(SKKN 2022) using mindmaps to promote english learning in class 5a at van xuan primary school

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THUONG XUAN DIVISION OF EDUCATION AND
TRAINING

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

“USING MINDMAPS TO PROMOTE ENGLISH
LEARNING IN CLASS 5A AT VAN XUAN PRIMARY
SCHOOL”

The writer: Cam Thi Huong
Position: Teacher
School: Van Xuan Primary School
The aspect of the research: English

THANH HOA, 2022


Table of content
1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................1
1.1. Reason to choose the topic....................................................1
1.2. The aim of the research...........................................................2
1.3. Subjects of the action research....................................................2
1.4. The methods of study.......................................................................2
2. CONTENT....................................................................................................2
2.1. Theorical background.......................................................................2
2.2. Current status of the problem before applying research....3
* The general situation....................................................................3
* The teachers.......................................................................................4
*The reality of teaching English at Van Xuan primary

school.........................................................................................................4
* Result of the current reality.....................................................4
2.3. Some solutions are used to solve the problems....................5
Solution 1. Using mindmaps to revise old lessons.........5
Solution 2. Using mindmaps for warm-up activities.....7
Solution 3. Using mindmaps to teach vocabulary and
sentence patterns.......................................................................................9
Solution 4. Using mindmaps to improve students’ speaking
skill.................................................................................................................12
2.4. The results of applying new solutions......................................13
3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...............................14
3.1. Conclusion...........................................................................................14


3.2. Recommendations...........................................................................14

REFERENCES....................................................................................................


1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Reason to choose the topic
Due to the rapid development of the society and the
integration of all the nations in the world, English plays more
and more important role in many aspects of our life. English,
nowadays, is considered to be not only language of
international aviation but also language of international
business and diplomacy. This makes English become the most
international language in the world. In recent years in our
country, students, parents and all the society have recognized
the importance of acquiring English and using English as means

of communication. It is considered the golden key for students
to be successful and confident in the future. As one of the
instrumental subjects in school, English not only enables
students to formulate and develop their communicative
competences in English but also contributes to the formation
and development of general competences to live and work
more effectively, to learn other subjects well and for lifelong
learning. English provides students with an important
international communication tool, enabling them to exchange
information, advanced scientific and technical knowledge,
explore cultures, thereby leading to intercultural understanding
and promoting a sense of global citizenship, contributing to the
development of personal qualities and competences. Through
learning English and understanding different cultures, students
can better understand and love their own language and culture.
As a compulsory subject in the general education curriculum,
English is also directly inter-related with many other
subjects/educational areas such as Literature/Vietnamese,
Natural and Social Sciences, History and Geography, Arts,
Physical Education, Computing, Experimental Activities. English
is also a tool to teach and learn other subjects, especially
Mathematics and natural sciences. The main objective of the
General education English language curriculum is to enable
students to formulate and develop their communicative
competences through practicing listening, speaking, reading,
writing and linguistic knowledge (pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar).
Communicative
competences
and

linguistic
knowledge are built on the basis of specific units of
communicative competences, in themes and topics relevant to
the needs and abilities of students to help them meet the levels
required in the Vietnam 6-level language proficiency framework


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(promulgated under the Circular No. 01/2014/TTBGDDT dated
24 January 2014 of the Minister of Education and Training),
specifically, students who finish primary school will have
mastered Level 1. At primary level (grades 3-5), English
teaching and learning enables students to initially formulate
and develop their communicative competences through the
four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with more
focus on listening and speaking skills.
The general education English language curriculum is built
with the view that communicative competences are the targets
of the teaching process; linguistic knowledge is a means to
formulate and develop communicative competences through
listening, speaking, reading and writing. At primary level
(grades 3-5), priority should be given to developing listening
and speaking skills.
From the reality of the years I have taught English at Van
Xuan primary school together with the English teaching
methods I have learned from training sessions, good teacher
classes and teaching sessions, I usually wonder about how to
teach my students in a suitable way, help them no longer feel
difficult and stress when speaking English as well as speak

