USING MIND MAPS TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

NGUYỄN HOÀNG PHI

USING MIND-MAPS TO IMPROVE THE
STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS
AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HANOI, 2019


VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

NGUYỄN HOÀNG PHI

USING MIND-MAPS TO IMPROVE THE
STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS
AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

Field: English Language
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D.

HANOI, 2019


DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

I certify this thesis entitled “USING MIND MAPS TO IMPROVE THE
STUDENT’S READING SKILLS AT DONG NAI TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY” is my own study. All statements in this thesis which are not
my own will be shown in the list of references.
Author’s signature

Nguyễn Hoàng Phi

APPROVED BY
Suppervisor

Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D
Date: …………………………….

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor,
Bùi Thị Thục Quyên, Ph.D. who gave me precious guidance, assistance and
encouragement during the time of conducting this study.
I also want to express my sincere thanks to all my students at Dong Nai
Technology University for their contribution in completion this research.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my beloved family for
supporting me during the time of my study.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATION BY AUTHOR ...................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................vi
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
1.1 Rationale of the study................................................................................. 1
1.2 Aims of the study ....................................................................................... 3
1.3 Research questions ..................................................................................... 3
1.4 Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 3
1.5 Significance of the study ............................................................................ 4
1.6 Research Methods ...................................................................................... 4
1.7 Structure of the study ................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................... 6
2.1 Theoretical review. ..................................................................................... 6
2.1.1 Reading........................................................................................... 6
2.1.2 Reading skills ................................................................................. 9
2.1.3 The mind map technique .............................................................. 13
2.2 Previous studies ........................................................................................ 18
2.3 Chapter summary ..................................................................................... 20
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.............................................................. 22
3.1 The research settings ................................................................................ 22
3.2 Research Design ....................................................................................... 22
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3.3. Population and Sample ............................................................................ 23
3.4 Data collection instruments ...................................................................... 24
3.4.1 Test ............................................................................................... 24
3.4.2 Questionnaire ............................................................................... 25
3.5 Data analysis procedures .......................................................................... 25
3.5.1 The analysis of test ....................................................................... 25
3.5.2 The analysis of questionnaire ....................................................... 26
3.6 Chapter summary ..................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................................... 27
4.1 Data analysis of Test ................................................................................ 27
4.1.1 Data description ........................................................................... 27
4.1.2 Data Analysis ............................................................................... 34
4.2 Analysis of Questionnaire ........................................................................ 39
4.3 Discussion ................................................................................................ 59
4.4 Chapter summary ..................................................................................... 60
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................... 62
5.1 Recapitulation........................................................................................... 62
5.1 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................ 62
5.3 Implications .............................................................................................. 63
5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies ....................................... 63
REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 65
Appendix 1: Questionnaire .............................................................................. I
Appendix 2: PRE-TEST and POST-TEST ..................................................... V
1. Pre-test ................................................................................................ V
2. Post – test ....................................................................................... VIII
Appendix 3: Lesson Plans ..............................................................................XI

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ABSTRACT

This is an experimental research about reading skills at Dong Nai
Technology University. Its objective are to find out students’ perception about
reading and mind maps as well as find out whether mind maps can help
students in improving their reading skills or not. The data were collected
through test and questionnaire. The test included pre-test and post-test were
delivered before and after the experimental teaching for both control class and
experimental class. The questionnaire was delivered only to experimental class
before and after the treatment. The results of this study showed that mind maps
technique really helps in improving the students’ reading skills.

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1.1.1: The results of pre-test score ....................................................... 29
Table 4.1.1.2: The results of post-test score ..................................................... 31
Table 4.1.1.3: The results of gained score ........................................................ 34
Table 4.1.2.1: The t-test of Pre-test ................................................................. 345
Table 4.1.2.2: The t-test of Post-test ............................................................... 347
Table 4.1.2.3: The t-test of Gained scores ...................................................... 348

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.2.1.1: Reading habit before the experimental teaching .................... 39
Figure 4.2.1.2: Reading habit after the experimental teaching ................ Error!

