IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE. *Eliye Yuli Yenti. **Meisuri ABSTRACT

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1 IMPROVING STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE *Eliye Yuli Yenti **Meisuri ABSTRACT This study aims to improve students achievement in writing descriptive text through Mind Mapping technique. This study was conducted by using classroom action research. The subject of the research was class VIII-1 SMP Negeri 3 Tanjung Beringin which consisted of 30 students. The research was conducted in two cycles and every cycle consisted of three meetings. The instruments of collecting data were quantitative data (writing tests) and qualitative data (diary notes, observation sheet, and interview sheet). In analyzing the data, the students mean was for the test I, in the test II was 67.5, and in test III. Based on the diary notes, observation sheet, and interview sheet, it was found that teaching-learning process ran well, students were active, enthusiastic, and interested in writing. The research showed that the Mind Mapping Technique significantly improved students writing achievement in descriptive text. Keywords: Writing, Mind Mapping Technique, Test, Data, Classroom Action Research. 1

2 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study English as an international language is used in communication, an activity which people deal with every time. People need to communicate in doing daily activities and making an interaction to other people in their live. English is used as a medium of communication in all aspects of relationship with other countries such as diplomatic, social, cultural, international commerce and also in education. In learning English, students have to be able to achieve the language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The objective of teaching English is to enable students to communicate in English orally and in written. Accuracy and fluency are aspects of language proficiency, accuracy refers to the mastering of language components, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, while, fluency refers to the mastering of language skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Wallace (2004:15) states that writing skill for beginning students can benefit from learning and practicing one skill at a time, so it can also give benefit for students to learn another aspect of language at once. Moreover, Harmer (2004: 11) states that for many years the teaching of writing has been focused on the written product rather than the writing process. In other words, the students attention was directed to the what rather than how of the text constuction. There were many reasons that cause the students achievement is low in writing. In this study, the writer intended to choose writing as her topic because based on the observation and interview at SMP Negeri 3 Tanjung Beringin, it found that learning writing is still a problem especially on the descriptive text. Most of the students are unable to complete descriptive text successfully. Their grammar and vocabulary not 2

3 good, and also they are not confident to use their own language. Based on my observation, the teacher s notes about the original scores of her students show that only 50% (Minimum Completeness Criteria (KKM = 75)) of students in a class able to write a descriptive text well. Moreover, the students feel that teaching learning process monotonous and uninteresting. The conventional learning method that teacher apply in teaching writing skill not effective. During learning activities in the classroom, the teacher only asks students to read the text, translate it by using dictionary, and rewrite the translation. The students not asked to practice their writing ability. Teachers have responsibility to improve students achievement in writing, teachers have to create interesting atmosphere in the classroom so that the students can develop by their ideas in writing. Based on the current School-Based Curriculum that writing is one of the language skills that must be taught at junior high school/islamic junior high school (SMP/MTs). The teaching of writing aims at enabling students to master the functional texts and monologue texts or paragraphs in the form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure, and report. In addition, based on the Competency Standard- Standar Kompetensi (SK) and Basic Competency- Kompetensi Dasar (KD), the second year students are expected to be able to express meaningful ideas in term of functional text and simple short essay in the form of descriptive and recount to interact with people in their nearest environment. In reality, many students have difficulties in writing descriptive even though they had learned the descriptive text. The difficulty caused by the technique which used in teaching learning process not suitable. The writer chooses technique because the technique is taking place in the classroom and can help teacher to improve the students 3

4 ability in teaching learning process. And the writer used mind mapping technique because this technique indeed, can be regarded as the original reflection of what is in the individual s mind. The individual creativity forms the basis; however, how the individual structures the information must be taken to consideration. According to the research that has been done by Ozgul Keles, Turkey Elementary Teachers Views on Mind mapping and Brett D. Jones, Georgia the effects of Mind Mapping Activities on Student s Motivation there was a significant result of the students achievement through using Mind Mapping Technique. Because this technique is useful, interest, easier to understand and success full to increase scores of the students. And Afriani (2012), focused on the learning of key words to compose the descriptive text by using mind mapping technique in writing. She found that mind mapping technique make the students more creative, from the key words they can explore the word to much, first they think about noun of the object and then after that they must think about adjective from the noun more than one, all the students free to complete their mind mapping there is no wrong or right answer to make the mind map of words, they will free writing until they haven t an idea anymore. Keles (2012), believed that mind map was effective tools in learning and improving students creativity and in providing permanent learning than teaching English writing without mind mapping technique. This technique can facilitate the teaching of writing to the students because mind mapping technique does not only help the teacher to connect the materials to the students but also motivates them in teaching to apply mind mapping technique to the students writing descriptive text. 4