English fluently and logically, therefore their English result is
getting better and better. With the desire to improve students’
communicative competence by speaking English logically and
fluently with a variety of vocabulary and grammar as well as
improve their English learning, I carried a method of using
mindmaps. This method not only creates excitement of learning
English but also motivate them to remember and practice
logically the English words and sentence patterns of each topic
that they have learned. From the above thought, I have
researched and done experiment in class 5A at Van Xuan
Primary School and got the desired results. Therefore, I boldly
give my experience on "Using mindmaps to promote
English learning in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school"
for my friends and colleagues to refer.
1.2. The aim of the research
The aim of this research is to investigate some problems
that elementary students often face up in studying English, the
writer find out some solutions to improve vocabulary and
grammar for students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school
and to help students remember words and sentences more


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easily so that they could speak English fluently and get better
English final scores.
1.3. Subjects of the action research
23 students in class 5A at Van Xuan primary school.
Mindmaps to improve English learning for students in class
5A at Van Xuan primary school.

The steps are taken in English lessons.
1.4. The methods of study
During the study, I used the following methods:
- Survey and investigation are applied to investigate the
quality of students when they learn English through class
activities and tasks in the textbook.
- Observation is applied to observe the activities of
students during the time they are included in the English
lessons.
- Practice is applied when the teachers organize activities
for students
Analysis, statistics, synthesis, comparation and
assessment are applied to assess the progress of students when
they study with mindmaps.
2. CONTENT
2.1. Theorical background
Nowadays in Vietnam, it has become very important for
students to learn one or more foreign languages to use in daily
communication as well as in work, especially English. English is
used everywhere and every time. It is popular that many
children who sell books for tourists can advertise their products
in English or professionals and translators are fluent in English.
However, the question is why so many people learn English for
a long time but when communicating with native speakers, they
find it difficult to speak out. The answer is due to the shortage
of logic vocabulary, grammar as well as the confidence of
expressing ideas relating to topics.
Using mindmaps in teaching English will help pupils recall the
knowledge of vocabulary and sentence patterns, therefore
enhance speaking logically and coherently. The pupils will

acquire knowledge actively, gentle way and will remember
better. As a result, their learning result will be better.
The mind map is an expression of radiant thinking and is
therefore a natural function of the human mind. It is a powerful
graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlocking
the potential of the brain. (Buzan, 1993). According to Sujana


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(2006), mind mapping is recommended as a good technique to
absorb information presented in the text they need to take the
key words and connect one key word to other key words in
order to connect one idea to other idea and get the main idea
or the big idea of the text, get the specific information and to be
able to retain the information. That’s why the students will have
a good ability to rewrite what they have learnt and as the
consequences, they had a good ability in recalling words or
sentence patterns. Mind mapping is a good technique to solve
the students problem in recalling old lesson.
In order to create a mind-map, people usually start in the
middle of the page to draw the central theme or main idea.
Then, draw wider in all directions to create a growing diagram
composed of keywords, concepts, facts, and information.
Furthermore, mind-map graphically show ideas in a relational
framework,with the main topic at the center of the paper, major
subtopics on branches derive from the main topic, and subsubtopics around each major subtopic. Mind map can be
created using paper and pens or using one of several computer
applications (Murley 2007) Based on the explanation above,
mind mapping can help the students to generate their mind.

Besides, teacher can use mind mapping as a strategy in
teaching. Mind map is easy to create, students can create it on
a blank of paper using pen or pencil. What is more, they can
use computer to draw a mind map.
2.2. Current status of the problem before applying
research
* The general situation
Van Xuan primary school is situated in the mountainous
area in the West of Thanh Hoa province. The living condition is
low. A large number of parents work far from their children and
do not have time to teach them to study, especially teach their
children to study English at home. In addition, the number of
students in a class is rather crowded, so in the teaching
process, teachers cannot cover and support students in time.
Moreover, infrastructure and teaching materials for students
and teachers such as dictionaries, books, tapes, radio,
projectors,… are not fully invested.
* The teachers
We have well-trained teachers who are willing to learn
and update new teaching methods.


