This post continues from Language Learning Using Mind Mapping  Part 1.

If you’re using Mind Mapping to teach a language, encourage your students to come up with as many words as they can when they are creating their Mind Map.

And remind them that it’s okay to have a “full” mind map.

Be sure to drive home the benefit of pictures—the more, the merrier as well.

If your students are a bit older, you can also try the following technique.

You can expand the earlier mind map to create a visual mind map with some creativity.

Let’s say you’re learning German—Frau is German for lady or missus, and Fraulein is, you might know, a young lady, or Miss.

Try mind mapping with word and image association—add a frowning plump lady for “Frau” and a leaner (still frowning) young lady for the word “Fraulien.”

Humour and imagery stick in your mind like nothing else does, and although this might mean more work (and deson’t expect to find associations for every word) this will make for a fun mind map that will aid you a great deal.

A word of caution, though: This works really well for students whose primary goal is to learn to speak. If you’re looking for formal writing knowledge as well, this map might not be as effective as the earlier one.

Mind maps can also be used to increase your existing vocabulary in any language.

Etymological mind maps (mind maps from roots of words) are a good idea for this.

Have a strong etymological root in the center, and branch out into different words that use that root.

There will be other roots that those words use, and you can branch out of those as well.

For example (using English so we can understand the principle) , let’s say you are mind mapping the root “pathos,” which means “suffering.” Some of your words may be pathology, sympathy, telepathic, and pathetic.

Try and add images, emoticons, or anything visual to make the mind map stick better in your memory.

Now, the word “telepathy” can itself branch off in to other words that use the root “tele-“.

Or, for a more Buzanesque mind map, create sentences with branch words such as “telepathy” or think of other words that are (non-etymologically) related to “telepathy”—maybe communication, sensory, ESP, etc.

Mind Mapping ist groß, nicht wahr?

How do you think you can use mind mapping in language learning and enhancement?

Mind maps can be truly universal—with the right mind maps, language barriers fall apart. The images and branches should give people an idea of what the mind map is trying to convey.

Here’s the twist:  Language Learning Using Mind Mapping is also a great way of using this tool.

A new language is always learnt by association.

If you were ever in a foreign country, you’ll realize that the words in your vocabulary in the foreign tongue are strongly skewed toward a set of related words—for example, hotel, complaint, no hot water, and $^&#*@!

The mind mapping technique, in fact, has been used with great success in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes around the world, especially in the United States.

How do you harness the power of mind maps to learn a new language, teach a new language, or expand your current vocabulary?

Remember that language learning mind maps are mostly about retention, so the factors that increase retention (colour, strong associations and images) must be emphasized during mind mapping.

One of the ways to do it is to do it by theme.

So, a “restaurant and bar” mind map will branch off into words that you think relate to it. Perhaps your mind map branches will be eating, drinking, and date, with each having several branches of their own.

What you can do is write the word in the new language, along with a picture, if possible, and/or in your native language.

This technique works really well with pictures, so be sure to use as many as you can.

Also use as many colours as possible to group similar words. One of the techniques used by Tony Buzan is colour coding the words in the mind map into those that are the same as, similar to, or completely different from the native language.

Keep learning mind maps in a place where you can look at them often—your refrigerator door, office board, or even in your car.

If you’re creating these mind maps using mind mapping software (a great idea, since it’s much easier to insert relevant pictures in the mind map), use them as your computer’s wallpaper. It’s amazing how much you’ll learn!

In the next installment, we will take a deeper look at how to use Mind Mapping for learning another language.