IMPROVING
STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN
WRITING
DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH MIND MAPPING
TECHNIQUE
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
Eliye Yuli Yenti
Registration Number: 209421013
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words, and has not been previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan, 23 Januari 2014
The writter,
Eliye Yuli Yenti
i
ABSTRACT
Yuli Yenti, Eliye. 209421013. Improving Students’ Achievement in Writing Descriptive Text through Mind Mapping technique. A thesis. English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, State University of Medan. 2014.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the writer would like to express her greatest thanks to Allah
SWT, the Almighty and Most Beneficial for Her Grace, Guidance, Praise, Honor
and Mercy that has been given to her especially health and luck until this thesis
could be completed. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements of
obtain the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S1) at the English Department, Faculty
of language and arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis could have been completed also because of guidance,
encouragement, suggestions, and comments from some people for whom the
writer would like to extend her sincere and special thanks to ;
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Language and Arts, Vice Dean I, II, III, and all the administrative staff.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature Department , Rika, S.Pd., M.Hum, the Secretary of English Department,
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed, the Head of English Education for the suggestions and administrative assistance during the completion of this
thesis.
Dra. Meisuri, M.A, the Thesis consultant for the precious time spent, valuable knowledge, assistance, and advice in correcting and supervising
her thesis.
Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd, Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S, and Drs Lidiman SM Sinaga, M.Hum, thanks are given to the reviewers of her Seminar Proposal, for their valuable input and comment enrich the quality
iii
All the lectures who have given very valuable knowledge through academic years.
Tumoak Sinaga, S.Pd, the Headmaster of SMP Negeri 3 Tanjung Beringin, and Isma Nurhadi S.Pd for her help that allowed the writer to conduct her
research in the class.
(Alm) Suhaimi AS and Erma Suriyani her beloved parents. And both of her beloved sister Eliya Wulandari and Eva Putri, S.Pd for their great
love, prayers, motivation, understanding and support in finishing this thesis. Debi Cahyadi Saragih, as her lovely boyfriend who gives the writer
support, attention, pray, to finish this thesis. Regular A 2009 (Sara
Frimaulia, Rizki Bita Ghaliah Siregar, S.Pd, Eka Ratna Sari, Aini Mardhiah, Yetti Lestari, Nurmaulida Rahmi) for their spirit and friendship. Thanks for all classmate in English education 2009 in class A, B
and C Class, for helping, friendship, kindness during spending the time in
State University of Medan.
To all whose names cannot be mentioned one by one, she would like to say thanks a lot.
The writer hopes this thesis will be useful for those who read it, especially
for the students of English Department.
Medan, Februari 2014
The writer,
Eliye Yuli Yenti
iv
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ……….. 6
A. Language Skills………... 6
3. Example of Descriptive Text ………... 17
E. Methodology ……….. 18
1. Technique ……… 20
v
a. Definition of Mind Mapping Technique …………... 20
b. Applying Mind Mapping Technique ………. 21
c. The Advantages of Mind Mapping Technique …….. 24
F. Students’ Achievement in Writing……….. 24
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD ………. 26
A. Research Design ……….. 26
B. The Subject of the Research ……….... 27
C. The Instrument of Collecting Data ……….. 27
D. The Procedure of Collecting Data ………... 28
E. Scoring of Descriptive Writing Test………. 33
F. The Technique of Analyzing Data ………... 34
CHAPTER IV: DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ……… 36
A. The Data ………... 36
1. The Quantitative Data ………... 36
2. The Qualitative Data………. 38
B. Data Analysis ………... 39
1. Analysis of Quantitative Data ……….. 39
2. Analysis of Qualitative Data ………. 40
C. The Research Finding ………... 41
D. Discussion ………. 43
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ………. 45
vi
B. Suggestion ……….. 45 REFERENCES ……… 46
viii
LIST OF FIGURE
ix
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Lesson Plan... 48
APPENDIX B. Interview Sheet………... 78
APPENDIX C. Observation Sheet... 82
APPENDIX D. Diary Notes……... 84
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The 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 life. English uses as a
medium language in all aspect of national relationship with other countries such
as diplomatic, social, cultural, international commerce and also in education.
