Mind mapping is a very simple technique that anyone can use. It is great as a whole-class activity, in pair work, with small groups or with individuals. It is a highly effective way to encourage pupils to extend their written and oral responses and makes an excellent revision tool to boost pupils’ language learning confidence.

A “mind map” is a diagram allowing you to quickly brainstorm a wide range of ideas. It is like a brainstorming session you might write up on the board after receiving numerous prompts from pupils. Brainstorming can be great to get pupils’ ideas flowing and to convince them that actually they do know a lot already. However, mind maps do more than list ideas in an abstract manner. They allow the learner to link ideas together. The more ideas are linked, the more extensive the written piece or oral piece that the pupil is able to produce.

Mind maps can be used with any number of topics. I often use the technique to demonstrate the variety of ideas which can be generated around “Qu’est-ce que tu fait le weekend dernier?” (tu as fait?) For a whole-class session, our mind map would have “le weekend dernier” at its centre. From this point, all other options then radiate out. The next set of “spokes” coming from this central hub would include “j’ai”, “nous avons” and “il a”. Generally when conducting this exercise in the perfect tense, I restrict it to activities using “avoir” or “etre”. I rarely use both verbs on the same map because I want the pupils to establish fully that two distinct auxiliaries are used.

From each of the hubs - “j’ai, nous avons,” and so on - will radiate another set of options. For example, the past participle “fait”. I encourage the use of “fait” and “joue” as core past participles in this exercise because they offer so many other possibilities: du surf, du cheval, du ski, du velo, for example.

Remember that throughout this process it is the pupils who are directing the teacher on where the mind map is going to lead. It is a combination of teacher’s prompting and students’ recall. One we have expressed a range of options from the hubs of “j’ai”, “nous avons” and so on we go on to give opinions. This is easily done. To any chosen activity in the perfect tense you link “C’etait” and again a wide range of options is suggested: “super”, “ennuyeaux”, for example.

At this stage we have created a mind map which can be a prompt for what a variety of people did “le weekend dernier”. We have a wide range of activities using a variety of verbs. We also have a range of opinions linked to these activities. For the opinions we add “parce que” and learners give a range of reasons for their opinions: “parce que... je deteste le francais, jes suis tr s sportif,” for example.

The mind map has helped my students structure their ideas and allowed them to develop these much more extensively than they would do normally. Once they have the idea they are able to produce well thought-out pieces of work for themselves based on the technique.

Sometimes, when encouraging more extensive answers, pupils make mistakes. This is another strength of mind-mapping. As it is a step-by-step process, it is easy to pin-point where a student’s strengths and weaknesses lie. Mind-mapping is an excellent technique for building confidence. It gets students thinking - and producing a range of language that wins points at GCSE.

Barry Smith teaches French and German at Croesyceiliog School, Cwmbran, South Wales