IMPROVING
STUDENT’S
ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING
DESCRIPTIVE TEXT THROUGH MIND MAPPING
STRATEGY
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for The Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
JOJOR SAUT M PADANG
Registration Number: 209321006
ENGLISH EDUCATION AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, the writer would like to express her greatest thanks to
Jesus Christ, the Almighty God for love Blessing, Hope Health, Protection,
Knowledge and Opportunity for completing this thesis. This thesis has been written
in fulfillment of the one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan at
English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. All
the best things have been done to complete this thesis. However, the writer considers
this thesis is still far from the word of perfect. In completing this study, many people
have been involved.
This thesis could have not been accomplished without the guidance,
suggestions, and comments from numerous people. It would be impossible to
mention all, but some deserve her sincere and special thanks.
1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts
State University of Medan and to all her staffs.
3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department, Rika,
S.Pd., M.Hum., the Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA.,
the Head of Non-Educational English Program and as her examiners too, and
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed, the Head of Educational English Program
and her Academic Counselor thanks for their administrative help during the
researcher’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
4. Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd as her Thesis consultant who always gave
the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions
iii
5. Dr. Sri Minda Murni,M.S, M.A, Dr. Siti Aisyah Ginting M.Pd, as her
examiners who give many suggestion to make more improvement in her
thesis. May God. Love and bless you.
6. All lecturers of English Department, who have lead, enlighted, encouraged,
and given insightful comments during writing of this thesis.
7. Mam Enda and Mam Euis for their kind help in providing academic
administrations to the researcher.
8. A special thanks goes to A. Silaban,S,Si and Yunita Siahaan S,Pd principal
and English teacher, Private Junior High School ( Sekolah Menengah Pertama
Swasta;SMP) HKBP Pardamean who gave her permission to conduct the
research at the school.
9. The researcher’s family, her beloved Dad, alm Banua Tonga Padang and
Mom, Romauli Nababan, thank you for the love, patience, financial
supports and prayers. The researcher loves both of you so much. May God.
Gives much happiness to you. Thanks are also for her beloved sisters Lasma
padang S,Pd and Agustiana Padang S,Pd her Brother Jhon Candra
Padang for the full support, love, and everything that have been poured to
her.
10.Her appreciation to all her friends Pilom H.Boang Manalu, Rasta Elisa
Girsang S.Pd, Iis Aprianti S.Pd, Tetty purba, Vhanny S.S, Eka, Desi, Ida,
Hafija, Icha and all classmates in English Education 09 Extension Class A,B
and C for their profound friendship.
Medan, February 2014 The Researcher,
i
ABSTRACT
Padang, Jojor SM. 209321006. Improving Students’ Achievement in writing descriptive text through Mind Mapping Strategy. A Thesis. English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2014.
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 4.1 The Students; score in the three tests ... .... 28
Table 4.2The mean score of students from orientation test up to cycle II ... .... 29
Table 4.3The percentage of the students who got points up to 70 ... .... 30
Table 4.4 The percentage of students who got high scores in cycle I ... .... 30
Table 4.5 The percentage of the students who got the low score in cycle II ... .. . 31
Table 4.6 The percentage of the who got decreasing score ... .. . 32
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 3.1 Action Research Model ... 22
Figure 4.1The Highest score in orientation test ... . 25
Figure 4.2The highest score in cycle I ... 26
viii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix A. Lesson Plan ... 40
Appendix B. The Students Score In the three tests ... 67
Appendix C. Diary Notes ... 68
Appendix D Observation Sheet ... 71
Appendix E Questionnaire Sheet ... 73
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Most of the students, in fact, think that writing is complicated to study. Students
always get difficulties when they are asked to write in English. Based on interviewing
conducted on VIII-1 SMP Swasta HKBP Pardamean Medan , it was found that
students’ achievement in English subject is still low. It was proved by their
achievement in writing.
In fact, in Indonesia students’ writing skill in English language is very low. It is
found that most of Indonesian students are still difficult in comprehending the text.
As generally, based on the standard competency in the syllabus of the second
grade of Junior High School (Sekolah Menengah Pertama : SMP) called Educational
Unit-Oriented Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan: KTSP), students
are expected to be able to write simple paragraphs in descriptive, recount, narrative,
procedure and report. Descriptive text is a type of text that functions to describe
particular person, place, or thing. Description creates a word-picture of people,
places, objects, and emotions, using a careful selection of details to make an
impression on the reader. Students who are going to write this type of text should be
able to express what they see, hear, feel vividly.