In learning English, the 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 English
written form. Accuracy and fluency are aspects of language proficiency. Accuracy
refers to mastering language components, pronunciation, vocabulary and
grammar. Meanwhile, fluency refers to mastering 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, study writing skill can
benefit for student to learn another aspect of language at once. And Harmer (2004:
11) states that for many years the teaching of writing focused on the written
product rather than the writing process. In other words, the students’ attention was
2
There were many reasons that make the students’ achievement low in
writing. In this study, the writer deals that writing as her topic because based on
observation and interview at SMP Negeri 3 Tanjung Beringin, it is discovered that
learning writing is still a problem especially in the descriptive text. Most of the
students are unable to complete descriptive text successfully. Students found
difficulties to write because they do not have any idea to write, their grammar and
vocabulary is not good, and also they are not confident to use their own language.
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 are able to
write a descriptive text well. Moreover, the students feel that teaching learning
process is monotonous and uninteresting.
The conventional learning method that teacher applied in teaching writing
skill is not effective. During learning activities in the classroom, the teacher only
asks the students to read the text, translate the text by using dictionary, and rewrite
the translation. The students were not asked to practice their writing ability.
Teacher has high responsibility to improve students’ achievement in writing.
Teacher has to create interesting in the classroom so that the students can develop
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,
3
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 have learned the descriptive text. The difficulties are caused by the
individual creativity forms the basis; however, how the individual structures the
information must be taken in consideration.
According to the research that has been done by Ozgul Keles, Faculty of
Education, Aksaray University, Turkey “Elementary Teachers’ Views on Mind
mapping” March:2012 and Brett D. Jones, Georgia Southern University, USA“
the effects of Mind Mapping Activities on Student’s Motivation” January: 2012
there was a significant result of the students’ achievement through using Mind
Mapping Technique. Because this technique useful, interest, easier to understand
and success to increased scores of the students. And the research that has been
done by Afriani (2012), teaching English writing through mind mapping
technique was effective than teaching English writing without mind mapping
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text by using mind mapping technique in writing. She did the observation at the
eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Kisaran.
According to the research that has been done by Keles (2012) He believed
that mind maps are effective tools in learning and improving students’ creativity
and in providing permanent learning than teaching English writing without mind
mapping technique. This technique can facilities 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 in teaching to apply mind
mapping technique to the students writing descriptive text.
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.
B. The Problem of the Study
Related to the background of the study, the research problem can be
formulated as follows: “Does the mind mapping technique improve the students’
achievement in writing descriptive text?”
C. The Objective of the Study
In the line with the problem of the study, the objective of this study is
aimed at finding whether the students’ achievement in writing descriptive text
5
D. The Scope of the Study
This study focuses on improving students’ descriptive writing
achievement. The technique that is used to improve students’ writing skill is Mind
Mapping Technique. The scope of this study is limited on the teaching of writing
descriptive text.
E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to contribute for:
1. English teachers, as one of alternative method in improving the quality of
teaching writing.
2. Students, to helps them to write grammatically accurate and to improve
their writing skill.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusions
Based on the result of the study, the conclusions are dawn as follows:
1. There is an improvement of students’ writing descriptive text achievement if
it is taught by using mind mapping technique. It is showed by the mean of the
students in test 1 (60.46), test 2 (67.5), test 3 (74.06).
2. The students felt more enjoyable and interested in learning writing descriptive
text by using mind mapping technique. It is showed by their enthusiasm in
writing descriptive text in the two cycles and their responds while they were
asked about mind mapping technique.
B. Suggestions
Based on the result of this study, the use of the mind mapping technique
could improve the students’ writing achievement on descriptive text. The
following suggestions are offered:
1. to the students, to use mind mapping technique while writing in the class so
they can write descriptive text easily.
2. to the teachers, to apply mind mapping technique so that they can improve their
students’ achievement in writing descriptive text; and
3. to all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how to