5 Based on the problems which are faced by the teachers and students in the teaching and learning especially writing, the writer would like to conduct a research by applying mind mapping technique to improve students writing skill. Research Question In relation to the background of the study, it is necessary to formulate the problem of this research as the following Does the mind mapping technique improve the students achievement in writing descriptive text? Literature Review A. Writing Writing is one of four skills of language which is important to learn. In writing, some ideas are formed in sentences which are arranged in a good way and relate each other so the information can be delivered. Writing as one of the language skills is not an innate natural ability. According to Elbow in Brown (2000:337) writing is a way to end up thinking something which is begun by thinking. Hyland (2002:6), states that writing as a textual product, a coherent arrangement of elements structured according to a system of rules. B. Genres Genres are recognized types of communicative actions, which mean that to participate in any social event (Hyland, 2002 : 63). Genres have specifiable linguistic characteristics which are neither fully determined or largely under the control of individual speakers or writers. Learning about writing is not only about how to put a word in written but also how to package the idea, message, and information correctly in 5

6 the text, in a certain criteria. Genre is classified according to their social purpose and identified according to the stages. C. Descriptive Text Descriptive is one the fundamental function of any language system and one of the first skill emergent language-users learns to control. It is also one of the most widely used genres across all of the learning areas. Description enables the classification of an almost infinite range of experiences, observation, and interaction into a system that orders them for immediate and future reference, allows us to know them either objectively, depending on the learning area or intent of the writer. 1. Parts of Descriptive Text In descriptive text writing, there are several things that should be understood as a following: a. Social Function The social function of writing descriptive text is to describe a particular person, place, thing, or animal. b. Generic structure Gerot and Wignell (1994:208) state that the generic structure of descriptive writing is: 1) Identification which identifies phenomenon that will be describe. 2) Description which describe about parts, qualities, or characteristic of something or someone in detail. c. Grammatical Features Knap and Watkins (2005:98) write there are several grammatical features of descriptive writing as a following: 6

7 1) In Descriptive writing, the present tense is predominantly used. The past tense is used to describe something in the past. 2) The used of action verbs are need in describing especially for describing behaviors. 3) When describing feelings, mental verb are used. Adjectives, adverb, and adverbial phrase are used most often. D. Mind Mapping Technique Mind map is a technique enabling left side of the brain being responsible for logic, vocabulary, arithmetic, linearity, queues, lists, and analysis, and the right side of the brain responsible for spatial awareness, imagination, emotion, color, rhythm, shapes, geometry, synthesis (Butuner, 2007: 2). Mind maps are effective tools in learning and improving students creativity and in providing permanent learning. Participants emphasized that it was a technique that appeals visual intelligence, gives students chance to express themselves freely and that is easily applicable. They also expressed that this technique can be applied in all grades of learning and in early years of primary education it was more appropriate to use mind maps than concept maps. Among the difficulties in application of this technique, drawing pictures and correlating concepts can be counted. Relevant literature studies support these findings (Goodnough & Woods, 2002). Mind mapping will activate brain, help mind from mental problem, made us focus on the mind subject, helped us to show the connection between information that separated, gave the clear picture in whole, possible to make us classified the concept, and help to compare it. Based on the above statement, mind map helps students to; planning, communicate, be more creative, solve the problem, concentrate attention, 7

8 arrange and explain the ideas, remember well, learning quickly and efficient. (Buzan, 2008) Furthermore, Olivia (2008:8) describes the advantages of mid mapping for students as follows: 1) Helps students to concentrate in memorizing information. 2) Improve students visual intelligence and observation ability. 3) Accustoms students to get critical review and good communication ability. 4) Improve students creativity. 5) Summarizes the lesson briefly. 6) Limits the time in making note appropriately. 7) Guides the students to arrange their thought, hobbies and schedules. 8) Makes students enjoy in learning process. 9) Guides the rights and left brain work synergistically. Yelon, Weinstein, & Wiener in state that achievement was an indication of the success by the individual. Concisely, students achievement was a thing done successfully by students with their efforts and skills. Students achievement in terms of research was indicated in the form of scores. Teacher gets the score based on the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. Cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. The affective domain includes the manner in which the students deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. It is the skill to do something. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. 8

