Abstract

The problems of English speaking unproficiency, low interest and silent English classrooms among students in Chinese higher vocational colleges have become an issue in recent years in China. Due to the importance of the mind map has become very popular in English language instruction, this paper carries out a study to investigate the effectiveness of Mind Map integrated Project-Based Learning (PjBL) strategy in public English language teaching in one of the Chinese higher vocational colleges and designs an English speaking project on food in the campus cafeteria. Twenty freshman students majoring in preschool education are selected in the experimental group and divided into four sub-groups of five students per group to select their tasks for the project so that they can be stimulated to finish the project independently and cooperatively. The other twenty students of the same major are in the control group to compare. The study uses mixed methods by combining quantitative and qualitative methods through students’ English speaking anxiety tests before and after the project by using Horwitz’s Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and a semi-structured interview as a supplement to investigate. It turns out that the Mind Map Integrated Project-Based Learning (PjBL) Strategy reduced students' English speaking anxiety to a certain degree.

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