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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION
RESEARCH AT HIEP HOA HIGH SCHOOL NUMBER 1
(Sử dụng bản đô tư duy đê tăng cường khả năng ghi nhơ từ vựng:
Nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Hiệp Hoà số 1)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201
THAI NGUYEN – 2018

i


THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION
RESEARCH AT HIEP HOA HIGH SCHOOL NO.1
(Sử dụng bản đô tư duy đê tăng cường khả năng ghi nhơ từ vựng:
Nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Hiệp Hoà số 1)

M.A THESIS
(APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Dr. Pham Lan Anh

ii


THAI NGUYEN – 2018

iii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I declare that this research report entitled “Using mind mapping technique
to enhance students' vocabulary retention: An action research at Hiep Hoa
high school number one” has been composed by myself, and describes my own
work, unless otherwise acknowledged in the text. I confirm that this work is
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master at Thai
Nguyen University. This work has not been and will not be submitted for any other
degree at any other institution of higher education.

Author’s Signature:

Nguyễn Lan Hương
Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Phạm Lan Anh, Ph.D.
Date: December 2018

4


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep
appreciation to my supervisor, Phạm Lan Anh Ph.D, for her helpful and timely
encouragement as well as her insightful comments on my work from the beginning
to the end of the study. Without these, the thesis could not have been completed.
Secondly, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible
without the cooperation from forty students of 11A9 class at Hiep Hoa high school
number one who have been willing to participate in the study. I am very grateful
to all of them for providing detailed information for the analysis of the study.
I would also acknowledge my great gratitude to all the lecturers at School of
Foreign Languages - Thai Nguyen University for their valuable lectures, which
have contributed to lay the foundation for this thesis.
Thirdly, I take this opportunity to show my gratitude to my colleagues and
friends for their great help and comments. Without their help, this study could not
have been fulfilled.
Last but not least, I must express my gratitude to my beloved family - my
parents, my husband and my sons whose support and encouragement have always
been a great deal of strength that has helped me to complete this thesis.

5


ABTRACT
The main objective of this action research was to solve the problem of

students’ poor memorization of the taught vocabulary by utilizing mind maps. The
researcher then evaluated the effectiveness of using mind mapping technique to
enhance students' vocabulary retention and explored the student’s attitude toward the
teaching and learning vocabulary with this technique. Based on the aims, forty
grade11-students studying English in class 11A9 at Hiep Hoa High school number one
took part in the study. Pre-tests, post-tests, questionnaires and interviews were
chosen to be the data collection instruments to find out the effects of mind mapping
technique on students’ memory in vocabulary learning after the intervention. The
researcher as the teacher wanted to apply mind mapping technique to increase
students’ potentials in retaining the taught vocabulary. In this study, the reseacher
adopted Nunan’s action research procedure. The procedure included 7 steps namely
initiation,

preliminary

investigation,

hypotheses,

intervention,

evaluation,

dissemination and follow-up. The results from the pre-tests and post-tests were used
to discover the effects of mind mapping technique on students’ vocabulary mastery.
The mean scores were determined to compare the differences between the pre-test
and post-test. Paired sample t-test was used to verify the statistical difference of the
findings and measure students’s long-term retention of the words taught during the
intervention.The results from the questionnaires and interviews were used to help
the researcher to clarify the students’ attitude towards mind mapping technique in

vocabulary learning. It was shown through the statistic data that there was a
remarkable improvement in students’ vocabulary learning after the intervention and
most of the students had positive attitudes, righteous perception and good behaviour
towards the techniques in vocabulary learning. It was concluded that using mind
mapping technique is one of the good ways to enhance students' vocabulary
retention and it exerts students' postitive attitudes in vocabulary learning.