9 Research Method This study was conducted as classroom action research design. Action research is defined as any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher, administrators, counselors or order with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process or environment for the purpose of gathering information about how their particular schools operate, how the teacher teach and how their students learn. The purpose of the action research was to improve school practice and to combine the research processes habits of thinking, ability to work harmoniously with others and professional spirit. Based on the explanation above, action research is the good research method to be used in order to see if the use of mind mapping technique improves students achievement in writing descriptive text. In this research, each cycle was done in four steps, namely planning, action, observation, and reflection. This research applied two cycles. The subject of this research was the second year students of Junior High School Negeri 3 Tanjung Beringin class VIII-1 which consisted of 30 students. There are five parallel classes. This subject was chosen because the writer found some problems their writing, and the writer assumes that those schools need to improvement their writing in descriptive text. This study applied quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were taken from the mean of students score in writing test. The qualitative data were taken from observation sheet, interview sheet and diary notes. RESULT AND DISCUSSION This study applied quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were taken from the mean of students score in writing test. The qualitative data were taken 9

10 from interview sheet, diary notes and observation sheet. Thus research was conducted in one class with 30 samples. The class was VIII-1. The research was accomplished in two cycles. Every cycle consisted of four steps of action research (planning, action, observation, and reflection). The first cycle and second cycle was conducted in three meetings, so there were six meetings altogether. They were tested seven times; namely test I in the first meeting of cycle I, test II in the third meeting of cycle I, and test III in the third meeting of cycle II. From the entire test and the teaching process conducted, it was found that the students score kept improving from the test I to the test II and III. The students score in the test I was lower than test II, the test II was lower than test III. Students writing was scored by calculating two component scales: identification and description. The students were said mastering the lesson if they got score up to 70. The percentage of the students who got the points up to 70 can be seen in the table below. The Percentage of the Students Who Got Points Up To 70 Writing Test Percentage Test I 6.66 % Test II % Test III 76.66% In the Test I, there were 2 students who master the writing well. In the test II, there were 14 students who got the scores up to 70. In the test III, there were 23 students who got the scores up to 70. The students achievement in the three tests had variation. In test I the lowest score was 51 and the highest one was 75. In test II, the lowest score was 57 the highest one was 85. In test III, the lowest score was 65 and the highest one was

11 The result of this research, it was found that that Mind Mapping Technique was able to improve the students achievement in writing. By applying this technique, the students writing score kept increase from test 1 to the last test of cycle II. We can see the improvement of the score from the mean of students score, where in test 1 the mean was 60.46, in cycle I was 67.5, in cycle II was The obtaining higher score was based on the activities designed to make the teaching process more excited, active, and enthusiastic to follow the teaching process by doing mind mapping. The qualitative data were taken from interview sheet, diary note and observation sheet also showed the students interest in writing increase because they could share their knowledge and express their opinion each other in their groups. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESSTIONS Conclusions After analyzing the data, it was found that the students writing scores increased from the test I to the test II and the test III. It means that there was an improvement on the students achievement in writing by applying Mind Mapping Technique. The analysis of quantitative data stated that the scores improved from the test I until the test III. Moreover, it was also proved through the interview sheet, diary note and observation sheet which indicate that there was an improvement in learning result after applying Mind Mapping Technique in the class. Therefore, Mind Mapping Technique significantly can improve the students achievement in writing. 11

12 Suggestions Related to the conclusions above, some points are suggested for English teacher, students, and readers. To the students, to use mind mapping technique while writing in the class so they can write descriptive text easily. To the teachers, to apply mind mapping technique so that they can improve their students achievement in writing descriptive text and to all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how to improve the students writing ability through mind mapping technique. 12

13 REFERENCES Buzan, T Buku Pintar Mind Map. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Brett, D The effects of Mind Mapping Activities on Student s Motivation. Journal of Education. Vol 6, No. 1 / Retrieved on Januari, 28 th 2013 Butuner, S.O Mind mapping applications in special teaching methods courses for science teacher candidates and teacher candidates opinions concerning the applications. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1, / Retrieved on Januari 23 th 2013 Gerot,L and Wignel P Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sidney: Tanya Stabler Goodnough, K., & Woods, R Student and teacher perceptions of mind mapping: A middle school case study. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. / Retrieved on Januari 25 th 2013 Harmer, J Practice English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Longman. Hyland, K Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Longman. Keles, O Elementary Teachers Views on Mind Mapping. Journal of Education. Vol 4, No. 1 / Retrieved on March, 22 th 2013 Olivia, Femi Gembira belajar dengan Mind Mapping.Jakarta: Elex media komputindo Wallace, J Action Research for Language Teachers. London: Cambridge University. Afriani Improving Students Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text through Mind Mapping Technique. Unpublished thesis. Medan: Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Negeri Medan. Yelon, et al Definition of Achievement. Available at isnianspd.blogspot.com/2009/08/definition-of-achievement.html / Retrieved on January, 28 th