Bookmark not defined.
Figure 4.2.2.1: Student’s excitement before the treatment.. ........................... 41
Figure 4.2.2.2: Student’s excitement after the treatmentError! Bookmark not
defined.
Figure 4.2.3.1: Reading’s importance before the experimental teaching ....... 42
Figure 4.2.3.2: Reading’s importance after the experimental teaching ... Error!
Bookmark not defined.
Figure 4.2.4.1: Getting main idea before the treatment .................................. 44
Figure 4.2.4.2: Getting main idea after the treatment .... Error! Bookmark not
defined.5
Figure 4.2.5.1: Comprehension ability before the treatment .......................... 45
Figure 4.2.5.2: Comprehension ability after the treatment .. Error! Bookmark
not defined.
Figure 4.2.6.1: Reviewing the material habit before the treatment. ............... 47
Figure 4.2.6.2: Reviewing the material habit after the treatment. .................. 48
Figure 4.2.7.1: Before applying Mind maps. .................................................. 48
Figure 4.2.7.1: After applying Mind maps ..................................................... 49
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Figure 4.2.8.1: Color and images effectiveness before the treatment............. 50
Figure 4.2.8.2: Color and images effectiveness after the treatment ............... 51
Figure 4.2.9.1: Information organizing before the experimental teaching ..... 51
Figure 4.2.9.1: Information organizing after the experimental teaching . Error!
Bookmark not defined.
Figure 4.2.10.1: Vocabulary improvement before the experimental teaching 53
Figure 4.2.10.2: Vocabulary improvement after the experimental teaching
......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Figure 4.2.11.1: Saving time opinion before the treatment ............................ 54
Figure 4.2.11.2: Saving time opinion after the treatmentError! Bookmark not

defined.
Figure 4.2.12.1: Getting genaral idea ability before the treatment ................. 56
Figure 4.2.12.2: Getting genaral idea ability after the treatment ............. Error!
Bookmark not defined.
Figure 4.2.13.1: Confident feeling before the experimental teaching ............ 58
Figure 4.2.13.2: Confident feeling after the experimental teaching ........ Error!
Bookmark not defined.9

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the study
English is an international language and it plays an important role in our
daily life nowadays. In Vietnam, English is used as a foreign language and it
is taught as a compulsory subject at all levels of educational system from
kindergarten to university.
As we know, there are four skills taught in English teaching and learning
process. They are reading, speaking, listening and writing. Reading is one of
the essential skills that need to be mastered when learning English as Nunan
(2003, p.69) states that “Reading is an essential skill for learners of English as
a second language. For most of these learners it is the most important skill to
master in order to ensure success not only in learning English, but also in
learning in any content class where reading in English is required. With
strengthened reading skills, learners will make greater progress and
development in all other areas of learning”.
In addition, reading is not an easy skill to master because it cannot be
separated from comprehension. If the learners do not understand the text, they
cannot achieve the information from the text they read. The reading activity
requires the learners’ knowledge in identifying the structure and the main

topic of the text.
Moreover, most of the best books are written in English, to reach the
useful information, students need to be good at English to comprehend.
Especially, they need to develop their reading skills to get the knowledge
easily.
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After three years of teaching at Dong Nai Technology University, the
researcher realized that the reading skills of the students here are still low.
Most of them supposed that the reading lessons are the most boring part in
English. They are not very patient with the texts, especially the long texts. The
first things they do when are asked to do a reading task is looking up all the
new words to make sure that they understand the meaning of all words and
doing the tasks then. It often takes them a lot of time to do such a task. So
they usually feel bored with the texts or even they fear for reading texts.
Based on the facts above, the researcher would like to find a better way
to make students more interested and motivated in reading activity. Thus, they
can comprehend the text easily and gradually improve their skills in reading.
In this case, the researcher chooses mind maps technique because when using
mind maps, the learners can speed up their think rapidly and develop their
think quickly. Moreover, mind maps gives easy way for the students to plan,
communicate, be creative, arrange, and explain the ideas quickly. It also
facilitates the students to understand a complicated system or structure
because mind map delivers the students to be focused on the ideas (Indrayani,
2014).
Therefore, the researcher conducts this study to mainly find out whether
mind maps technique have an effect on improving the reading skills of the
students at Dong Nai technology or not because their skills of reading are
quite low.

