Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: The efects of mind mapping on 6th graders’ vocabulary retention - An action research project at Thanh My junior high school

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Aims of the study: The aims of this study are to find the way to improve vocabulary retention of the 6A1 students of TMJHS and to motivate them in learning English vocabulary.

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Nội dung Text: Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: The efects of mind mapping on 6th graders’ vocabulary retention - An action research project at Thanh My junior high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ VÂN NGA THE EFECTS OF MIND-MAPPING ON 6TH GRADERS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT THANH MY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng bản đồ tư duy đến khả năng nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 6, trường THCS Thanh Mỹ) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ VÂN NGA THE EFECTS OF MIND-MAPPING ON 6TH GRADERS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT THANH MY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu ảnh hưởng của việc sử dụng bản đồ tư duy đến khả năng nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 6, trường THCS Thanh Mỹ) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN VĂN TRÀO HANOI - 2016
DECLARATION I hereby declare this thesis is the result of my own research and that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution. Hanoi, October 2016 Trần Thị vân Nga i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special gratitude to my advisor, Mr.Nguyen Van Trao, Assoc.Prof.Dr for his patience in guiding and supervising me during the process of this thesis writing. My special thanks go to my colleagues from Thanh My Junior high school for their cooperation and support during this study. The writer would also like to express appreciation to the staff menbers and the teachers of post-graduate department of University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University for giving me favourable to completing the thesis. Finally I would like to dedicate my big appreciations to my family who have support me a lot during my study. ii
ABSTRACT The aims of this research are to find out the effects of mind-mapping on th 6 graders‟ vocabulary retention at Thanh My junior high school. To limit the aspects to be analyzed in this study, I formulate two research questions: (1) To what extends does the use of mind-mapping affect the students‟ vocabulary retention? (2) What are the students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary learning? In the study, I carried out an action research with the 6A1 students of Thanh My junior high school. Data of this study were obtained from the results of questionnaires and from pre-test and post-test results. Two instruments for collecting the data were (1) questionnaires toward vocabulary learning before and after applying the mind -mapping in teaching vocabulary and (2) the pre- test and post- test. The findings of the data analysis showed that (1) Mind-mapping can help the students to improve their abilities in memorizing English vocabulary items; (2) the students had positive attitudes toward the mind-mapping. Mind- mapping is hoped to be a promising technique to teach and learn vocabulary. iii
I.LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 1.Table 1: Research schedule 2.Table 2: Result of questionnaire 1 3. Table 3: The causes of the problems encountered by the 6A1 class students 4.Table 4: The activities applied in the study 5.Table 5: Relationship between causes of the problems and the activities 6. Result of questionnaire 2 II. LIST OF FIGURES Figure I: First step in creating mind-mapping: „drawing a central image‟. Figure II: Second step in creating mind mapping: „drawing main branches‟ Figure III:Third step in creating mind mapping: „drawing second branch‟ Figure IV: Environment diagram Figure V: Sports and games diagram Figure VI: Completing the mind-mapping diagram II. LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Result of the pre-test Chart 2: Result of the post-test Chart 3: Comparison between the pre-test anhd the post-test iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKHNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ASTRACT iii LIST OF TABLE, FIGURES AND CHART iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1.Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Scope of the study 3 5. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMEMT 4 Chapter I: Literature Review 4 1.1.Vocabulary 4 1.1.1.Vocabualry definition 4 1.1.2. The importance of the vocabulary 4 1.1.3.Kinds of vocabulary 5 1.1.4.Vocabulary teaching 6 1.1.5.Vocabulary retention 8 1.2. Mind-mapping 10 1.2.1.Definition of mind-mapping 11 1.2.2.Functions of mind-mapping 11 1.2.3.Characteristics of mind mapping 12 1.2.4. Procedures in making a mind-mapping 12 1.2.5.Steps to read a mind-mapping 12 1.2.6.The application of mind-mapping to teaching a foreign language 13 1.2.7.The use of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning 14 1.3.Previuos studies 18 1.3.1.Review of related studies worldwide 18 1.3.2.Review of related study in Viet Nam 19 Chapter II: Methodology 21 2.1.Action research 21 2.2. Research procedures 21 2.3 Setting of the study 22 2.4.Participants 23 v