6


LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. What is involved in knowing a word (Nation, 2001, p.40-41) p.9-10
Table 3.1. A schedule of applying vocabulary tasks in language skill

p.33

lessons
Table 3.2. Test description of the pre-test and post-test

p.35

Table 3.3. A schedule of the data collection procedure

p.37

Table 4.1. Descriptive Statistics

p.41

Table 4.2. Paired Samples Statistics

p.42

Table 4.3. Paired samples t-test for pre-test and post-test

p.44

Table 4.4. The effects of mind mapping technique in the students’

p.45

vocabulary learning
Table 4.5. Students' attitudes towards using mind mapping technique in p.47-48
vocabulary learning

vii


LIST OF DIAGRAMS
Diagram 4.1: Distribution of scores in the pre-test and post-test

p.41

Diagram 4.2: Plot of probability distribution of scores in the pre-test

p.42

Diagram 4.3: Plot of probability distribution of scores in the post-test

p.43

Diagram 4.4: The effects of mind mapping technique in the students’

p.46

vocabulary learning
Diagram 4.5: The attitude of the students towards mind mapping
techniques in their vocabulary learning

8

p.50


TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... v
ABTRACT................................................................................................................ vi
LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................. vii
LIST OF DIAGRAMS .......................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale of the study ........................................................................................ 1
1.2. Aims of the study ............................................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study .............................................................................................. 3
1.4. Significance of the study ................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 5
2.1. Vocabulary in language learning ..................................................................... 5
2.1.1. Definitions of vocabulary ................................................................................. 5
2.1.2. The role of vocabulary in language learning .................................................... 6
2.1.3. Vocabulary learning ......................................................................................... 7

2.1.3.1. Knowing a word ............................................................................................ 8
2.1.3.2. Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning ............................................. 10
2.2. Mind mapping in vocabulary learning .......................................................... 12
2.2.1. An overview of mind mapping ....................................................................... 12
2.2.2. Characteristics of mind maps ......................................................................... 12
2.2.3. Steps of making mind maps ........................................................................... 13


2.2.4. Mind mapping in vocabulary learning ........................................................... 14
2.3. Attitude in language learning ......................................................................... 16
2.3.1. An overview of attitude .................................................................................. 16
2.3.2. The role of attitude in language learning........................................................ 17
2.4. Review of related studies................................................................................. 18
2.5. Summary .......................................................................................................... 20
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 27
3.1. Research Design ............................................................................................... 27
3.1.1. The setting of the study .................................................................................. 27
3.1.2. Action Research.............................................................................................. 29
3.2. Research Procedure......................................................................................... 30
3.2.1. Participants ..................................................................................................... 30
3.2.2. Action Research Cycle ................................................................................... 30
3.3. Data Collection Instruments........................................................................... 34
3.3.1. Vocabulary Tests ............................................................................................ 34
3.3.2. Questionnaires ................................................................................................ 35
3.3.3. Interview ......................................................................................................... 36
3.4. Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 37
3.5. Summary .......................................................................................................... 38
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................ 39
4.1. Results............................................................................................................... 40
4.1.1. Results of the tests .......................................................................................... 40

4.1.2. Results of the questionnaire............................................................................ 44
4.1.3. Results of the interviews ................................................................................ 50
4.2. Discussion ......................................................................................................... 53
4.3. Summary .......................................................................................................... 55
CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ...................... 55
5.1. Recapitulations ................................................................................................ 56
5.2. Implications ...................................................................................................... 58
5.3. Limitations ....................................................................................................... 59
5.4. Suggestions ....................................................................................................... 59
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 60
Appendix 1: Distribution of points in the pre-test..................................................I
Appendix 2: Distribution of points in the post-test .............................................. II
Appendix 3: PRE-TEST.........................................................................................III
Appendix 4: POST-TEST ....................................................................................... V
Appendix 5: QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................ VII
Appendix 6: QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEWS ................................................. X


xii


CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
English has become one of the most important and useful means of
communication and access to information in the era of the globalization and
international exchange. As a result, the English teaching and learning are being
motivated more and more quickly. Through the history, there have been many