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1.2 Aims of the study
In line with the purposes of this study is to find out whether mind-maps
have any effectiveness on improving the reading skills on the students. The
main aim of this study is to find out the attitude of the students toward reading
and mind maps technique as well as to explore whether the mind map
technique can improve the students’ results in reading tests at Dong Nai
Technology University.
1.3 Research questions
Based on the main objectives, this research is mainly answer for the
following questions:
1. To some extend does the mind maps technique improve the reading
skills of students at Dong Nai Technology University?
2. What are the attitudes of the students toward reading and mind maps
technique?
1.4 Scope of the study
The focus of this study is on using mind maps to improve the students’
reading skills at Dong Nai Technology University. After teaching at this
university for more than 3 years the researcher recognized that the students
usually have difficulties in learning English, especially their reading skills.
They are not very interested in reading lessons, they often get bored with long
reading text since they do not really understand what the text about. They may
not have sufficient vocabularies to understand the text or reading strategy to
comprehend it easily. So the researcher would like to find a good way to help
them overcome those problems.
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The subjects of this study are 61 second year students come from two
classes that the researcher is teaching. They are going to participate in doing
the test and respond to the survey questionnaire.
1.5 Significance of the study
At Dong Nai Technology University, the students have to self-study a lot
to do the assignment that the lectures gave. They have to read books from the
library or on the internet. As mentioned before, the reading skills of the
students at this university are quite low so this study was expected to provide
some advantages for both students and teachers in teaching and learning
process.
For the students, this study is hoped that it would figure out the benefit
of mind maps to help the students feel more interested and active in reading
classroom activity. Therefrom, they can take the most advantages of mind
maps technique to motivate themselves in joining the teaching and learning
process so that they can improve their reading skills to comprehend the text
easier.
To the teachers, this research is expected to be helpful in improving the
teachers’ teaching skills in order to create an exciting atmosphere during the
class time to gain the best results of reading teaching and learning activity.
1.6 Research Methods
This study was an experimental research. The data were collected by means
of test (pre-test and post-test) and questionnaire. The details would be presented in
the Chapter 3.

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1.7 Structure of the study
The study will be divided into five chapters:

o Chapter 1: Consisted of rationales, aims, research questions,
scope, the significance, the methods and the structure of the study.
o Chapter 2: Provides the definition of reading, reading skills, the
mind mapping technique and the previous studies.
o Chapter 3: This chapter describes the research setting, research
design, population and sample, data collection instruments and
data analysis procedures.
o Chapter 4: “Findings and Discussions”, offers the data analysis
from test, questionnaire and discussions.
o Chapter 5: “Conclusion”, wraps up the study, followed by the
summary, limitation and recommendations for further study.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical review.
2.1.1 Reading
2.1.1.1. Definition
As Nunan (2003) stated that reading is a fluent process of readers
combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to
build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension. He also defined two
vital elements of reading activity: Strategy and fluency.
According to him, strategic reading is defined as the ability of the
reader to use a wide variety of reading strategies to accomplish a purpose for
reading. Good readers would know what to do when they faced difficulties in
reading. Fluent reading is the ability to read at an appropriate rate with
adequate comprehension. Meaning does not rest in the reader nor does it rest
in the text. The reader’s background knowledge integrates with the text to
create the meaning.

