Reflective Online Teaching: Mind Maps as Vocabulary Enhancers

Mind Mapping for Vocabulary Learning?

Mind Maps as Vocabulary Enhancers:

Three Useful Tools to Explore

As a reading skills instructor at the university level, I have always looked for ways to boost vocabulary learning among my A1+/A2 students. I have taken students into using “word families” and “vocabulary logs,” which have proven their use. But to fully enhance student learning, I’m now working with students on structuring their learning via mind maps.

Why mind maps? The reason seems to be self-explanatory, somehow. Mind maps reflect, -based on scientific observation of brain cell’s dendrites-, the way human beings store information in their long term memory. A mind map along with an “assigned” thematic unit or label depicts the way in which information is retrieved when needed and, at the same time, other possible connections with related topics or thematic units. As many experts claim, the more connections our neurons develop, the faster information flows boosting learning and understanding.

In my rhetorical explanation to reading skills students about the benefits of using mind maps, I always try to present three tremendously basic facts. A mind map guarantees the visual relationship of words (phrases or ideas, as well). That is, instead of simply reading a dictionary definition, the map elaborates more the connotation of an idea in terms of its relationships with other word(s) (phrase or ideas) and other thematic units (topics). A mind map supplies learners with meaning-related words or their opposites. In other words, a student can also find synonyms and antonyms to continue to boost his/her vocabulary. Finally, a mind map is a way to self-encourage ourselves to expand one’s word-base beyond the textbook and class. This type of map can go beyond the reading skills class and be used to enhance one’s learning experiences in any other course at the university.

The internet provides interesting sites to work with and develop students’ lexicon. Let’s take a look at http://membean.com/personal/wordmaps. Pupils have access to 150,000 word maps to study their vocabulary. At the same time, learners can also listen to podcasts concerning new lexical items. It provides a “Hustle Plan,” which means it’s for free. If the student wants, he can upgrade his account to a paid one. Yet Membean can be used without having to sign up; it does have a lot of free features.

If the teacher wants to have students create their own mind maps, with his/her guidance, http://www.mindomo.com is a great option. Even though Mindomo allows free users to just create three mind maps, they can be edited and re-edited as many times as needed. The best thing it has is that once a mind map is created, it can be converted into a “jpg” picture that can be posted anywhere it is required. Mindomo is a great option to work online.

On the other hand, EDRAW Mindmap is freeware that can be downloaded to one’s PC (notebook, tablet, etc.) and installed. As freeware EDRAW has no limitation in terms of mind maps creation. It has lots of layouts and different features that can be used to create maps, or the user has the chance of beginning from scratch to create his/her own infographic. Infographics (a kind of mind map) can be saved on the PC, can be edited, and can be saved as picture, pdf, etc to be later used in blog posts, presentations, and the like.

Help students learn by facilitating them the tools they need. Mind maps can become meaningful learning experiences that will help you –the teacher- achieve vocabulary objectives in a course and will assist your learners to fully develop their potential to consolidate learning and achieve teachers’ learning outcomes.

To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:

1	How brain cells communicate
2	The way humans store information
3	Alternative sites to create mind maps
4	Mindmapping in education and it benefits
5	Infographics