changes in language teaching process. In the past, the main focus was laid on
grammatical description and procedures of drilling. Nowsaday, more and more
attention is paid to real communication. Every effort is made to help students
understand and use the language in an active way. In recent years, the significance
of vocabulary teaching can be seen clearly in language development.
As a language teacher, the researcher recognized the importance of
vocabulary instruction to help students develop the knowledge of vocabulary. This
process contributed greatly to their language learning success. The vocabulary
instruction that students needed to achieve success should include reference to
explicit and independent vocabulary instruction. Although the knowledge of
vocabulary was accepted to be one of the main keys for successful communication
in language, it was difficult to reflect how successfully vocabulary could be
presented. From my teaching experience, I found that high school students learned
more when they were actively involved.
In Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in the formal education
system. As a high school teacher of English, the researcher feels rather concerned
about her students’ English learning, especially their ability in vocabulary retention.
Her students have approached and practised English for years. Under study pressure,
many students learning English also attempt to improve their vocabulary
knowledge. However, they often have many difficulties in learning vocabulary,
especially in memorising and recalling the word meaning. They usually forget the
words they have learnt or use the words inappropriately. They can not keep the
words in mind for a
1


long time and recall them when necessary. It was challenging for them to gain
language knowledge due to lack of vocabulary.
One more thing to consider was the way the words to be studied. Students
only learned the new words after each lesson by rote learning. In addition, when

they had unknown words at home, students often wrote down the words, looked up
the word meanings and then wrote the meaning of the new words in the first
language near the target words. They did not have varied kinds of practice or
revision for the learnt words. The technique seemed to make students passive in
their learning vocabulary for long-term memory.
It could be supposed that students’ bad memory was due to lack of
appropriate vocabulary memorizing strategies. In student-centered learning
environments, students need to be helped in becoming strategic language students.
Learning process focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning and
independent problem solving and motivates students’ autonomy and independence.
They could hardly use English fluently and naturally to meet the average demands
due to lack of vocabulary. In my teaching context at Hiep Hoa High School number
one, the teachers of English seldom used mind mapping technique in teaching
vocabulary. Wondering whether the effectiveness of mind mapping technique could
help students in vocabulary retention, the researcher decided to conduct the study
“Using mind mapping technique to enhance students' vocabulary retention: An
action research at Hiep Hoa high school number one”. The researcher hoped that
students could apply this technique in their studying vocabulary.
1.2. Aims of the study
Being aware of the fact that students had difficulty in memorising and
retaining vocabulary in English, the researcher wanted to apply mind mapping
technique to increase students’ potentials in retaining the taught vocabulary. The
researcher was to evaluate its effects on students’ memory and to explore the
student’s attitude towards the vocabulary teaching and learning with this technique.
Hopefully, the technique could help the students memorize and retain word
meanings effectively.
2


There were two research questions based on the aims of the study:

1. How does mind-map technique help the students memorize and retain
word meanings effectively?
2. What are the students’ attitudes towards mind mapping technique?
1.3. Scope of the study
Due to time constraints, the necessary data for the study were collected from
forty grade 11 students studying English in class 11A9 at Hiep Hoa High school
No.1. The study was carried out during 12 weeks. They were given three teaching
periods of English a week. Each period lasted 45 minutes. They were taught the
words related to the content of unit 10, 11, 12, 13 in English 11 textbook. Each unit
was divided into five parts, including four lessons for four communicative
skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing and one lesson for grammar or
language focus. Vocabulary was not taught in isolation. It was embedded in the skill
which was taught in each of the five lessons.
During a limited period of time, the study could not cover all communicative
skills and all aspects in vocabulary teaching. It mainly focused on the effectiveness
of mind mapping technique to improve students’ vocabulary retention. The findings
of the study are only meaningful in this particular teaching and learning context at
Hiep Hoa high school No.1.
1.4. Significance of the study
The study will be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field
of English language teaching

and

learning. Students can use mind mapping

techniques to learn vocabulary more effectively. Teachers can understand more
about mind mapping techniques and use them to teach vocabulary more
effectively in their lessons. Moreover, other researchers will use the study as a
reliable source of reference in their research.