He emphasized “the text, the reader, fluency, and strategies combined
together define the act of reading.” Nunan (2003, p.68).
According to Grabe and Stoller (2011, p.3), “Reading is the ability to
draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information
appropriately.” It means that reading activity is the interaction between the
readers and the printed papers. The readers try to understand what the printed
papers mean.

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In another book of Grabe (2009, p.14) “Reading in a second languagemoving from theory to practice” he cited some definitions of reading as the
following:
“Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting information
encoded in language form via the medium of print” or “Comprehension
occurs when the reader extracts and integrates various information from the
text and combines it with what is already known”.
Rubin (1982) supposed that reading is the bringing of meaning to and
getting of meaning from the printed page. It means that reading is an active
activity, the readers have to do something to get the meaning of the text.
Nuttall (2005) also agreed with the role of the reader in reading activity
when he stated about the meaning of the text. According to him, it is not lying
in the text waiting to be passively absorbed. On the contrary, the reader is
actively involved and often has to work to get the meaning out.
Harmer (2007) as cited by Indrayani (2014, p.16) stated that reading is
useful for language acquisition; the more the students read, the better they get
at it. In addition, reading also has positive effect on students’ vocabulary
knowledge, on their spelling, and on their writing. Reading is the skill or
activity of getting information from books.

It is an important skill for

learners. Hence, who is not engaged in reading activity, they will miss new
information.
Although there are various definitions of reading, the researcher
follows the definition of Grabe & Stoller “Reading is the ability to draw
meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately.”
After reading, the learners must comprehend what the paper mean.
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2.1.1.2 Types of classroom reading performance
It is stated by Brown (2001, p. 312): “Variety of reading performance
in the language classroom is derived more from variety of the texts to which
you can expose to students than from the variety from overt types of
performance. There are two types of reading performance: oral reading and
silent reading.”

Figure 1: Types of classroom reading performance of Brown (2001)
1) Oral reading
During the teaching and learning process, the teacher may ask the
students to read orally. Oral reading brings many benefits for the basic to
higher levels as Brown (2001, p. 312) stated in his book.
 Serve as an evaluative check on bottom-up processing skills.
 Double as a pronunciation check.
 Serve to add some extra student participation if you want to highlight a
certain short segment of a reading passage.
However, this oral reading still has some disadvantages as stated by Brown
(2001, p.132)
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 Oral reading is not a very authentic language activity
 While one student is reading, others can easily lose attention (or be
silently rehearsing the next paragraph!)
 It may have outward appearance of student participation in reality it is
mere recitation.
2) Silent reading
According to Brown (2001, p.312), silent reading may be categorized
into intensive and extensive reading. “Intensive reading the students mainly
focus on the linguistic or the semantic details of a passage. Intensive reading
calls students’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other
surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning,
implications, rhetorical relationship, and the like.”
While “extensive reading is carried out to achieve a general
understanding of a usually somewhat longer text (book, long article, or essay,
etc.). Most extensive reading is performed outside of the class time.” Brown
(2001, p.313)

2.1.2 Reading skills
As Brown (2004, p.187) wrote in his book, there are two major skills of
reading. They are micro-skills and macro-skills.
Here are the lists of micro skills:

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a) Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic
patterns of English
b) Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory

c) Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose
d) Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and
their significance
e) Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.) systems
(e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical
forms.
f) Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different
grammatical forms
g. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in
signaling the relationship between and among clauses.
The list of macro skills are presented below:
a. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their
significance for interpretation.
b. Recognize the communicative functions of written texts, according
to form and purpose.
c. Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.
d. Infer links and connections between events, ideas, etc., deduce
causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting
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idea, new information, given information, generalization, and
exemplification.
e. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
f. Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context
of the appropriate cultural schemata.
g. Develop and use a battery of reading strategies such as scanning and
skimming, detecting discourse makers, guessing the meaning of words
from context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of text.
There are also another expert proposes reading skills. That is Mikulecky

(1990) as cited by Suriyani (2014, p.12). The details can be seen in the
following table:
SKILLS

PURPOSES

Automatic decoding

Students are able to recognize a word at a
glance.

