Using mind-mapping as a transition from receptive to productive skills for second-degree learners

DISCUSSION
USING MIND-MAPPING AS A TRANSITION 
FROM RECEPTIVE TO PRODUCTIVE SKILLS 
FOR SECOND-DEGREE LEARNERS 
Tran Thanh Thu*
Faculty of Language Education, VNU University of Languages and International Studies, 
Pham Van Dong, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam
Received 28 October 2018 
Revised 24 January 2019; Accepted 27 January 2019
Abstract: Mindmapping, as a powerful brainstorming tool, is gaining popularity in all fields of science. 
This article aims at suggesting various activities enclosed with explanations of how this useful utility can be 
applied for a smooth transition from receptive skills to productive skills while teaching English. As mind maps 
only date back to 1976, the article initially provides an overview into how to use them and how well they 
suit the group of grown-up learners. The third part of the article introduces the researcher’s own organization 
of twelve academic themes throughout the learners’ course. The most important part of the article involves 
an analysis of various examples of classroom mind maps as they are combined with various activities in 
classroom settings of various levels throughout the course, highlighting the shifting from one receptive skill 
to the corresponding productive skill with groups of learners’ contributions to the maps. Last but not least, in 
the conclusion part, both the summary of the work and some recommendations would be presented about the 
challenges teachers may encounter and thus should expect during the implementation process.
Keywords: mind-maps, vocabulary, classroom implementation, challenges for teachers
1. Introduction1
Receptive skills, also known as passive 
skills, include listening and reading skills and 
involve comprehension as the main goal while 
asserting their role as language input for the 
productive, or expressive skills they contrast 
with. With the recent approach on learning, the 
receptive skills are now being recognized as 
an integral part within the integrated learning 
method (Duquette, 1995).
While achieving communicative comprehension 
in receptive skills of listening and reading, 
* Tel.: 84-1692920545
 Email: thanhthu3108@gmail.com
learners acquire both the source language and the 
information or news on certain themes, and thus 
build up their language competence on the language 
as well as their background on those themes. In the 
corresponding expressive skills a speaker or writer 
would make use of the knowledge of the language, 
comprising of pronunciation or spelling, meaning, 
the use and finally grammar, combining their 
background knowledge of the topic as well as their 
understanding of the context and culture.
In the meantime, current curricula are 
revolving around theme-based course books 
with integrated skills to support learners since 
“as the theme focus moves from self and home 
to community and work, the dramatic play 
156 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
area may change from the familiar child and 
household furnishings (doll, kitchen, etc.) to 
office, restaurant, or grocery store furnishings 
and props (cash registers, typewriters, etc.).” 
(Berry & Mindes, 1993).
For adult learners in general, they are 
expected to have more background knowledge 
as well as life experiences than young learners. 
Nevertheless, the groups of learners conferred 
here in the research would be more complicated 
as they belong to the group of adult learners 
among whom the majority have already 
acquired a university degree and purposely 
chose English as the major for their second 
degree. Furthermore, as they are studying for 
the second degree while doing their job or 
continuing another course at another university, 
it is crucial to maximize the efficiency of the 
methods of learning to help them achieve the 
aims and objectives of the course and hence aid 
them to reach level C1 - the required level of 
proficiency for their second bachelor degree.
While acquiring adequate competency 
of advanced level is crucial, the groups of 
learners faced a lot of difficulties as not only 
do they have rather limited class time for their 
English major but they also face rather more 
limited acquisition of language items due 
to the mature age, as compared to younger 
learners. Though as mentioned above, they 
tend to possess the utmost advantages of 
life experiences and in-depth background 
knowledge across different fields of the 
current news and information, in many cases 
strong understanding of their previous majors.
Before further discussion, a brief overview 
of the main concepts in the research would be 
discussed as follows.
1.1. Receptive and productive skills in 
language learning
The two sets of skills requires (1) the 
encoding process in which the speakers or 
writers use the language to put forward their 
messages, using language items of their choice, 
and (2) the decoding process whilst the listeners 
or readers attempt to comprehend the messages 
or pieces of information basing on their own 
language competence and background. 
Nevertheless, the reversed order would 
customarily be applied in language learning 
process as the decoding process involving 
receptive skills would come before the 
encoding process with their corresponding 
expressive skills, i.e. the order of mentioning 
when discussing all the four language learning 
skills should be (1) listening – (2) speaking, 
then comes the pair (3) reading – (4) writing.
Rather than aiming at readers as learners 
of the language, this section would aim at the 
side of the teachers/lecturers and hence focus 
on the terms and methodological notices 
during the teaching process.
