Although a lot of efforts have been put into the English writing education, many middle school students are still not equipped with the proper English writing abilities and the discrepancy between different students seems to be greater。 In order to solve this problem, much importance should be attached to the process of English writing learning and teaching, otherwise there will be more barriers students and teachers will not be able to overcome in the future。 源Q于W优H尔J论K文M网WwW.youeRw.com 原文+QQ75201.,8766

1。2 The purpose and the significance of the thesis

  In recent years, many researchers and English teachers are trying their best to find more creative, effective and adaptable techniques in writing teaching。 And among these new techniques, mind mapping seems to be a good one。 And this thesis aims to find out whether mind mapping is beneficial to English writing learning for middle school students and English teachers should know how to use this technique in class properly and efficiently。 

  It is hoped that this thesis could enhance students’ interests in English writing learning and provide the English teachers with some adaptable ideas for carrying out writing teaching。

2。 Literature Review(3116)

2。1。 An introduction to the theories on writing

   2。1。1 Some definitions on writing

  According to the Collins Dictionary, “writing” is defined as “a group of letters or symbols written or marked on a surface as a means of communicating ideas by making each symbol stand for an idea, concept, or thing, by using each symbol to represent a set of sounds grouped into syllables (syllabic writing), or by regarding each symbol as corresponding roughly or exactly to each of the sounds in the language (alphabetic writing)”。 So, writing is a useful tool of language expression and communication。 

  In the language learning, if we regard vocabulary as the the building blocks which is the most fundamental part of the learning process, then the sentence with the correct grammar would be the layers of this building。 And only after the learners finish constructing the whole building successfully, could they achieve the final point of writing, which is commonly regarded as the most difficult language skill in language learning。 

  In terms of the reasons why writing would be the difficult level in language learning。 Byrne (1988, p。 4)once provides three reasons : “ First, writing itself is a solitary activity without interaction or the feedback but depends solely on the writer himself; Second, during the process of producing, writer himself needs to make the effort to bridge the gap and to realize the possibility in communication; Third, writers have to present themselves to the unknown readers by effective instruction。”

   2。1。2 The difficulties students are facing in their learning to write

  Before trying to find the solutions, we need to know about the current situation of English writing in middle schools in China。 First, we should know what the specific problems are in the language learning process。 

  During the past two months, the author worked as a internship teacher who teaches English in Hangzhou Bao Chuta Experimental School。 Through the observation of the daily interaction between teachers and students in that school, the author concluded the main problems which grade 8 students might meet in English writing。 These problems could be mainly listed as follows。

  1。Students show low interests in English writing。 Interest is the best teacher。 So the proper way to motivate students to write seems to be the key point to English writing teaching。 For many students, writing is often considered as the least interesting skill among the four skills。 Many students do not like the traditional teaching style, and also many topics of the writing task nowadays are far from reality so that these topics could not arise the responsive chord among the students。