2.5.Data collection instruments 23 2.6. Research procedures 27 2.6.1.Reconnaissance 27 2.6.2.Planning 27 2.6.3.Implememting the action 28 2.6.4.Reflection 29 Chapter III. Research findings 30 3.1.Initial data analysis 30 3.1.1.Data from questionnaire 1 30 3.1.2.Result of the pre-test 32 3.1.3.Identification of causes of the problems 33 3.2.Action plan 33 3.2.1. Determining the actions 33 3.2.2.Relationship between the causes of the problems and the action 34 3.2.3.The implememtation of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning 37 3.3.Post data 39 3.3.1. Result of questionnaire 2 39 3.3.Result of the post-test 40 3.4.Majors findings 42 3.5.Discussion 44 PART C: CONCLUTION 47 1.Pedagogical implecations 47 2. Limitations of the study 48 3. Suggestions for further study 48 4. Conclusion 49 REFERENCE 50 APPENDIXS I vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In terms of students‟ competences, the teaching of English at the sixth grade has the aim at developing the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This means that the students are expected to practice these language skills through the activities given in the class. In supporting the development of the four language skills, it is necessary to learn language components. In the sixth grade classes, the language components include pronunciation, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. Vocabulary is one of the language components that play a significant part in the development of the language skills. In the sixth grade, building up a useful vocabulary is important to the teaching of a foreign language (Cameron, 2001: 72). It shows that English materials for sixth grade students focus on enriching the students‟ vocabulary. To have a good memorization on vocabulary, the students are expected to be able to use the language successfully and efficiently including using it to develop their language skills in class activities. Nevertheless, learning English vocabulary is challenging for the sixth grade students at Thanh My Junior High School (TMJHS). After observing and conducting an interview at the school, the teacher found that there were two problems that involved the learning English vocabulary of the TMJHS. Firstly, the students felt difficult to memorize and recall English vocabulary items including their pronunciation, their spelling and especially their meaning. The students usually cannot remember the words for long and recall them when needed. Secondly, the teaching technique was not very interesting and motivating. The students got bored with the way of teaching the teacher used. The teacher often asked the students to find the new words then he or she explained the meaning of the words. After that the students had to write the list of the new words in their notebook and learn them by heart. To learn English vocabulary, memorization is very important. In mastering English vocabulary, the students do not only need to learn a lot of English words but also to remember them (Thornbury, 2002: 23). Accordingly, low proficiency makes students find an obstacle in acquiring the language knowledge and taking part in class activities. It is clear that they could not communicate well because they lack words they need. One of the causes of the students‟ low vocabulary retention is likely their learning habits. The ways they learn new words are various: such as writing down 1
words on a piece of paper, learning words by heart, heavily depending on wordlists in textbook, passively waiting for teacher‟s explanation for new words. These ways do not seem to be effective and make them bored with learning vocabulary. So as to memorize new items, students often use rote memorization techniques. As some of the students said, they used to write down the words for several times, to speak aloud the words and to make sentences with words. They admitted that they could not recall most of the words they had learnt before because there were no clues. It can be seen that the students‟ bad memory is due to the lack of appropriate vocabulary learning technique. They are not given different ways of learning vocabulary and are not encouraged to use them as a strategy of learning vocabulary. Therefore, learning new words is not very enjoyable for the learners. This study aims to help the students to be more successful in English vocabulary retention and to motivate them in learning words. For this purpose, mind- mapping is used as a technique to improve the students’ vocabulary retention and motivate them in learning vocabulary. 2. Aims of the study The aims of this study are to find the way to improve vocabulary retention of the 6A1 students of TMJHS and to motivate them in learning English vocabulary. 3. Research questions To obtain the stated aims, the following research questions are formulated: (1) To what extent does the use of mind-mapping affect the students‟ vocabulary retention? (2) What are the students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary learning? 4. Scope of the Study In this study, the researcher uses one class and the research is done at the sixth grade of Thanh My junior high school. The researcher hopes that the findings of this study will give benefits and contribution for some parties. Firstly, for the English teachers, the results of the study can be applied for the betterment of the English teaching and learning process especially in presenting English vocabulary to the students. The study will be considered as the first step to improve the effectiveness of the teaching learning process by using mind-mapping to introduce lesson materials at TMJHS. Secondly, for the sixth grade of TMJHS students, they are expected to enjoy learning vocabulary with mind-mapping. The use of mind-mapping as the technique in learning English vocabulary can be considered as an effective way of note-taking to 2