As generally known, Minimum Mastery Criteria (MMC) of English subject in
2
schools. Because we found that student has difficult to write a text well based on the
genre. Especially in writing descriptive, students face difficulties because of
reluctance to question or less motivation, difficult to build and develop their ideas,
the using of grammar and confuse in determining the generic structure of the text.
The teacher just explained the material from the guiding book and after that asked the
students to answer the question based on descriptive text that they have read. In
Nasution (2008) said that the learning of language depends not so much on the
number of years it is studied but on the motivation of the students, the type of
teachers, method of teaching adopted, and instructional material designed.
There were many reasons that make the students’ achievement low in writing.
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 use their own
language. When someone wants to write for a specific purpose, they have to think
who will be their audience and how provide the information the readers need to know
in their writing.
The reason why students still got low achievement in writing is not only from
students themselves, but also from teacher. The conventional learning strategy 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 are not asked to practice
their writing ability. In addition, the teacher never makes variation in teaching and
3
So, teacher has high responsibility to improve students’ achievement in writing.
Teacher has to create interesting activities in the classroom so that students can
develop their ideas in writing.
Based on the explanation above, the writer would like to conduct a study of
applying the new strategy in teaching writing to the students especially for Junior
High School students. The strategy is named mind mapping, which is developed by
Buzan. The mind mapping strategy is one of the teachers’ strategies in teaching. Mind
Mapping are used to generate, visulize, structure, and clasify ideas, solving problem,
making decision and writing. Not only mind map show facts, but also show the
overall structure of a subject and the relative importance of individual parts of it. It
helps students to associate ideas, think creatively, and make connections that might
not otherwise make.this strategy use basic mental operations involved in perceiving,
processing and evaluating information.
D, Kaur J & Singh K ( 2004: 95 ) Mind maps are excellent way to help learners
organize knowledge, to empower themselves to better comprehend the key concepts,
and principles in lectures, readings, or other instructional materials, found that
relating images to concepts is a creative task which requires thinking instead of
memorizing.
Olivia (2008: 8) Mind Mapping is very useful to improve students’
4
concentrate in memorizing information (b) improve students visual intelligence and
observation ability (c) improve students creativity (d) summarize the lesson
briefly,etc.
Mind mapping works well as the teachers visual design enables students to see
the relationship between the ideas, and encourages them to group certain ideas
together as they proceed. Students start with a topic at the center and then generate a
web of ideas from it, developing and relating these ideas as their mind makes
associations. Mind mapping is often created around a single word or text, placed in
the center, to which associated ideas, words, and concepts are added.
Learning by using this strategy helps students develop good writing skills and
also become better learners as they develop life-long skills that help them to study.
B.The problem of study
The problem of the study of this research is formulated as follow;
“Does the use of Mind Mapping Strategy improve the students achievement in
descriptive writing?”
C.The scope of of the study
This study focuses on improving students achievement in descriptive
writing.The strategy that is used to improve students writing skills is Mind Mapping
5
D.The objective of the study
In relation with the background of the problem, the objective of the study is to
investigate the application of mind mapping Strategy in improving the student’s
writing achievement in class VIII SMP Swasta HKBP Pardamean.
E. The significance of the study
The result of this study is expected to be used for:
a. The students in motivating them to be better in descriptive writing.
b. English teachers in providing them an alternative strategy in improving their
strategies in teaching writing.
c. The readers in encouraging and motivating them to write.
37
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. 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. Therefore, Mind mapping strategies
improve the students’ achievement in writing especially writing descriptive text. It is
showed by their enthusiasm in writing descriptive text in the two cycles and their
responds while they were asked about mind mapping strategy.
B. SUGGESTIONS
Based on the result of this study, the use of Mind Mapping Strategy could
improve the students’ writing achievement on descriptive text. The following
suggestions are offered:
1.For English teacher, it is suggested to use mind mapping Strategy so that they
can improve their students’ achievement in writing descriptive text.
2. For the students, to use Mind Mapping Strategy while writing in the class so
they can write descriptive text easily.
3.For all the readers, may this research bring them into good understanding how
38
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