In order for a set of communicative objectives 
in a communicative curricula to be accomplished, 
“the objectives should be experiental in nature, 
that is, they should make use of students‘ life 
experiences as the contexts in which to set 
meaningful communicative efforts,” according 
to Tremblay et al (1990) and LeBlanc (1990), as 
cited in Duquette (1995, p.28).
Also in his book, Duquette(1995) 
suggests a sample model of procedure for 
vocabulary acquisition, involving brainstorm 
and classification. The purposes of the set 
of activities include increasing students’ 
vocabulary in certain theme areas and during 
the process, involve students by letting them 
contribute their own real-life experience to 
the list of responses.
This report further enhances Duquette’s 
model by using a mind map in stead of a 
list of responses for better visual aids and 
organization of the vocabulary items and 
ideas.
157VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
1.2. What is a mind map?
Before mentioning its use in shifting 
from receptive skills onto productive ones 
for second degree learners, it is of relative 
necessity to introduce the concept and the use 
of the tool in language learning since the term 
is quite new, dating back only to 1976 as a 
creation of the infamous father Buzan.
A mind map, or the tool of mind-mapping 
can be defined simply as “a visual way of 
arranging information”, as put up by Buzan 
(1974) in his popular book Use Your Head. 
From this point onward, the report would like 
to refer to Buzan as the creator of the useful 
tool that is gaining popularity in various fields 
of science including Medicine, Economics, 
Psychology, Cognition, etc.
Both the construction and the components 
of a mind map can be seen through the 
diagram below:
Figure 1. The components of a mind map with different color for each branch1
1The diagram above clearly shows the 
concept or the central topic of discussion in 
the center. Pointed out from the balloon of 
the concept are numerous main ideas which 
are presented with different colors for both 
visual and intellectual purposes. Mind maps 
can also make use of different highlighting 
gears like capitalization or a highlighting 
pen itself. Various special symbols, visual 
aids of images and hand-drawn for better 
engagement of the brain would also be 
encouraged (Buzan, 2018).
A more modern definition of mind-
mapping is that of Guerro & Ramos (2015):
“Mind mapping is a graphical 
technique for visualizing hierarchical 
connections between several 
1 Source: 
educational-learning/thinking/mind-mapping/
items of information. Each item of 
information is written down and then 
linked by lines to the other pieces thus 
creating a network of relationships. 
They are always organized around a 
single central idea.”
(Guerro & Ramos, 2015: 3)
Then, a mind map can also be simply 
defined as a diagram created in the mind 
mapping process. Please have a look at 
one example of the mind map below (ideas 
developed by the report writer herself – the 
main points involves content of the research.
158 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
Figure 2. A mind-map of the organization of the whole 
section - using simple tools in Microsoft Words 
1.3. What have mind maps been used for?
There have long been various studies on 
mind maps and though some of the earliest 
studies on language learning using mind-maps 
date back to the 1970s, (as stated above), the 
current years still see a lot of the term that can 
seemingly never go outdated.
Biggam (2015: 34) stated in his rather 
recent book that “it is diffi cult to fi nd a simpler 
and more effective communication technique 
than mind-mapping. Mind-mapping is a superb 
way to collect and communicate your thoughts 
and ideas. It is used as a tool to crystallize your 
own thoughts and as a means of imparting 
those ideas to your supervisor as you progress 
through your dissertation.” Hence, the writer of 
this research regards this tool a highly effective 
ones for students to build up their vocabulary 
and practice their writing skill at the same time.
In a more detailed sense, a mind map also 
“draw attention to key points and stimulates 
recall” (Guerrero & Ramos, 2015: 27).
Compared to the traditional methods of 
brainstorming, including studious writing and 
linear note taking, mind mapping is said to be 
15%-20% more effective in enhancing memory 
and improving learning. Task-based learning 
would become more accessible and problem-
solving would be more effi cient when mind 
mapping is used. “This phenomenon could be 
attributed on how the brain works” (Green, 2015).
1.4. How to create a mind-map
Traditionally mind-map makers only 
make use of simple tools of a pen and a piece 
of paper. It is also suggested that those who 
create mind-maps can use some pen colors for 
different main ideas.
One can also use more modern yet very 
simple computer tools in Microsoft Power point 
or Microsoft Word smart art to create mind 
maps using a computer, just like presented in 
Figure 1 (Guerrero & Ramos, 2015).
Figure 3. The organization of the introduction part
159VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
1.5. Using mind-maps in teaching English
Belleza (as cited in Guerrero & Ramos, 
2015) stated that adult learners would learn 
most effectively “when they can form a 
connection between newly and previously 
acquired knowledge.”