memorize English words easily. The last is for other researchers. The study can give general knowledge of materials that can be done for research studies in relation to vocabulary learning in the secondary level of education. 5. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts: Part A: Introduction introduces the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope and the design of the study. Part B: Development is divided into 3 chapters. Chapter 1: Literature Review presents theories related to vocabulary, mind-mapping. Previous studies on mind-mapping are also reviewed. Chapter 2: Methodology presents the research methods, the setting of the study, the participants, the research data and the research procedures. Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the analysis of initial collected data to determine the problems, then the action plan. The analysis of post-treatment data was then presented along with which the discussions were given. Part C: Conclusion provides the pedagogical implications, some limitations of the study and suggestions for future study. 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHARPER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Vocabulary 1.1.1. Vocabulary definition McCarthy (1990: 32) defined vocabulary as words in a specific language or freestanding items of language that have meaning. According to Penny Ur (1996: 122) vocabulary is defined roughly as “the words we teach in the foreign language”. She also stated that “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words (e.g., bus stop, father -in-law), and multi-word idioms (e.g., call it a day)”. As can be seen, vocabulary is defined in many different ways. It refers to words or a group of words in a language and knowledge of words regarding its meanings, forms, and how to use it correctly in the context. In this study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and phases in a language that could be use to exchange information in oral and written communication. 1.1.2. The importance of vocabulary Vocabulary plays a significant role in language learning activities. It consists of all the words that we usually used when the other language skills are studied. Learning vocabulary does not mean learning word isolation. We should learn words in context because a word may have different meanings in different contexts. According to French (1983: 1), the meaning of the word will be dependent on the context itself and word in isolation usually does not associate with the intended meaning. The English words and their meaning should not be useful unless we know how to organize the words meaningfully in a sentence. However, vocabulary growth depends on the students‟ experiences. Words must match with the meaning so as to be useful for communication. Vocabulary has an important role in mastering a language. Whoever wants to master well a language needs to have good vocabulary retention. Memorizing vocabulary is the first step to master English well. Therefore the students will have problems in mastering English when lacking the vocabulary. They find it hard to express their idea clearly and also they could not understand the teacher‟s explanation because they do not know the meaning of words used by the teacher. Moreover, they have difficulties in understanding books, newspapers, magazines written in English, or even in understanding the radio 4
broadcast or television programs. So the retention of a great number of vocabularies is necessary to use English. In other words, vocabulary as an important tool helps the students to understand when they listen or read something in English. Harmer (1991: 23) said that we should ensure that our students memorize the vocabulary they need for their level and that they can recall them when needed. The vocabulary is one of the language aspects along with grammar and pronunciation which is considered a tool to support the ability to communicate in English. 1.1.3. Kinds of vocabulary In vocabulary learning, the words to be learned can be classified into two categories which are content words and function words. Content words carry a lexical meaning, and function words cover grammatical meaning. In language, to understand functions of words students can arrange words in a correct sentence and analyze the sentence (Cameron 2001: 82). Based on the meaning of words, content words are the word classes of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. In teaching content words, the teacher can explain the words and their meanings in a direct and explicit way (Cameron 2001: 82). On the other hand, function words are the classes of articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and pronouns. In teaching function words, the teacher teaches words incidentally and uses them continuously in a range of different discourse contexts (Cameron, 2001). However, according to Nation (2001: 78), groups of English vocabulary have been categorized by frequency of overall occurrence in order to determine which words are most necessary for students to learn. There are two common divisions: high-frequency words and low-frequency words. High-frequency words which, include function words and content words, account for a very large proportion of the running words in spoken and written texts and occur in all kinds of uses of the language. Low-frequency words cover over 5 percent of the words in an academic text. In fact, English students try their best to master a large amount of vocabulary. Based on the learners‟ English level and the discussed issue, vocabulary and its compounds and idioms focused in the present study will be chosen basing on frequency and usefulness to the need of the learners. 