1.5. Outline of the thesis:
The study was intended to consist of five chapters:

3


Chapter 1: Introduction - This part gave the rationale of the study, reseach
questions, aims, scope, significance and design of the study
Chapter 2: Literature review - This part focused on the definitions of vocabulary,
its importance, vocabulary learning, an overview of mind mapping, its
characteristics, steps of making mind maps, its benefits in vocabulary learning, an
overview of attitude and the role of attitude in language learning as well as previous
studies about using mind-mapping techniques on students’ vocabulary retention.
Chapter 3: Methodology - This part reported the research design and the research
procedure of conducting this study. The detailed information about data collection
instruments and procedure for data analysis were presented.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - This part gave the data analysis from the
research results and made a discussion of the results.
Chapter 5: Recommendations and conclusions - This part gave the summary of the
study and some implications, limitations of the study as well as suggestions for
further studies were proposed. The following section is a bibliography listing all
reference books and materials directly and indirectly quoted in the study. The final
section of the thesis contained the appendices showing all documents serving this
inquiry.

4


CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses the theories and researches into the areas as a base for
this study in general. The first section provides an overview of vocabulary in
language learning and teaching including definitions, the importance of vocabulary
and looks at various aspects of vocabulary learning and teaching as well. The
second section gives an overview of mind mapping, its characteristics, design and
implementation of mind mapping in vocabulary learning. The third section
discusses attitudes in language learning in terms of definition and the role of
attitudes in language learning. The chapter concludes with a review of related
studies on mind mapping.
2.1. Vocabulary in language learning
2.1.1. Definitions of vocabulary
Up till now, there has been a wide variety of definitions of vocabulary. In
order to find the best and easiest definition to understand is such an impossible
task. Each linguist in his specialized field with his own set of criteria has found
out for his own way to define vocabulary.
In his book, Harmer (1991) provides discussion on “active and passive”
vocabulary. Active vocabulary are words that students “are able to use in speech
and which they remember” (p.101) while passive vocabulary refer to vocabulary
items which students can recognize in a text, understand but are not able to use
them actively.
According to Diamond & Gutlohn (2006), vocabulary is mentioned as the
knowledge of words and their meanings. This means comprehension and use of a
language will not be achieved without establishing a strong vocabulary base,
recognising words, and knowing their meanings. As a result when a student is
effectively able to recognise and use a word in different contexts, speak, write,
pronounce the word well, she/he has the knowledge and meaning of that word.

5

Without words, there would be no language structures. Words are the building
blocks of a language since they label objects, actions, ideas without which people
cannot convey the intended meaning (Nation, 2004).
According to Cambridge Advanced Student's Dictionary, "vocabulary"
means "all the words which exist in a particular language or subject" or "all the
words known and used by a particular person". Vocabulary is an essential part in
communication and acquiring knowledge.
In short, it can be shown that vocabulary knowledge requires not only word
meanings knowledge but also the usage of the words in the appropriate context and
in a natural way as well as the relationship between new words acquired and the
ones already acquired.
2.1.2. The role of vocabulary in language learning
Vocabulary is central to language and is of great significance to language
students because without sufficient vocabulary, they can not understand others or
express their own ideas.
Vocabulary of a language is just like bricks of a high building. Despite quite
small pieces, they are vital to the great structure. Like bricks, vocabulary plays an
integral part of building of a language. Wilkin (1972) noted that “without grammar
very little can be conveyed, but without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. If
we want to use a language effectively, we must have good stock of vocabulary. We
can not use the language if we do not know the words of that language. Therefore it
is significant for students to develop their productive vocabulary knowledge in using
a language.
As stated by Harmer (1993), “if language structures make up the skeleton of
language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh”. If one
wants to use language effectively, he/she must have an extensive vocabulary. This
also means the comprehension of a language depends on the amount of words that
are known in that language. In other words, students need to have sufficient word
knowledge to understand what they read. Nation (2001) states that readers need to