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The teachers initially approached using relatively good
teaching techniques
The teacher has been familiar and
active with how to organize a language lesson.
The teacher has flexible coordination of teaching
techniques and has creation of teaching aids in accordance with

the content of lessons, so many lessons to learn become lively,
charismatic and effective.
* students
Students are interested in learning English and curious to
discover the topics in the book.
*The reality of teaching English at Van Xuan primary
school
From the beginning stage of teaching English at Van Xuan
primary school, through the regular practice of the first
semester, I noticed that the English speaking of students in
class 5A was too weak, they were afraid of speaking English, as
well as having difficulties in writing or describing a problem
even though it is very simple. Most students have no contact
with native speakers, so they also have limitations in reacting to
English.
From the fact, I personally think that it is absolutely
necessary to have a method that helps my students improve
their speaking as well as their vocabulary, so I have studied and
created a method for my students.
* Result of the current reality
In order to have measurements and methods to improve
students’ learning scores and speaking skill, I have surveyed
the speaking ability of students at class 5A from the beginning
of the school year and obtained these following results:
Total Fluency and coherence
Lexical and grammar
resource
Good

Not good

Good

Not good

23

5

18

7

16

100
%

21,7%

78,3%

30,4 %

69,6 %

I also had 23 students in class 5A do written tests and the
following was the result of their written tests:
Total

Wellcompleted

Completed

Not-Completed


6

Amou Perce Amou Percent Amount Perce
nt
nt
nt
nt
23
7
30,4%
6
26,1 %
10
43,5%
From the above tables, I can see that my students’capacity
is too bad. They are lack of vocabulary and grammar. Only 7
students can remember some words and simple sentence
patterns that they have learnt. This is the reason why their
speaking is not coherent and fluent. Of course, their shortage of
vocabulary and grammar leads to the bad scores in the written
tests. The figure of well-completed students only accounts for
30,4%, while the rate of not-completed ones reaches 43,5%.
To improve the situation, I have researched and studied

some measurements to improve speaking skill and learning
scores for my students in class 5A and get the hopeful result.
2.3. Some solutions are used to solve the problems
As a language learner, you work hard to expand your
vocabulary,or write full sentences to remember sentence
patterns . You plough through new words every day, make long
lists of words and practise with flashcards. However, when it
comes to speaking, the new words seem to fall out of your
head, so you resort to your old friends – words you already
know and have used many times – again and again. As one of
the most effective learning techniques, mind mapping can help
students take better notes, improve comprehension, and foster
creativity. Like other techniques, mindmaps are carried out from
simple tasks to difficult tasks, from controlled activities to free
activities. In the first place, teacher will be the instructer who
draws, completes, and sometimes presents the topics to make
student be familiar with the use of mindmaps. Then, teacher
would give students chance to create and present their
mindmaps with given topics.
I do the following steps when implementing a mindmap in
teaching English:
Firstly, I draw a shape or an image in the middle and write
your main topic of vocabulary that I intend to develop. Or I can
ask my students draw the mindmaps themselves to do the
given task.
Then, I ask students to develop the related topics around
this central topic, connecting each of them to the center with a
line by thinking of words or phrases based on the given topic as
much as possible (maybe in their native language)

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After that, I invite students to write words or phrases to
complete the mindmap on the board or in their paper.
Finally, I would ask some student to present the completed
topics. In the half of the first term, my students presented
vocabulary mainly in order to build up their confidence when
speaking in front of others.
Solution 1. Using mindmaps to revise old lessons
Revising lessons on a daily basis helps you to remember the
topics, facts whatever you have studied. It will increase your
confidence and will help you in reducing exams anxiety. It
allows students to study at their own pace without exhausting
themselves. Revising gives students an opportunity to reflect
on what they've learnt. This will help them to recall old words/
sentence patterns and remember them better. Therefore, their
English would be improved.
- Eg 1: When teaching Unit 1: What’s your address? (lesson 2), the
teacher would like to revise the words and sentences patterns in Unit
1(lesson 1), teacher would draw the following map and asked “What’s
your address?”, students would stand up and answer “ It’s Bu
Don/ Cong Thuong village”. Teacher completed the map.
By answering the teacher’s question and looking at the
mindmap, students can recollect all words/ phrase/ sentence
patterns relating to the topic “address”, and practise speaking
skill.
Cong Thuong village
105,
Hoa Binh Lane