1.1.4. Vocabulary teaching According to Thornbury (2004), vocabulary is usually a problem of memorizing. In order to teach it effectively, it is important for the teacher to know how to make students remember words and store them in students‟ mind for long-term. 5
Some writers (Thornbury, 2004; Mccarthy, 1992; Gairns and Redman, 1986) claim that the vocabulary is well stored in the mind, in a complex web-like system called “mental lexicon”. In this regard, words are stored, classified and interconnected in different ways accordance with their features such as form, meaning, collocations, properties, cultural background. As a result, a word can be looked up through some pathway at once. Therefore, the language teacher plays an important role in helping their students determine the easiest way to convey new words into the already existing web of the mental lexicon (Thornbury, 2004). In addition, it is necessary for the students to acquire the capacity to store the information for long-term. Research into memory of Thornbury (2004) suggests principles to support the process of permanent remembering. In this research, he listed some techniques to make vocabulary teaching effective. The first technique is repetition for example in reading. Moreover, he also focuses on the importance of use and retrieval of the new words: eg, use the new words to complete the sentences. Furthermore, Thornburry thinks that the presentation of new words should be divided into separated sequences that are followed by repeated revision later in the next sections or periods. Motivation, which is another helpful element, is closely linked with attention. Thornburry states that an arousal (a very high degree of attention) seems to relate with improved recall. Finally, according to Thornburry (2004), visualization of a picture for a new vocabulary item or link an abstract word with several metal images should be done by the teacher. Images can help students draw themselves the best outcomes. Thornburry claims one more time that the students‟ own images give the best influence on memorizing. To concern this problem, Gairns and Redman (1986) emphasized the significance of activities in the classroom. They thought that the activities need to be presented in detail so information is more likely to be remembered in long-term memory. Moreover, they together Thornburry presented the positive influence of imaging, repetition…They also suggest a good technique “word diagram” to support retention which might be useful for “storage of lexis”. 6
Traditionally, students have not been taught vocabulary in a particular lesson but along with lessons of listening, speaking, reading or writing. Some learners make a list then put into it the meaning of new words in their mother tongue without any real context. Learners often look up the meaning of the words in the dictionary or ask the teacher to translate the words and try to learn them by heart. There are some other traditional techniques such as illustration, mime…For those techniques, the learners are usually passive and the lessons center on the teachers. Consequently, the students usually have difficulties in memorizing and recalling the words. The current trends in teaching vocabulary stress on helping learners memorizing the words that they have learn and relate words with others or in different contexts. Learners should not learn words in isolation (Harmer, 1991) Mind-mapping is considered as an example of current trends in teaching vocabulary. Mind-mapping is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development. Mind-mapping is a creative note-taking strategy which makes us easy to memorize the information. Buzan (2009) thinks that mind-mapping is a powerful technique graphic, which provides universal key to unlock the potential of brain. Mind-mapping technique imitates the thinking process, makes it possible for us to move from one topic to another topic back and forth. A pattern with pictures, color, symbol not only makes the learners understand the vocabulary knowledge but also makes them feel good and enjoyable and it can attract them to pay attention to the vocabulary knowledge then retain the words. In contrast with the traditional technique, the current ones are considered the positive change for a new teaching and learning process. The teachers are now not only the knowledge provider but also the initiator, the guider and the controller. The students also get engaged with the learning process. They could discuss and interact with their teachers, exchange information with their classmates. Despite the advantages it can bring, mind-mapping exhibits some limitations. Mind-mapping can give the danger of introducing closely related new vocabulary items at the same time. Learners find troubles in relation with too many vocabulary items. This makes learners‟ task more difficult. 1.1.5. Vocabulary retention 1.1.5.1. Vocabulary retention 7