6


know at least 97% of the vocabulary in a text for an adequate understanding of it.
Thornbury (2002) also expressed the importance of vocabulary in language
learning. He stated that “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your
English will not improve very much. You will see most improvement if you learn
more words and expressions. You can say very little with grammar, but you can say
almost anything with words!”. Good vocabulary helps students develop reading
comprehension ability, writing ability and communicative competence. Nagy (2003)
remarks “ vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension; one can
not understand text without knowing what most of the words mean”. Schmitt (2000)
emphasizes that “lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence and to
the acquisition of a second language” (p. 55). Teaching vocabulary well is
considered as a key aspect of developing engaged and successful readers.
Vocabulary can be descibed as “scaffolding” of building a language. It helps
students with language production. The more words a student knows the more
precisely that student can express the exact meaning he/she wants to. This means
that students need to know a large number of word meanings to communicate
effectively. According to Cardenas (2001), vocabulary is used to determine the
proficiency which a student has in oral contexts. Vocabulary serves as an essential
component to determine how much a student is able to communicate successfully.
Therefore students have to overcome the lack of vocabulary knowledge in order to
communicate effectively. The importance of vocabulary in language learning
process can be seen clearly although teaching of grammatical structures was given
for a long time a greater priority over the communicative function itself. For many
years, teaching vocabulary was considered as an add-on to teaching grammar or
simply a by-product of language teaching and communicative functions
(Meara,1980). Language teachers should focus on effective instruction to teach
vocabulary to help students to develop their vocabulary knowledge for them to

communicate successfully.
2.1.3. Vocabulary learning

7


It can be seen from what was presented in the previous section that
vocabulary plays an essential role in language learning, hence vocabulary learning
is an indispensable task for

EFL

students to

achieve proficiency and

competence in language learning. The two next sub-sections presented what it
means to know a word and how vocabulary is learned and remembered.
2.1.3.1. Knowing a word
Knowing a word is not a simple task. The task does not simply mean you can
recognize the word and use it. You need to cover all the contents related to a specific
word to learn vocabulary as effectively as possible.
According to McCarthy (1991), “knowing a word involves knowing its
spoken and written context of use; its patterns with words of related meaning as well
as with its collocation partners; its syntactic, pragmatic and discourse patterns; It
means knowing it actively and productively as well as receptively”. It is inevitable
to know the different meanings of the item clearly. Students need to have the ability
to recognise the word in its spoken and written forms, then identify its part of
speech, grammatical function or any unpredictable grammatical patterns so that they
can use the word correctly and be aware of potential conversion. In English, there is

no correspondence between the form of a word and its phonemic transcription. In
some cases, the distribution of stress can change the meaning of a word. As a result,
the pronunciation and stress of the word need to be focused. Students need to know
how the word is used in its spoken and written context with words of related
meaning as well as with its collocation partners. The connotations that the item may
have should be mastered. For example, “Bachelor” is a neutral/ positive word
whereas “spinster” has a more negative image. The word can be used in formal,
neutral or informal situations. For example, die, pass away, kick the bucket.
Students also need to know how the word is related to others such as synonyms,
antonyms. It is neccesary for students to study the collocations. For example,
students use “heavy rain”, not “strong rain”. Lastly, the affixation should be noticed
to clarify the word meaning.
According to Nation (2001), words are not isolated units of language, but fit
8


into many interlocking systems and levels. He points out that knowing a word
involves knowing its form, meaning and use and each category is broken down into
receptive and productive knowledge. The word form includes pronunciation,
spelling and the words. The word meaning consists of structure or meaning of
words, ideas and preferences, a combination of words. The word use covers the
syntax, collocation, constraints in use. All the aspects of vocabulary knowledge
should be viewed in detail to serve as guidelines in the construction of
measurement instruments and define vocabulary teaching and learning strategies.
Every single aspect of this perspective can also be seen in the form of receptive
and productive as shown in Table 2.1 below.
Table 2.1. What is involved in knowing a word (Nation, 2001, p.40-41)
R
s
pP

F o
R
o
w
r
m rP
i
R
w
o P
r
f R
o P
r
c R

M
ea on
ni ce
n
g as
so
ci
gr
a
m
m

P
R

P
R
P

W
ha
H
o
W
ha
H
o
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
W
ha
In
w

