The Use of Mind Mapping In Improving Writing Ability of Eleventh Grade Students of Sman 16 Samarinda Focus on the Component of Content And Vocabulary (under the supervision of Dyah Sunggingwati, PhD, and Dr. Noor Rachmawaty, M.Ed). Unpublished Thesis, Graduate Program of English Education, Teacher College, Mulawarman University, Samarinda.
The research was based on the researcher‟s teaching experiences in teaching writing and also the result of preliminary study which was conducted at SMAN 16 Samarinda. The researcher found that the students were often confused how to make good paragraph in their writing tasks. They had difficulties in generating and exploring their ideas and lack of vocabularies. Based on the preliminary study result, even only 5 students who could pass the criteria minimum score. Some of them could only produce simple paragraphs. Moreover, about 34% of students had difficulties in generating and developing their ideas (lack of ideas), the most problem in writing, based on the preliminary questionnaire. Therefore, the researcher chose mind mapping technique in teaching writing because writing is a difficult skill, factually many people were not capable in generating and organizing their ideas. The objective of the study was to know whether mind mapping technique can improve the writing ability especially for the component of content and vocabulary of the eleventh-grade students of SMAN 16 Samarinda.
Classroom Action Research (CAR) was employed in this study and has been
conducted in two cycle consisting of four meetings by following procedures of planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The subjects of the research were 33 participants of eleventh grade of SMAN 16 Samarinda in academic year 2017/2018. The instrument used to collect the data were writing test, observation sheet, field note, and interview guide. To motivate the students, the researcher used group work as learning method.
After conducting this research, the researcher drew some conclusions. (1) The implementation of mind mapping technique was successful to improve the writing ability especially the component of content and vocabulary. The students could understand and apply the mind mapping technique to produce a narrative essay. (2) The average score of students‟ writing test, increased 11.87 point from preliminary score (63.30) to cycle 1 (75.17) and increased 7.62 point from cycle 1 (75.17) to cycle 2 (82.79). (3) the percentage of students who fulfill the minimum criteria of English from preliminary study to cycle 1 had improved 42.45% (5 students to 19 students) and cycle 1 to cycle 2 had improved 36.34% (19 students to 31 students). (4) From the result of students‟ writing score for component of content of cycle 1 to cycle 2, there were 15 students or 45.50% achieved the component of content in cycle 1 increased to 29 students or 87.88% in cycle 2. The percentage score increased 42.38%. From the result of students‟ writing score for component of vocabulary of cycle 1 to cycle 2, there were 20 students or 60.60% achieved the component of vocabulary increased to 28 students or 84.85% in cycle 2. The percentage score increased 24.25%. (5) The average score of the students‟ engagement in the implementation of mind mapping technique to improve writing ability was 83.77% increased 14.44% from the percentage score of students‟ engagements in cycle 1 which was 69.33%. (6) The collaboration of mind mapping technique, picture series and the topic of fiction story was very helpful to help the students complete a good narrative essay faster.