Previewing and predicting

Students are able to guess what the text is
about by looking at the text a quick once over.

Identifying purposes

Students are able to predict what the form and
context of the text will be.

Specifying Purposes

Students are able to know why the text is being
read.

Scanning

Students are able to find out the specific
information in a text by looking at the text

very rapidly.

Recognizing topics

Students are able to find out what the text tells
about after reading and comprehending the
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text.
Locating the topic
Sentences

Students are able to find out a topic sentence in
a text.

Making inference by using
evidence

Students are able to infer main ideas of the text
and can show the evidence that supports their
inference.

Guessing the meaning of
unknown words from the
context

Students are able to guess the meaning of
unknown word from the context.

Skimming

Students are able to process a text rapidly at
many levels in order to get an overall picture of
it.

Paraphrasing

Students are able to paraphrase the text to help
them understand the text by using their own
words.

Summarizing

Students are able to shorten the text by
retaining and re-stating the main idea by
leaving out details.

Drawing conclusion

Students are able to put together the
information from several parts of the text
and induce new or additional ideas.

Reading critically

Students are able to judge the accuracy of the
text with respect to what the reader already
knows and distinguish facts or opinions.

Reading faster

Students are able to read fast enough to allow
the brain to process the input.

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The researcher couldn’t agree more with Suriyani (2014) when she
said: “Having a skill makes the students can solve any problem in reading a
written text. The reading skills also can increase pleasure and effectiveness of
reading activity.” Indeed, when the students master those skills, they can be
helped in not only subjects at school but in their daily life as well. However,
being a skillful reader is not easy at all. It requires a hard serious practice in a
long time.
2.1.3 The mind map technique
2.1.3.1 Definition
According to Buzan (1994, p.59) “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. The mind map can be applied to every aspect of life
where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human
performance. The mind map has four essential characteristics:
1) The subject of attention is crystallized in a central image.
2) The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image as
branches.
3) Branches comprise a key image or key word printed on an associated
line. Topics of lesser importance are also represented as branches
attached to higher level branches.
4) The branches form a connected nodal structure.

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As Siriphanich stated in her study (2008) that Mind map are visual
frameworks such as figures, diagrams or charts used to present structural
knowledge spatially with the intention of empowering comprehension and
learning. Mind map are effective in terms of helping communicate
information because they can clarify complex concepts into simple,
meaningful displays so that learners can develop a holistic understanding of
the content to be learnt.
She also cited Marton and Booth’s opinion about mind map in her study.
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.
DePotter and Hernacki (2004) also defined mind map technique and it
was cited by Suryani in her study (2014), the mind mapping is a technique to
use the whole brain by using visual and other graphic to create a meaningful
impression.
2.1.3.2 How to make mind-maps
There are several ways to make mind map from experts. The first suggested
was of Rose and Nicholl (2002). According to them, there are 8 steps to make
it.
1) Start with the topic in the middle of paper.
2) Use keywords.
3) Make the branch from the main topic.
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4) Use symbols, colors, words, or pictures mainly in the mind mapping.
5) Make it as interesting as possible.
6) Make it full of colors.
7) Repeat again two or three times to make it perfect.
8) Do it by yourself.
In the way suggested by DePotter and Hernacki (2004), there were some
points that were the same with Rose and Nicholl above.
1) Make a circle of main idea in the middle of paper.
2) Make branch from the main idea to make key points. Do not forget
to use a color pen to make it.
3) Write the keywords or phrases in every branch and then develop
them with details.
4) Give additional symbols and illustrations.
5) Do not forget to use capital letters.
6) Write down the main ideas with the bigger letter.
7) Be creative and express it freely.
8) Use the unique form to show the points or ideas.
9) Do not forget to make it horizontally to make a wider space.

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