Essay Eight
Mind Mapping
By Syrbastyian Vzampfyier
In an EFL/ESL class mind mapping is a useful tool to
help students retain and remember information. Students should be encouraged to
use one notebook for mind mapping.
There are two very useful ways in which the students
can use mind mapping to enhance their language skills, retain and remember new
information. The first is to use their mind mapping notebook as a way to note
down the key points of a day’s lesson or second as a way to retain, remember
and use vocabulary.
Vocabulary usually does not have a stand-alone
quality. Vocabulary needs to be used with other vocabulary and smaller function
words to create sentences that have meaning and value for the speaker and
listener. This is was mind mapping can be a very powerful tool in language
building, sentence creation and developing communication.
How does vocabulary mind mapping work? First the
student writes a new word, for example; a noun, in the centre of a page in the
mind mapping notebook. Then they make branches coming off the new word. Each
branch has a title for example: actions (verbs), adjectives, other connected
nouns, places, times, people, synonyms, etc. On each branch the students write
words that fit into the branches title and that are connect or associated to
the new word in the centre of the mind map.
This helps the student remember the word plus it
builds connects to other vocabulary that is need to be able to use the new word
in a sentence to express the students ideas. The multiple associations and connection
help the student retain the word, its meaning and its use. In addition to this
the mind map creates positive feedback back for the students when they review
their mind mapping notebooks and see how many words they have written on each
page. Furthermore the students can continue adding more connected words to a
page. As the mind maps increase in number the students will start to link
separate mind maps into categories plus see how the same word or words can be
used in different areas and ways.
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