In the Senior High School English Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition Revised 2020), it is proposed that cultivating students’ ability to use learning strategies is an important way to improve student’s learning ability, an essential element of teaching and learning, and an essential part of the core competencies of the English subject. Previous studies (Chen, 2005; Cha & Liu, 2016) demonstrated that excellent English students would learn through the use of mind-maps and would actively use a variety of English learning strategies in the process. Therefore, studying the English learning strategies mobilized by outstanding students when using and making mind maps is the main issue of this study, and the impact on the deep learning produced by the research subject is explored. The participants were the top five students selected from the top 20% of students who were scored in the English midterm examinations and ranked in the top five in the English midterm in their senior year. The researcher interviewed the five students and coded and analyzed the results of the interviews to find that the research subjects actively engage in metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and social strategies when using mind maps. Among the metacognitive strategies, the subjects tended to use guided attention, self-monitoring, and self-assessment; among the cognitive strategies, they used categorization, association, and reference; and among the social strategies, cooperation was the most frequently used. In addition, mind mapping increased the divergent and creative thinking of the study participants, enhanced their enthusiasm for learning, and gradually changed from teacher-led learning to spontaneous learning.

    This study provides some insights for future teaching directions. Firstly, teachers can guide the high achieving students to choose more suitable learning strategies to better promote students’ deep learning. Secondly, teachers can share the excellent students’ mind maps in the class to guide other students to learn and enhance their awareness of strategy use. Mind maps can reflect students’ weaknesses in English learning, which in this study reflected students’ problems in vocabulary learning. In subsequent studies, teachers should develop students’ learning strategies regarding vocabulary.