i

3.2 Research site ........................................................................................................... 33
3.3 Research participants ............................................................................................. 34
3.4 Research instruments .............................................................................................. 36
3.4.1 Teaching material: Textbook ............................................................................ 36
3.4.2 The measurement instruments .......................................................................... 39
3.5 Procedure ................................................................................................................ 43
3.6 Analytical framework ............................................................................................. 44
3.6.1 Quantitative analysis of the Grade 11 final exam and post-test ....................... 44
3.6.2 Quantitative analysis of pre- and post-questionnaire ........................................ 45
3.6.3 Qualitative analysis of interview ...................................................................... 46
3.7 Validity and reliability............................................................................................ 46
3.8 Summary................................................................................................................. 48
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS ............................................... 49
4.1 Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 49
4.1.1 Results in the tests.............................................................................................. 49
4.1.2 Results from questionnaires ............................................................................... 54
4.1.3 Results from interview ....................................................................................... 65
4.1.4 Overall summary ............................................................................................... 69
4.2 Discussion of findings .............................................................................................. 69
4.2.1 General findings ................................................................................................. 69
4.2.2 Specific findings ................................................................................................ 70
4.2.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 74
4.3 Chapter summary ..................................................................................................... 75
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................... 76
5.1 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 76
5.2 Strengths and limitations in the methodology of the study...................................... 76
5.3 Recommendations .................................................................................................... 77
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KWL chart ................................................................................................ 9

Figure 2.4.a: Venn diagram ............................................................................................. 9
Figure 2.4.b: Venn diagram of Whales and Fish ............................................................ 9
Figure 2.5:

QAR ........................................................................................................ 10

Figure 2.6:

Web organizer ......................................................................................... 11

Figure 2.7:

T chart ..................................................................................................... 11

Figure 2.8:

A network tree ........................................................................................ 12

Figure 2.9:

An event chain ....................................................................................... 12

Figure 2.10:

A cycle concept map .............................................................................. 12

Figure 2.11:


Figure 2.19:

The structure of semantic maps ............................................................. 17

Figure 2.20:

How to make a mind mapping ............................................................... 20

Figure 4.1:

Pre-test score distribution of control and experimental group ................ 49

Figure 4.2:

Post-test score distribution of control and experimental group ............... 50

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Participants‟ characteristics ...............................................................................35
Table 3.2: Teaching material ....................................................................................... 37
Table 3.3: Five degrees of grades to classify the students‟ ability .............................. 40
Table 3.4: Summary of instruments of data collection ................................................ 42
Table 3.5: Schedule for the main stages of data collection ......................................... 43
Table 3.6: Reliability statistics for pre-questionnaire .................................................. 48
Table 3.7: Reliability statistics for post-questionnaire ................................................ 48
Table 4.1: Group statistics of pre-test results .............................................................. 51
Table 4.2: Independent samples t-test of the two groups before the treatment ........... 52


Disagree

EFL:

English as a Foreign Language

F:

Female

GCSE:

General Certificate for Secondary Education

MOET:

Ministry of Education and Training

M:

Mean or Male

MANOVA: Multivariate Analysis of Variance
MM(s):

Mind mapping(s)

N:


this country Many foreign companies now invest in the Vietnamese market. There
are now good opportunities for English learners and users to find better jobs.
Therefore, it is becoming necessary for people to study English.
To master English well, one has to learn four skills, namely reading,
speaking, listening, and writing. Moreover, one has to grasp language areas such as
pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Among them, vocabulary plays an
influential part in learning English. Wilkins (1987, p. 135) declares that one can
express a few things even when one has no grammar; however, one could not
express anything without words. To prove the importance of vocabulary, Krashen
(1987, as cited in Lewis, 1993, p. iii) similarly asserts that when students travel
now, they will carry dictionaries instead of grammar books. Vocabulary is
extremely important to the process of learning English. It is an essential part of the
four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In these skills, if learners lack
lexical knowledge, they cannot demonstrate how well they have acquired the
language. With it, they feel more confident in attending a listening comprehension
test or an oral contest. They also communicate with others better. The more
vocabulary they acquire, the better they become.
Learning vocabulary has become a very important part of learning English.
Nevertheless, Vietnamese students are not very good at learning English
vocabulary and in rural areas – where information technology is not advanced
enough to meet the requirements of learning a foreign language – students still
encounter some obstacles.

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Firstly, some students do not have a sustainable interest in learning
vocabulary (Dilek & Yürük, 2012). English is a compulsory subject at almost all
high schools and it plays an important role in the General Certificate for Secondary
Education (GCSE), a fact that can make some students psychologically stressed. As

language usage.
The last reason for the brevity of students‟ vocabulary is that they do not
have a chance to practice it regularly (Nguyen, 2009). Therefore, they realize that
while they have already learnt the words, they cannot remember them through lack
of practice. They do not even understand how to use these lexical items in other
contexts. In recent years, one has seen a greater awareness of the questions that
need to be addressed with regard to vocabulary learning by researchers and material
designers; techniques for teaching and learning vocabulary have been provided for
students in order to motivate them to learn more effectively.
The above-mentioned reasons raise some valid questions that need
answering. To put it another way, effective solutions have to be found to enhance
students‟ methods of learning and retaining vocabulary.
There are many techniques to teach vocabulary, such as those that use
pictures, films and videos, and translating. Another technique is the use of mindmapping because it is a powerful tool to optimize the brain‟s ability to create, learn
and remember. Buzan (1993, p. 1) states that mind mapping is “a powerful graphic
technique providing a universal key to unchain the potential of brain”. This
technique is like the thinking process in that it enables us to change from one topic
to another, from one side to another. It records the information via the use of
symbols, images, emotional meaning, and colors, like a progression in the brain
(Effendi, 2004, p. 8). Consisting of pictures, symbols and coloration, it produces
patterns that not only helps students to understand lexical knowledge but also makes
them feel good and enjoyable. It attracts their brain activity and leads students to
have an interest in mastering lexical knowledge. Velliaris (2009, p. 1) states that
one‟s own key ideas and links among them helps one improve understanding and
retain information. One‟s thinking will be refined by classifying and grouping