The Longman dictionary defines retention in some way. It is also the condition of being retained or the act of retaining. It is the power and capacity of retaining and ability to recognize or recall what has been experienced or learned. According to Oxford dictionary, vocabulary retention is the fact of keeping information in one‟s memory or is the power or capacity of holding and absorbing a certain number of words in their memory. Vocabulary retention can refer to short-term memory and long-term memory retention. 1.1.5.2. Short-term and long-term memory Memory is divided into short-term and long-term memory base on duration of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after the original input. Long- term memory is used to retain information in anything but the immediate future. Short- term memory is to store or keep information while it is being processed. 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). However, we can not distinguish clearly short-term retention and long-term retention. Information entering short-term memory may pass quite effortlessly into long-term memory, and some learners may find repetition a very effective way of transferring information into long-term memory. When learning vocabulary, learners often have difficulties in retention of words for a long time. They do not usually succeed in putting the words into long-term memory. In the present study, short-term memory is referred as the initial memory of the word meaning at the end of the lessons whereas the number of words can be recalled at the next lessons or at the end of the study is considered as one form long -term memory because the participants in the study have only three forty-five-minute lessons per week. 1.5.3. Major factors affecting word retention There are many reasons why students remember words better than others. For example, nature of the words themselves, situations under which the words are learnt, how the words are taught to students and so on affect word retention. Gairns and Redman (1986) pointed out that learning new items involves storing them first in the short-term memory and afterwards in the long-term memory, and the long-term memory can hold any amount of information. They showed that our “mental lexicon” is highly organized and efficient, and that semantic related items are stored together. Another factor affecting 8
storage is word frequency because the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve. We can facilitate the leaning process by classifying items of vocabulary in semantic fields such as topics. Besides, retrieval is another difficulty faced by the learners when learning vocabulary. According to Nunan (1990) learners can be motivated to develop their own personal learning styles for vocabulary, in such areas as memorizing and retaining new words. However, Cater et al. (1989) showed that the storage of information does not guarantee its retrieval. Learners need to increase the effectiveness of retrieval probability because they need techniques to recall appropriate words for particular occasion. Cater also pointed out that the meanings of words are focused rather than on their forms to enhance production, as most of our production has to do with searching for an appropriate meaning to fit the specific situation. The most effective is to associate bonds for production, therefore, connect the words with their meanings. 1.5.4. Indicators of students’ vocabulary retention In vocabulary teaching learning, both teacher and student will happy if teaching learning process gains good result. Teacher can be said to be successful in his teaching language if the students can mastery four skills in language, they are listening, reading, speaking, and writing, of course vocabulary retention become a basic aspect to support that skills. These are some indicators of vocabulary retention suitable with the school curriculum especially for Junior High School. They are: * Students can identify, understand, grasp and remember the meaning of words in the text. * Students can pronounce the words correctly. * Students can use and write the words correctly, so they can write a composition well. * Students have high score in the vocabulary test. According to (Nation, 2001), vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies. Gu, Y (2000, p.85-86) cites some vocabulary learning strategies such as cognitive, metacognitive memory and activation strategies 9
Metacognitive strategies entail selective attention and self-initiation strategies. Cognitive strategies consist of guessing strategies, skillful use of dictionaries and note- taking strategies. Memory strategies are grouped into rehearsal and encoding categories. Word lists and repetition are instances of rehearsal strategies. Encoding strategies include such strategies as association, imagery, visual, auditory, semantic, and contextual encoding as well as word-structure. Activation strategies encompass those strategies through which the learners actually use new words in different contexts. With regard to word meaning and retrieval, many researchers (Hague, 1987; Cater, 1989; Amer, 2002) agreed that mind-mapping is effective for long-term memory and support the recall. Therefore, in this study, the mind-mapping technique will be presented in the next section. 