What’s your address?
Bu Don village
75, Hai
Ba Trung street
- E.g 2: Using mindmaps to revise the new words of “Unit
15: What would you like to be in the future?” (Lesson 3)
+ By completing the mindmaps, all the words relating to
the topic “Jobs” are recalled, not only in previous lesson but also
in old lessons they have learnt in grade 4. Students are fond of
speaking out the words.


8

Revising vocabulary and sentence patterns Unit 15:
“What would you like to be in the future”
- E.g 3: The revision of vocabulary and grammar was
effectively carried out. Students presented their last-weekend
activities by completing the mindmaps and talking about them
through looking at the finished map.


9

e.g Revising vocabulary and sentence patterns: “What
did you do last weekend?- I……………..”
Solution 2. Using mindmaps for warm-up activities
A language warm-up is a simple language task that helps
you and your students to recall, review, and introduce

information. Usually you will want to use this task to begin your
class, but you can also use it to shift gears to a new topic or
language focus midway through the class session. Language
warm-ups are an important part of a language learning routine,
lesson plan, and classroom environment. They’re an incredible
tool for increasing student engagement and learning, and
they’re one of the best ways to ensure that your students are
present in the classroom and ready for the lesson. Warm ups
are important to create a good environment in your class and to
make students feel comfortable with the topic. A warm-up
activity helps them ease into the classroom and the expectation
of learning in a low-key way that isn’t stressful. With the use of
mindmaps, it not only creates a relaxing environment to
prepare students for the new lessons but also promote students
to brainstorm about the topics they are going to study.
- E.g 1: Teacher would like to lead in the topic this weekend
activities of “ Unit 5: Where will you be this weekend?”
(Lesson 2)
+ she would draw the following midmap.


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+ The students discussed freely, some students might
draw pictures relating to the topic.
+ With this warm-up technique, students are well-prepared
for the new lesson, they can imagine what they are going to
learn.

E.g: elicit vocabulary Unit 5: Where will you be this

weekend? (Lesson 2)
- E.g 2: Unit 15: What would you like to be in the
future?
+ Teacher drew a bubble map with a familiar topic to
students “Jobs in the future”.
+ Students completed the map by thinking of the jobs
they would like to be in the future (maybe in Vietnamese).
+ I discovered that all students in class took part in this
activity actively.
Teacher
president

Jobs in the future
Police
businessman


11

Famous singer
+ The students are very interested in this topic, they freely
talked about which jobs they would like to be in the future.
+ On behalf of the completed mindmap, teacher leaded to
the new lesson. Therefore, students are well-prepared for the
new topic.
Solution 3. Using mindmaps to teach vocabulary and
sentence patterns
Vocabulary is the most important skill when learning
/teaching a foreign language. It is on vocabulary that all the
other skills like reading, writing, speaking, and listening are

based and developed. Vocabulary helps students express
themselves more precisely and sharpens communication skills it
also requires students to cognitive academic language
proficiency. Without a sufficient understanding of words, it’s
difficult for students to understand others or express their
ideas. Teaching vocabulary is important across the curriculum
from language arts and social studies to mathematics and
science. By learning several words at the students’ disposal of
describing events or emotions, they can be that explicit when
sharing ideas their ideas and opinions. Vocabulary is an
important element in second language (L2) acquisition. By
learning new words, learners can enhance their listening,
speaking, reading and writing as well as improve
comprehension and production in L2. When a person’s
vocabulary is limited, he may find himself incompetent in
learning English as he cannot make full sentences.
Grammar is rules of a language. Grammar is a system of
meaningful structures and patterns that are governed by
particular pragmatic constraints‖ (Larsen-Freeman, 2001). In
another definition, grammar is a description of the rules for
forming sentences, including an account of the meanings that
these forms convey (Thornbury, 1999, p.13). In foreign
language acquisition accurate understanding of the language
structures is the key part so teaching grammar is an essential
aspect of foreign language instruction. In the primary level,
teaching grammar is teaching sentence patterns, from the