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related ideas. Moreover, mind-mapping also activates one‟s thoughts in ways that

writer of this study wants to know her students‟ attitudes towards vocabulary
learning with mind-mapping. Based on their feedback, she will reconsider what she
has done to now and think of the possibilities inherent to applying mind-mapping in
teaching her students‟ vocabulary in the following years.
1.5 Structure of the study
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the study by
providing the context of the research, the statement of the problem, the aim and
research questions, the significance of the study, and the structure of the thesis.
Chapter 2 reviews relevant literature to shape the conceptual framework for the
study by presenting the issues related to mind-mapping, such as its definition,
classification, characteristics, and its effects on teaching and learning vocabulary.
The chapter ends with empirical research related to the topic of this study. Chapter 3
justifies the methodology employed to conduct this study by presenting the research
site, participants, instruments, study procedures and analytical framework. It also
takes into account the issues of reliability and validity. Chapter 4 analyzes the data
collected from the three instruments of tests, questionnaire and interview.
Moreover, in this chapter, the researcher discusses the findings of the study based
on the results analyzed and interpreted in the previous part. The final chapter –
Chapter 5 – draws overall conclusions by answering the research questions,
evaluates the methodology employed to carry out the research, gives some
recommendations for English practitioners, and suggests topics for further research.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 2 presents the theoretical framework of the study. It deals with such
issues as the concept of mind-mapping; the particulars of its definition,
classification and characteristics appear first. Next, it synthesizes different ways to
achieve mind-mapping. It then discusses its advantages and disadvantages in

associated with it can be drawn. Besides, Strangman, Vue, Hall, and Meyer (2003,
p. 1) state that semantic-mapping is a „diagrammatic exhibition‟ in which the
connection between terms and ideas is shown in learners‟ task performance. The
map helps a reader reconstruct meaning by integrating and retaining information
systematically (Bogatikov, n.d., p. 2). Luu and Le (2011, p. 130) show a clear
distinction between a concept map and concept mapping. They conclude that a
concept map consists of concepts connected in a diagram whereas concept mapping
is a technique exhibiting the knowledge structure of given topics and the
relationship among these topics within this structure.
Moreover, mind-mapping is a visual representation of hierarchical
information that includes a central idea surrounded by the connective branches of
associated topics. One can also say that mind-mapping, which does not have to be
abstract, is basically a visual representation of ideas and the relationship between
them. According to Wikipedia (2013), the free encyclopedia, a mind-map is an
image-centered diagram being used as a symbol of semantics – or other connections
– in a radical, non-lineal graphical manner. It thus stimulates students‟
organizational skills by using a „brainstorming‟ approach.
In some ways, mind-mapping is like a traditional „outline‟ that presents
written ideas on paper within an organizational system. It uses a free-flowing
system of images, texts, and lines that spread out from a central idea that is
represented by a central image and is employed to explore ideas and stimulate the
mind.
Although there are various definitions of mind-mapping, all these share
something in common. They are visual representations of categorical relationships.

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The connections among the ideas generated in mind-mapping are displayed by
lines, colors, arrows, images, and pictures, which motivate the brain and allow

On my own. In Right there questions, the answer can easily be found in the text.
The answers to Think and search questions are also in the text, but at a higher
level; readers must know the same meaning of the word in the question and in the
text to find out the correct answer. They may look in different parts of the text.
Author and me questions are not available in the text. The reader needs to use his
or her own background knowledge and infer the information in the text to find out
the result. Finally, On my own questions are an extension to Author and me
questions. Moreover, the reader need not read the text; they solicit his or her
opinions.

Figure 2.5: QAR (Weebly, n.d.)
4. Web organizer: it looks like a net in which the large circle in the center is
connected with the smaller circles outside by many lines.

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Figure 2.6: Web organizer (Wise, 2014)
5. T chart: it is a chart in which the students can list two facets of the topic
or two things from the same chapter.

Figure 2.7: T chart (Enchanted Learning, 2003/2015)
Trianto (2009, as cited in Effendi, 2004, pp. 10-11) distinguishes four kinds
of mind-mapping: (1) network-tree, (2) event-chain, (3) cycle-concept map, and (4)
spider-concept map.
(1) Network-tree: It consists of main ideas written in rectangles based on
hierarchy; the relationship between ideas and words is written on the lines in the
map.

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p. 21)

Figure 2.14: Word connections (Antonacci, 2015, p. 22)
Salameh (n.d, p. 6) determines that three kinds of semantic mapping exist:
word-maps, concept-maps and story-maps. A word map consists of a central key
word and many key-related words to help us understand the nature of the central
one. A concept map is a way to organize information about the subjects. A storymap is a map in which the events, characters, settings, etc. in the story are arranged
chronologically and logically.

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