Hence, using the tool of mind-mapping 
comes forward as a profi cient tool to organize 
and elicit the learners and thus encourage 
them to contribute to the mind maps as they 
brainstorm various topics of the themes 
introduced to them.
In all three stages of teaching and learning 
English; namely, (1) receptive stage, (2) 
productive stage and (3) revision stage, the 
tool can prove to critically benefi t the learners, 
as displayed below.
1.6. Using mind-maps to teach productive skills
Mind mapping is considered to be a 
useful strategy to support students during 
writing tasks (Naqbi, 2011). As in writing, 
it enables students to make various attempts 
on ideas spread out on a sheet of paper. This 
way, it would defi nitely be much easier to 
see the equality among the ideas, and thus 
can adjust accordingly. They can combine, 
re-arrange them more freely than with an 
outline in the form of a list of bullets.
For speaking in particular, the vocabulary 
items which are new to learners can easily 
come with the corresponding phonetic forms 
to aid learners with pronunciation aspect of 
the words or phrases they encounter, whether 
for the fi rst time or various times, i.e. both 
for introducing new vocabulary items and for 
revision purpose.
2. Transitioning from receptive to 
productive skills for second-degree English-
major learners
2.1. Mind map has long been proved to be a 
good organizational tool
To begin with, the reporter would 
deliberately affi rm that the use of Mind maps 
in organizing ideas and vocabulary items as 
a connection between receptive skills and 
productive skills for adult learners studying 
their second degree majoring English. As 
an effi cient tool for organization, various 
mind maps has been used as a means of 
summarizing and hence benefi ting learners’ 
language learning through different themes 
and topics in books like “How to master 
skills for the TOEFL iBT Reading”, Level 
Basic. 
a. Louisiana Purchase
160 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
b. The Mariana Trench
Figure 4. Two examples of mind maps – content taken from “How to master skills for the 
TOEFL iBT Reading”, Level Basic (Hall, Milch & McCormack, 2007)
2.2. The nature of the group of learners
General principles of teaching English 
to adult learning include reference to (1) 
their prior experience and knowledge, (2) 
their motivation in learning, and (3) their 
orientation to learning. (Knowles, Holton III, 
& Swanson, 1998).
With the language learners who are 
achieving second degree, though English 
could be their major and the requirements are 
high, their motivation can be affected by their 
personal life, and in learning the language – 
they have relatively clear purpose of acquiring 
the degree. 
As for the fi rst principle, which affect 
the choice of the instrument most, the adult 
learners having got the fi rst undergraduate 
degree and many of them have been working 
for some time, it is safe to say that they have 
certain background knowledge and experience 
over young university learners or learners at a 
younger age.
3. Implementing mind-maps in classroom 
settings for second-degree English-major 
learners
As discussed in part 2, the use of mind 
maps can be implemented throughout the 
process of teaching English to the desired 
groups of student. This section will be 
dedicated to elaborate on the implement of 
mind maps in individual stages of teaching 
and learning English; namely, (1) receptive 
stage, (2) productive stage and (3) revision 
stage, though not as entirely separate parts 
but rather a section of integrated learning as 
a whole.
Although in the list of stages of teaching 
and learning ... m build up and add up 
their vocabulary bank in an utmost natural way 
and help them build up long term memory.
Since Suyanto (2010) came to the 
conclusion that “mind-mapping technique is 
more effective than modeling technique to 
teach writing for the seventh grade students 
of junior high school”, other modern teachers 
who share the same opinion includes 
Amstrong (2003) who states the importance 
of mind maps in generating ideas and building 
thinking traits, and Scott, Scott, & Webber 
(2015) who claimed that the method help 
students pull together all their ideas (p.70).
With the changes in the syllabus, students 
have a theme for each week, (Faculty of English, 
University of Languages and International 
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 
2015) using mind maps seems to suit the 
situation better than the listing form as mind 
maps help learners see the whole picture of the 
topic under discussion (Amstrong, 2003). 
The first example here is about the topic 
of jobs. Within a short time, the learner has 
to get used to both the vocabulary items they 
could think of and some more from their 
peers, which can be quite difficult for them 
to memorize. With the particular group of 
adult learners who may also have a job and 
a family to take care of, it is best for them to 
maximize the efficiency and learn the items 
fast. In the picture above, the lecturer actually 
drew some fruits and even a coconut tree to 
help her learner memorize the items better. If 
other teachers are not as confident in drawing, 
it’s for the best to prepare flash cards to aid 
with the memorization.