1.2. Mind-mapping 1.2.1. Definition of mind-mapping Mind-mapping is a creative note taking technique in a visualization and graphic form that is used to make people feel easy in entering information into their brains, keeping information in a long term memory and taking it out from their brains easily by engaging imagination and association (Buzan 2006: 6; Buzan 2009: 10). In this definition, there are five important concepts of mind-mapping. Firstly, mind-mapping is one of creative note taking techniques used by people to represent ideas into visualization and graphic forms where one idea is connected to another idea by using branches. Secondly, by using mind mapping, it is easy for people to enter the information into their brains. Also, mind-mapping supports to put information into their memory. Thirdly, mind mapping helps people to keep information in the long term memory. Fourthly, information can be easily taken out from their brain when using mind-mapping. Finally, mind-mapping involves the use of imagination and association in its application. This means that in presenting ideas into mind-mapping diagrams, people enclose imagination stimulators such as pictures, symbols, and colors to present ideas clearly and use association techniques to help them build their senses to the new concepts. These new concepts are connected to the known concepts having a tight relationship with the new concepts. According to Buzan (1993: 1) mind-mapping is a great graphic technique, which gives a general key to unlock the potential of brain. Mind-mapping technique copies the thinking process, which enable us to move from one topic to another topic back and forth. 10
Recording the information through symbols, pictures, emotional meaning and colors, exactly the same like our brains process it. A pattern which at least consists of symbol, picture, and color will not only help the students to understand the vocabulary knowledge but also makes the students feel interesting, enjoyable. In addition, it can encourage the students‟ brain and leads them to have interest in retain vocabulary knowledge. 1.2.2. Functions of mind-mapping According to Buzan (2009:6), mind-mapping have the following functions: * To make active all parts of brain. * To make people (learners) be focus in the main topic. * To help show the relation among parts of information * To give a certain illustration in the whole and detail. * To help group the concept and compare it. 1.2.3. Characteristics of mind-mapping The mind map has four essential characteristics: * The subject of attention is crystallized in a central image. * The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image on branches. * Branches hold a key image word printed on the associated line-details radiate out. * The branches form a connected structure. 1.2.4. Procedures in making a mind-mapping The procedure in making a mind map consists of seven steps: * Start from the centre of paper that put horizontally. * Use images for the central ideas. * Use color. By coloring, it can improve the energy toward creative thinking. * Connect the main branches to the central image; connect the second and third branches to the first and second branches and so on. * Make a curve line as connected line among branches. It will be more interesting. Use a key word in each line. It useful to give the mind map more energy and flexibility. * Use image is like on central image (Buzan, 2009: 15-16). 1.2.5. Steps to read a mind-mapping The steps to read a mind map, as follows: 11
* Start in the centre that is the focus of the mind map. * Words/images closest to the central image show the main themes of the mind- map. This is the start of the radiant hierarchical structure. * Select one main theme and read out from the centre along the branch. This provides greater levels of associated detail. * Notice links between the branches. 1.2.6. The application of mind-mapping to teaching a foreign language. It is obvious that memory plays an important role in learning and mastering a foreign language. In the communicative approach, learners need to retain words and use them effectively. Mind-mapping is a helpful memory technique which makes it easier to remember new materials and to visualize the thinking process, so mind-mapping proves to be a very helpful tool to master a foreign language. Although it may cost time to use the technique, it will eventually speed up the learning process when learners know and understand how to use it. Casco (2009) suggests some applications of mind-mapping in teaching a foreign language which can be presented as follows: Engage the learners: Thanks to the map, the learners know easily what comes next and focus the learners‟ attention on the topic. Moreover, the map supports a structure to reduce the learners‟ anxiety when they receive input through listening and reading when they speak. Active prior knowledge The use of keywords stimulates memory of what the student know about the topic. Encourage the learner to ask questions: The map shows clearly what the students know and what they do not know about the topic. Image and interrogation marks widen the information gap and encourage the learners to find out what they do not know. Scaffold reading and listening comprehension: The map is an efficient tool to facilitate comprehension because it offers the students a globe view of listening or reading contents. Furthermore, the cues showing in the map helps the learner to form inferences as an aid to understanding. Scaffold speaking 12