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model sentences, students make correct sentences and
produce dialogues or write a passage.
Determining the crucial role of vocabulary and sentence
patterns, I have used a lot of techniques in teaching process. I
am sure that mindmaps are one of the most helpful techniques
for eliciting, teaching, checking and revising both vocabulary
and grammar.
Mind mapping can help students learn vocabulary easier.
According to Murley (2007: 175), “mind maps are a nonlinear
visual outline of complex 241 information that can aid
creativity, organization, productivity, and memory”. Students
can easily speak out or write down words relating to the given
topics. it would be easier to communicate reasonably without
many problems if you could use enough appropriate vocabulary
in context. So, mindmap is one of the best ways to connect
words with their equivalent topics.
- E.g 1: Teaching vocabulary “Unit 15: What would you
like in the future?”


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Teaching vocabulary “unit 15: What would you like to be
in the future?”
+ Teacher used flash cards as a topic to elicit jobs and
actions
+ Teacher wrote words/phrases
+ Teacher read and students repeated in chorus, then
individually.
+ By looking at these visualizing data, students remember

words/ phrases faster and more deeply.
+ Teacher could check vocabulary by mixing the
flashcards, students reorders correctly and easily repeated
words/ phrases aloud. Their vocabulary is built up, so their
confidence of speaking English is gradually expanded.
Mindmaps are also effective tools to teaching sentence
paterns. When looking at the finished minmaps, students easily
produce other skills like speaking or writing.
- E.g 2: Using mindmaps for teaching sentence
patterns “Unit 4: Did you go to the party? (Lesson 1)
+ Teacher drew a bubble map with topic “Last weekend”
on the board .
+ Teacher students call out the words/phrases first.
+ teacher leaded to the sentence patterns with yes/no
questions
+ Students practised in pairs.


14


15

Solution 4. Using mindmaps to improve students’
speaking skill
I find that mindmaps are one of the best ways to promote
my students to speak coherently, confidently and fluently.
In order to encourage and evaluate students ability in
speaking, the teacher asks students to speak about each topic
in front of the class.He/ she asks the students to make a simple

mind map about each given topic. He/she tells them how to
convey idea structurally using mind map application.
The students present their mind mapping in front of the
class.
The researcher gives homework to the students about
given topics on mind mapping.
The researcher checks old lessons by asking students to
speak about given topics, they speak based on their mind map
that the researcher asked them to create as their homework.
- E.g 1: Using mindmaps for presenting vocabulary
and sentence patterns “Unit 6: How many lesson do you
have today? (Lesson 1)”
+ The speaking lesson is getting more interesting and
attracted with the help of bubble maps. More vocabulary and
ideas are collected in a presentation. Subjects and days in a
week are all memorized.
+ Students would prepare for their speaking first by
completing the map as a mean of taking note.
+ Students’ speaking is fluent and logical by looking at the
maps when speaking.


16

Students’ presentation on topic “Timetable”
- E.g 2: Unit 18: “What will the weather be like
tomorrow?”
+ Homework: Watch the weather forecast on TV and draw
a map of weather
+ Each students would draw a map of weather and

complete it by watching the weather forecast on TV
+ In the next lesson, the teacher would invite some
students to talk about the weather that they have written.
+ Suprisingly, almost students did the homework well and
their presentations were excellent.


