Chapter 4 Results and Discussion

This chapter is divided into three parts: interview analysis, analysis of the pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire, and the data analysis of the pre-test and post-test.

4.1Interview for Teachers

To learn the current situation about English reading course in rural areas five

teachers were asked to take part in an informal interview at the beginning of the

experiment, including teaching methods, students’ problems in this school and teachers’

attitude towards new teaching methods. The ratio between teachers from Grades Seven,

Eight and Nine was 2:2:1. For the sake of research, five questions (see Appendix IV)

were set up in the interview. These questions were prepared and answered in Chinese,

so that they could express their views more smoothly and accurately.

Questions of the interview for the English teachers in the pre-implementation

stage:

1. How do you teach English reading?

2. Do you think students like learning English reading?

3. What problems do students always have in English learning?

4. Would you like to try new English teaching methods?

5. Have you heard mind map or used it before?

The analysis of teachers’ answers is presented as follows:

To begin with, it is revealed by all the teachers that traditional sentence

translating methods has still been used in English reading teaching and they have been

used to using traditional teaching methods though the modern teaching media have been

deployed in each class. Teachers begin class by recalling old knowledge or teaching

new words and then give students several minutes to read the article loudly. This is

followed by explaining the key language points and grammar. They are used to

analyzing texts sentence by sentence so that the students can have a better

understanding of the reading materials. At last, students are guided to recite some texts

or some important knowledge. Compared with new teaching methods, the traditional

methods are considered to be safer although they might make students feel boring. Also,

they all admit that if there is a new method confirmed productive and useful to

significantly improve students’ reading abilities and enhance their academic

achievements, they would be happy to adopt the new teaching method. As for the current English learning situation for students in rural junior high

schools, all of the five English teachers say that most of students do not hate learning

English, but there are still lots of them who can’t do well in it. Some students think that

the English class is boring. And to some students, they are poor at English reading

because they neither have interests in it nor have got enough reading skills. Teachers

seldom taught students how to use skills and strategies correctly in English reading.

Quite a large number of students have difficulties in remembering vocabulary and

analyzing reading structure. Teachers should communicate and interact more with

students to arouse their interests and enthusiasm about the reading passage. Teaching

methods are important to students' performance. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary

for teachers to change their traditional teaching methods.

In addition, the teachers say that they heard little about mind map before; they

haven’t applied the it to reading teaching, either. What they known only is that mind

map is something like the knowledge tree. It is impossible to arouse students’

motivation if the teaching method is rigid, monotonous, and boring. Modern

educational theory advocates that teachers should treat students, classroom and

activities as the center in teaching, change their traditional concepts and turn their roles

into the promoters of student learning. As the saying goes, interest is the best teacher.

It is advisable that teachers take students’ interest as an entry point of teaching design

to attract students to fall in love with learning. As we know, text content may impact

students’ learning emotion. Students are likely to show more enthusiasm about the texts

in which they are interested. Teaching methods are the key means to control students’

performance. Thereby, it is necessary for teachers to change their teaching methods.

Moreover, mind map should be promoted to English reading teaching. It is also

desirable to spread this new method to other aspects of English teaching. The interview

with teachers is shown in Appendix E

4.2 Analysis of the Pre-questionnaire and the Post-questionnaire

Students of both classes were investigated using the questionnaire method to

learn about their initial attitudes and interests towards English reading, as well as their

knowledge about mind map, before the experiment. After the experiment, the

questionnaire method was used on the students of EC to see the effect of the application

of mind map to English reading on students.