Using mind mapping for writing activities: a case study at sekolah menengah Kerajaan Kota Samarahan / Valeria Rehat

This research was conducted to examine the progress of student performance in using mind mapping for the writing activities. It was also to determine the level of students’ awareness towards the use of mind mapping in writing and whether mind mapping could help the students in their writing or vice versa. This research was also to examine on the problems faced by the students when they started to write such as lack of substances and limited development of ideas. It focused on how we could use mind mapping to develop our mind, to be more creative and organize the information. The aspects assessed in this research are content, organization and language competence. This research involved two groups of students, such as the experimental group and the control group. A total of 30 students were chosen as respondents and divided into two groups. The control group was taught to write essay with only the title given. For experimental written test group, the students were given mind mapping graphic based on the title of the essay. The written test was conducted four times for each group of the students. The research findings revealed that the experimental group had improved in their performance compared to the control group. They also showed improvements in their writing skills such as organizing essays cohesively and coherently. Therefore, this approach had changed the students’
perception towards writing from a bored task to an interesting activity. It was hoped that this research would be able to help teachers and students in the writing.