Figure 14. Picture of board mind map 2 – Fruits- elicited from learners learning the course of 
Level A2 – Pre-intermediate
168 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
With the nature of this topic being the 
names of different kinds of fruit, it is useful 
to give learners a way to classify fruits, i.e. 
according to colors (ideas taken from the 
mind map on the internet, shown in the picture 
on the next page). The teacher then elicited 
learners’ vocabulary of the kinds of fruit 
they know and help them note on the board. 
Images or drawings also serve as motivators to 
encourage learners to study more efficiently.
It is crucial that the learners get to 
contribute to the map, since a sense of 
contribution would also be another motivation. 
Moreover, when the teacher keeps on giving 
out the main ideas, and the details as well, the 
ultimate goal of a mind map of organizing 
own ideas would be left out. This is why the 
mind map has to be done on the spot while 
internet materials are available and ready to 
be used in the classrooms with projectors, all 
available in the university.
Figure 15. A mind map from the internet to aid teachers while preparing for the lesson21
With proper citation, all these mind map 
can be of excellent use to revise quickly all 
the vocabulary items the learners already 
encountered or came up with in the first time, 
and it is inevitable that they have revision to 
enhance the introduced expressions for long-
term memory build-up (Halliday, 2014).
 Figure 16. Picture of board mind map 3 - describe my new classroom - a writing activity of 
Descriptive paragraph1
2 Source: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource 
/fruit-mind-map-6451788
169VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
With this topic, the teacher had to aid 
learners with the key questions to ask about 
the topic. For some of the questions that 
learners could think of themselves, the 
lecturer instructed them to have a relationship 
among/between their ideas: chronological 
order, spatial order, causes – effects, or trying 
to sequence the ideas in a logical way. 
From this instant, it is useful to note that 
implementing this useful modern tool would 
mean a lot of hard work to the side of the 
teacher as not only do they have to prepare 
for a lot of materials and may have to search 
for ideas for categorization from other mind 
maps on the internet, they also have to master 
eliciting skills, which means dealing with, 
helping learners organize their random ideas 
into the map, explaining to them the reason 
why that particular supporting idea should 
belong to that idea, and may have to help them 
order the ideas most defi nitely immediately.
Figure 17. Picture of mind map 5 – Family tree (drawn by a learner) in A1 Level - Elementary
The result can be highly pleasing. The 
picture above is from a learner. Some of 
them can follow the instructor and draw 
very creative map which implies their high 
motivation in learning the language.
The mind maps are integrated with images 
to motivate learners to study. 
With a normal setting in class, the 
following mind map can be a good example of 
a mind map made used of the white chalks and 
green board in all classrooms, which can be 
served as a substitute for the slideshows when 
there are technical problems.
Figure 18. Board photo of activity in class (number 1): Eliciting and suggesting main themes for 
learners of Level B1 – Intermediate
170 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
For instance, with a writing question 
with the test question: ‘What do you think 
of this statement: “People nowadays are 
more dependent on technology.”,’ the teacher 
asked learners to fi nd the key words and work 
together in small groups of 3 or 4 and discuss 
how they should develop ideas and add more 
vocabulary items on to the map. The following 
is a good example of a group who have done 
an excellent job.
Figure 19. Board photo of activity in class (number 2): Writing skills: Group work for learners 
of Level B2 – Intermediate
Figure 20. Board photo of a speaking activity in class (number 3): Writing skills: Group work 
for learners of Level B2 – Upper-intermediate
In this activity, learners have an inquiry of 
matching their supporting ideas with the big 
themes the vocabulary items of which can be 
used in their speeches. The numbers 3, 4, 5, 
6, 10, 12 can actually serve as suggestion for 
students of lower level: before they can come 
up with ideas, the teacher can suggest them 
think about the main themes they have learnt 
and try to connect the topics of the questions 
to the main themes.
Figure 21. Board photo of a speaking activity in class (number 3): Writing skills: Group work 
for learners of Level B2 – Upper-intermediate
171VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
Within the speaking lesson, this activity 
can actually be a good example of a test 
preparation one. The core mind maps are 
actually from a real speaking test, part 3, 
with the topic of “there are several reasons 
why people choose to live in a big cities”. 
This activity is a class activity with a student 
playing the role of the secretary. Anybody in 
the class can contribute, and the teacher would 
correct or make comment when necessary.