In
w
9


RW
ha
co
W
Ullo P h
sca
a
econ
W
R
h
stra
e
ints
W
P
on
he
use
Notes: In column 3, R = receptive knowledge, P = productive knowledge.
2.1.3.2. Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning
Learning vocabulary plays an important part in learning a language. The
number of words you know will affect greatly to the ability to demonstrate what you
want to express in spoken or written contexts. If the vocabulary learning process is
effective and successful, your vocabulary knowledge will be widened. The question

is that how vocabulary is learned. There are two major types of vocabulary learning:
intentional and incidental.
Nation (2001) defines incidental vocabulary learning as an important
strategy in vocabulary learning. It refers the learning process which occurs without
specific intention to focus on vocabulary. Students can enlarge their vocabulary
knowledge when they are engaged in any language activities such as extensive
reading, listening to stories or radio, watching English movies. On the other hand,
intentional vocabulary learning is common and traditional. It focuses directly on
what to be learned by using tools to bring student’s attention into direct contact with
the form and meaning of the word such as dictionaries, direct vocabulary
explanation.
Hulstijn (2006) makes a distinction between intentional and incidental
learning. “Intentional learning” refers to “the learning mode in which participants
are informed, prior to their engagement in a learning task, that they will be tested
afterward on their retention of a particular type of information” while “incidental
learning” refers to “the mode in which participants are not forewarned of an
10


upcoming retention test for a particular type of information”. “Incidental vocabulary
learning refers to the learning of vocabulary as the by-product of any activity not
explicitly geared to vocabulary learning” whereas “intentional vocabulary learning
referring to any activity aiming at committing lexical information to memory”.
It can be seen that how well students learn a language ultimately depends
more on their own efforts than on their teacher’s. Vocabulary learning will be most
effective if students take control of and responsible for their learning. Although
incidental learning is believed to be useful for language students, it may also be the
learning burden due to time cost in classroom. It is slow and gradual for learning
(Schmitt, 2000). Therefore intentional learning is needed. Intentional learning is
quicker and more efficient for a specific purpose. However, students often encounter

vocabulary in an isolated form and are incapable of using it correctly in different
contexts. Scott Thornbury (2002) describes these types by stating that "some of the
words will be learned actively", while others "will be picked up incidentally". As a
result, it should be better to have both types in the learning process so that they can
be mutually reinforcing.
2.1.3.3. Vocabulary retention
Vocabulary retention is known as the ability to recall vocabulary in memory.
There are two basic types of memory according to the duration of retention and
capacity of recalling the information: short-term memory and long-term memory.
Short-term memory, known as working memory, allows recalling information for a
period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal. The short-term memory
generally has a strictly limited capacity and duration, which means information is
not retained indefinitely. By contrast, much larger quantities of information can be
stored for potentially unlimited duration in long-term memory. Its capacity is
immeasurable. Long-term memory is maintained by more stable and permanent
changes in neural connections widely spread throughout the brain.
Vocabulary retention is essential and useful in language learning. Richards &
Schmidt (2002) defined “vocabulary retention” as “the ability to recall or remember

11


things after an interval of time”. In language teaching, the quality of teaching, the
interest of the students, or the meaningfulness of the materials may have great
influence on the retention of what has been taught. The object of vocabulary
learning is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory to the
more permanent long-term memory (Schmitt, 2000).You must “work on” the
information in your working memory in order to transfer it into the long-term
memory although it is not an easy task. As a result, students need to organize the
words they have learnt in a scientific way for storing and retaining them later. In the

present study, short- term memory included the initial memory of the words at the
end of the lessons whereas the number of words which could be recalled at the next
lessons or at the end of the study was referred as ones from long -term memory.
The participants in the study had only three forty-five-minute lessons per week.
2.2. Mind mapping in vocabulary learning
2.2.1. An overview of mind mapping
According to Cambridge dictionary, a mind map is defined as “a type of
diagram (simple plan) with lines and circles for organizing information so that it is
easier to use or remember”. A mind map is hierarchical and shows relationships
among pieces of the whole.
Mind mapping was first popularised by Tony Buzan, the British
psychologist, in the late 1960s. It is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts
organically. There is no concern about order and structure. It allows you to visually
organise your ideas to help with analysis and recall. It is stated to be “a powerful
graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the
brain” (Buzan,1993).
Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking. Mind mapping
converts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and
highly organized diagram. Mind maps have a natural organizational structure that
radiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according
to simple, brain-friendly concepts. Mind maps can be drawn by hand or using
software.
12


2.2.2. Characteristics of mind maps

13