The use of mind mapping to improve the students’ writing ability in narrative text (A Classroom Action Research on the Second Grade of SMA N 1 Weru in the Academic Year of 2012/2013)

Oleh :
Indah Pratiwi - K2209044 - Fak. KIP

This research aims to investigate: 1) whether mind mapping can improve students? ability in writing narrative text and its far improvement; 2) classroom climate when mind mapping is implemented in writing class; 3) the strengths and weaknesses of using mind mapping in teaching writing narrative text to the second grade of SMA Negeri 1 Weru. The method used in this research is a classroom action research method. The research was conducted in two cycles from January to April 2013. The research data were collected through observation, interview, questionnaire, and tests. The qualitative data were analyzed by assembling the data, coding the data, comparing the data, building interpretations, and reporting the outcomes. The quantitative data were analyzed by comparing the mean of pre-test and post-tests. The research findings show that the use of mind mapping improves the students? writing ability in narrative text and classroom climate. The improvement of writing includes: 1) most of the students can develop and organize their idea easily; 2) they can vary their vocabulary; 3) they can produce grammatically correct sentences; 4) they can use appropriate mechanics in their writing. Besides, the improvements of classroom climate include: 1) most of the students can respond and follow the teacher?s command; 2) the students give their attention to the teacher?s explanation without doing improper activities in the classroom; 3) most of students are confident to show their idea or their work in front of class; 4) most of the students are active in the teaching learning process; 5) the students have higher motivation to finish the task in given time. In this research, the researcher also finds the strengths and weakness of mind mapping. The strengths include mind mapping: 1) improves the students? interest in writing; 2) improves the students? vocabulary; 3) improves the students? creativity; 4) can develop content; 5) is flexible to use. Then, the weakness is mind mapping spends more time for the students in writing. It can be concluded that this research can improve the students? writing ability and classroom climate. And mind mapping can be used as an alternative effective technique to stimulate and develop ideas before writing narrative text to the second grade students of Senior High School. Keywords: writing narrative text, classroom climate, mind mapping.