 Figure 22. Board photo of activity in class (number 3): Writing skills: Group work for learners 
of Level B2 – Intermediate
This is an example of a mind map playing 
the role of the transition from Reading (a 
receptive skill) to Writing (the corresponding 
productive skill). Learners can make use of 
the language items they could remember from 
the previous activity and contribute to it using 
their own knowledge and experience. Relating 
to themselves was highly encouraging as can 
be observed in the classroom. 
With the kind of organization of 
comparing and contrast, it is benefi cial to note 
the students that they may have to face the 
same structures in all the four skills and it is 
safer to brainstorm a mind map so that they 
can organize their ideas better, as in VSTEP 
speaking test they also have one minute each 
to prepare for part 2 and part 3 of the test. As 
the ideas are so clear, the teacher here can play 
the role of a participants and allow the learners 
to have more freedom in deciding their ideas, 
suggestions and corrections may be provided 
afterwards as feedback. 
Figure 23. Board photo of activity in class (number 3): Writing skills: Group work for learners 
of Level B2 – Intermediate
172 T.T. Thu/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2019) 155-173
With the type of questions which require 
learners to compare two kinds of means of 
transport, the teacher may choose to suggest 
them focus on the nature of the subject (in 
this case ‘young people’). It can be seen 
from the picture that on the top they actually 
indicate clearly not only the key words but 
also the relationship among the items, using 
very good symbols. This table is also a form 
of mind map but its format was adjusted to 
fit the requirements of the lesson: choose the 
appropriate supporting idea for each main idea, 
indicating the appropriateness with arrows. 
5. Conclusion 
This part of the article will demonstrate 
the summary and provide some suggestion 
for fellow teachers while applying this tool in 
their teaching.
In applying the method to various groups 
of students of all the levels from A1 to C1, the 
question was not whether the teacher should 
make use of the useful tool; rather, it naturally 
shifted to the question of how should be 
applied in specific situations. The fourth part 
of this article was dedicated to achieve that. 
As beneficial as it is, when applying the 
tool to classroom setting, there are certain 
challenges for teachers throughout the process. 
First and foremost, they need to be prepared 
for all kinds of unexpected responses from 
their experienced learners and thus searching 
the internet in advance and constant build-up 
of background knowledge on various topics 
would be obligatory.
Secondly, they may have to be ready for all 
kinds of questions, most of them concerning 
the reasons why they should put a supporting 
idea or an example into a branch of main idea. 
This requires high level of critical thinking 
and logic.
Another challenge is the required 
flexibility and quick response from the side 
of the teachers. There are often more than 20 
students in one group and the teacher has to 
elicit, analyze, select ideas, and organize them 
into the correct branches, while determining 
whether or not the learners could come up 
with proper main ideas, persuading them to 
use certain supporting details and not others.
Though the tool can be rather challenging, 
applying them in real classroom setting can be 
very rewarding as it inspires both teachers and 
learners to be creative and thus stay motivated 
throughout the process. The reporter highly 
recommends the use of this useful tool in a 
large scale.
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ỨNG DỤNG CÔNG CỤ SƠ ĐỒ TƯ DUY 
VÀO HỆ THỐNG HÓA CÁC YẾU TỐ TỪ VỰNG 
THEO CHỦ ĐỀ CHO HỌC VIÊN VĂN BẰNG HAI
Trần Thanh Thư
Khoa Đào tạo và Bồi dưỡng Ngoại ngữ, Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, ĐHQGHN, 
Phạm Văn Đồng, Cầu Giấy, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Tóm tắt: Sơ đồ tư duy, một công cụ hữu ích cho người học, đang ngày càng được ứng dụng 
rộng rãi trong nhiều ngành khoa học. Chính vì vậy, mục tiêu của bài viết này là chia sẻ các hoạt 
động áp dụng sơ đồ tư duy vào việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh. Trước tiên, bài báo sẽ có những giới 
thiệu tổng quan cách sử dụng sơ đồ tư duy cũng như cách áp dụng trong các hoạt động gắn với từ 
vựng. Bài báo sẽ trình bày cách chia nhóm đối với mười hai chủ đề lớn bao trùm nội dung trong 
chương trình học của học viên. Phần tiếp theo, cũng là phần quan trọng nhất, sẽ đưa ra những phân 
tích về các sơ đồ tư duy đã được sử dụng trong lớp học cũng như cách kết hợp chúng với các hoạt 
động cụ thể trong giờ học, qua đó, có những đề xuất để giải quyết các vấn đề mà người dạy có thể 
gặp phải trong quá trình áp dụng.
Từ khóa: sơ đồ tư duy, từ vựng tiếng Anh, việc áp dụng trên lớp học, thách thức đối với giáo viên