The theoretical significance is explained first. New English Curriculum for Chinese Primary Schools and Junior/ Senior Middle Schools (2011Version) lists some requirements for primary school English teachers. Those requirements are as follows: to excite students’ learning interest; to guide students to discover the laws of English knowledge; to improve students’ creative thinking ability; more attention should be paid to students’ thinking ability and self-learning ability when teaching knowledge. These requirements lead teachers to understand the connotation of English teaching. Mind mapping is a creative note-taking strategy, which eases students to remember more knowledge and promotes the level of students’ divergent thinking. Thus, the application of mind mapping in English vocabulary teaching enriches the English vocabulary teaching strategies and improves students’ thinking ability to some extent.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Mind Mapping
In this part, the researcher describes the definition of mind mapping first. Then, the features and principles of mind mapping will be presented.
2.1.1 Definitions of Mind Mapping
The concept of mind mapping has existed for many decades but it was only made popular by Tony Buzan, who is the famous British scholar and educator, in the 1960s. Tony Buzan (1993) claimed that:
Mind Mapping 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 mapping can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance (p. 66) .
After Buzan, many scholars abroad defined mind mapping in different ways. Mento et al (1999) deemed that “Mind Mapping was a technique which could help to enhance creativity and productivity. It could also improve the learning efficiency of people. It was such a revolutionary system that it could help to capture ideas and insights horizontally on paper” (p. 2) .
Swamy & Kulkarni (2006) also expressed their views about mind mapping. They thought that “Mind mapping represented the way how people understood the relationship between objects in the way that human brain receives it” (p. 493).
2.2 Vocabulary and English Vocabulary Teaching
With the aim of better understanding English vocabulary teaching in primary school, it is important to figure out the definition of vocabulary and the characteristics of vocabulary teaching.
2.2.1 Definitions of Vocabulary
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