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E.g: Homework on topic “The weather”
2.4. The results of applying new solutions
After a year of using these solutions, I have found that my
students’ learning records as well as their speaking has been
improved. Before there were lots of students afraid of
presenting their ideas in front of others but now they are more
confident and excited in speaking English in English class. After
having a survey of speaking ability, I evaluate them based on
these criterias and I have obtained these following result.
Tota Fluency and coherence
Lexical and grammar
l
resource
Good
Not good
Good
Not good
23
13
10
20

3
100
56,5 %
43,5 %
87 %
13 %
%
I also had 23 students in class 5A do written tests and the
following was the result of their written tests:
WellCompleted
Not-Completed
completed
Total
Amou Perce Amou Percent Amount Perce
nt
nt
nt
nt
23
17
73,9%
6
26,1 %
0
0
Comparing with the result of the survey in the beginning of
the school year, overall, both speaking ability and study results
have significant changes. The rate of students with good
fluency and coherence increases to 56,5 %, this was over two
times higher than that figure in the beginning of that school

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year. The rate of students who are not good at Lexical and
grammar resource decreases from 69,6 % to 13%. Their
speaking is getting better, as a result, their last second
semester tests have improved greatly. The percentage of wellcompleted students is 73,9% and there are no bad students.
Besides, the study on mindmapping teaching methods for
students has contributed to improve my pedagogical skills and
abilities as well as contribute to the innovation of English
teaching methods. In the condition of mountainous area, the
lack of teaching facilities, the opportunity to interact with native
speakers is little; the initial success I obtained is a very happy
thing for me.
When applying the mindmaps, the English lessons have
become more interesting. The pupils remembered words and
sentence patterns in the class and especially, they could
practise these patterns fluently.
This method can be applied to every lesson in grade 3, 4,
5. However, each lesson has different topic; teachers need to
apply it wisely and creatively.
3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1. Conclusion
From the fact, we see that the English teaching for
elementary students is not simple. It requires teachers to have
a creative teaching method that is easy to understand. In the
coming time, I will continue to learn from documents, friends
and colleagues as well as from practical experience to have
methods to teach English that is suitable for my students, at the

same time improving my English teaching methods.
I see that when mind mapping has been applied to teach
English at Van Xuan primary school. It is like a key which
unlocks memories, mind mapping benefits students in many
respects. First, it helps associate new information to prior
knowledge. Instead of rote learning, it forces students to find
connections in their head that leads to meaningful learning.
Second, it is an effective tool to figure out complex issues. Once
all the ideas are presented, they can be grouped and illustrated
in a highly organized structure that gives students a deeper
understanding than before. Third, mind mapping ignites
creativity and makes learning more spontaneous, flexible and
enjoyable. Students are allowed to empty out their heads once
any ideas strike them.


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3.2. Recommendations
*
To Thuong Xuan Chamber of Education and Training:
English teachers need to have more exchanging idea
activities to help them enrich their experiences in teaching
English. Therefore, Seminars should be organized to introduce
the topic to all colleagues for discussion to have positive
teaching methods for elementary students.
*
To Van Xuan primary school leaders:
English Club should be held regularly so that students
have more chance to improve their speaking skill as well as

their confidence.
Equipments for teaching English such as dictionaries,
books, newspapers, tapes, pictures, flashcards and projectors
should be well furnished.
This is my experience of improving English speaking and
English learning at class 5A. I am looking forwards to receiving
faithful comments from colleagues to help my theme become
more successful. I would like to put my ideal of having
functional rooms for teaching foreign language. I sincerely
thanks!
Thuong Xuan, March 20th, 2022
THE CONFIRMATION OF THE
I hereby undertake this
PRINCIPAL
is
my
own
experience
initiative, not copying the
contents of other people.
Writer

Nguyễn Đình Quý
Cầm Thị Hương


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REFERENCES

1.
English Teaching Methodology. Nguyen Thi Vân Lam, M.A,
Ngo Đinh Phuong, Ph.D, 2007.
2.
English textbook 5.
Vietnam
3.

Education Publishing House of

Website:

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