Maria Wulandari - 136332014
Abstract
Writing is a productive skill which involves a complex process including the process of generating ideas and gathering information which are then processed into a comprehensible written product for the readers. Because writing is not a simple activity, it is important for the teachers to provide a good technique and appropriate media in teaching writing in order to help the students enhance their writing skills. There are many techniques useful to teach writing. A certain technique might work on a student, for example, but it might not be successful if it is applied to student B. Hence, to be successful in teaching writing, there must be an analysis on learners’ needs. Many people loves something which is attractive, so does the students of senior high school. The use of technology in the classroom can be an alternative technique for attracting the students to write. Mind mapping software is one of the features of technology that can be utilized by the teacher to teach writing. Most of the senior high school students have been familiar with technology. They like to get in touch with the internet and to operate computer to do a certain task given by the teacher. Related to the teaching of writing, the familiarity of the students with technology is very likely to be an advantage for the English teachers. The English teachers can provide an attractive task for preparing them to write. It can be done, for example, by asking the students to do mind-mapping tasks using a mind-mapping software. By using mind-mapping software, it is expected that the students can have better preparation before writing since mind-mapping software can help the students generate ideas more easily.
Keywords: writing, teaching, mind-mapping, media, software
Writing skill is one of the four language skills which is very important to be mastered by the students. Writing is regarded as a useful, integral, and enjoyable part of foreign language learning. Writing skill can also enhance language acquisition because learners can experiment with words, sentences, and larger scopes of writing to communicate ideas and to practice the grammar and vocabulary. However, there are still many cases found in the reality that the ability of senior high schools students is low. It is relatively disappointing due to the importance of writing mentioned previously.
In general, senior high schools students still have difficulties in generating ideas. They often get confused when they are asked to produce texts. Many of them do not know what to write and how to start writing. They always need a stimulus from the teacher. They find it difficult to develop their ideas in the beginning of writing certain texts. Hence, giving the students a good and an appropriate strategy is necessary. Mind-mapping software can be use as a medium of learning writing especially in the pre-writing stage. In the pre-writing stage, the activity which is done by the students usually is determining the idea to write. Grenville (2001: 12) mentioned that the hardest thing about getting ideas is that little voice in a writer’s head that tell all of his ideas is not good. Then, he said that the first thing the writers should take into account in a writing process is generating ideas and putting their thoughts in order. By using mind-mapping software, the students can learn in a fun way so that they can generate ideas more easily.
In implementing the use of mind mapping software in writing class, there are many instructions that can be given by the teacher such as asking the students to create central idea, adding ideas, moving and changing the branches, and using keywords. For sure, there should be some requirements to be considered when applying mind-mapping software in the writing learning process. The students need to be familiar at first with the software and how to operate it. The facilities should be ready to use. The topic of writing should also be provided (if the students need it). Therefore, this study will try to answer a question: How does mind mapping software help the students in learning writing? The subjects of the study is the students of senior high schools. The subjects are between 15-17 years old. Their proficiency in English are in the medium level.
2. Discussion
Mind mapping has been used widely to teach writing in English language. Many teachers of English from around the world reported their successful use of mind mapping in their classrooms. The reasons for using mind mapping is that the students will save time, be more organized, and come up with more ideas for their writing, have more fun, and get better marks. Mind mapping can be used for all kinds of text with different purposes. Mind Mapping, or so-called spidergram, was firstly invented by Tony Buzan following his research through note-taking techniques. Buzan (2003: 4) stated that mind map is an easy way to get the information into and out of brain. It means that the nature of mind mapping is closely related to the function of the mind. It is a form of an outline with ideas and pictures. It can be used in almost every activity where thought, recall, planning and creativity are involved. In his research, Buzan studied three common techniques for taking notes during a lecture, i.e.: writing a complete technique, writing a summary, and writing key words only.
Mind mapping brings wider advantages than note taking. Through mind mapping, the center or main idea is more clearly defined. The relative importance of each idea is clearly indicated. More important ideas will be nearer the center and less important ideas will be near the edge. The links between the key concepts will be immediately recognizable because of their proximity and connection. As a result above, recall and review will be both more effective and more rapid. The nature of the structure allows for the easy addition of new information without messy scratching out or squeezing in, etc. Each map made will look and be different from each other map. This will aid recall. In the more creative areas of note making such as essay preparations etc., the open-ended nature of the map will enable the brain to make new connections far more readily.
The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides a real opportunity for teachers to apply in classrooms. Adams and Brindley (2007: 39-40) discussed about thinking skills and mind maps which are familiar concepts in the English classroom. Related to the use of ICT in writing learning process, they have confirmed how ICT can motivate students to explore and present their reaction to texts through expository.
This study focused on senior high school students with an assumption that they love using technological devices and mind map. Here the use of mind mapping software aimed to help students learn writing better. If they are just given a topic then they start writing without an interesting start they will possibly have difficulties to generate ideas. Full of motivation in the beginning of writing (pre-writing) with the help of mind mapping software can help the students in writing smoothly later.
The use of software, in this case, serves many advantages on the learners. Based on Adams and Brandley (2007: 39-40), the advantages are simply for three points. They are for cognitive gain, motivational gain and interactional gain. Some other advantages of using computer mind-maps are as follows: It is fast, because the student can save maps like meeting agendas to use again and again. The student can rearrange items on a map by deleting, and dragging and dropping. The student can link maps together. The student can print out unlimited copies. The student can share maps on the Web, over his network, or by sending them via email. The student can use Mind Maps to develop projects like Web sites and presentations, cutting down on the amount of work have to do. The student can use Mind Maps as the focus for all his projects, linking Mind Maps together.
Buzan’s iMindMap® software performs some features that can create mind maps. The features include desktop application that provides organic mind mapping methods to create Maps for brainstorming, organizing, creative thinking, project management and planning. The software is able to integrate with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org and iWork. Besides, the platforms of the software embrace Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
In applying this mind-mapping software in the learning process of writing, there are some steps to be conducted. The first step is creating the central idea. Using this central idea, the students set the theme for mind map which symbolize the topic that will be presented. Once iMindMap® software is opened, choices of central images appear. Then, the student can either which image is the most suitable to the topic or import his own. There are many background categories to choose for the central idea, namely educational, business, personal, general, and 3D enhanced themes. The second step is adding ideas. The students can do this by adding branches for their own ideas. To draw the main branches radiating from the central idea, the students have to move the cursor over the “Central Idea” until a red dot appears. After clicking on the red dot, they have to drag out to draw a branch. By adding all of main branches in this way, the students can represent each major theme of their topics. To add a word, they can simply type straight after drawing the branch. To edit what has been written, they should double-click on the branch and a text box will appear. The next step is moving and changing the branches. The position of a branch can be moved to another way by clicking on the branch to make it active. After that, the students drag this to the place the branch would like to be placed on map. The length of a branch can also be changed by moving the cursor over the end of a branch to make the blue ring appear. To change the length of the branch, they can click on the blue ring and move it inside or out. The third step is using images and icons. An image can also be attached to the branch by clicking on the branch to make the blue dot active and selecting the 'Insert Image' icon on the Branch Editor. This way also applies to 'Insert Icon' on the Branch Editor. Images are different from icons. Images are larger and more detailed than icons. Meanwhile, icons are smaller and more symbolic than images. The last step is using keywords. Once a branch has been created for an idea, the students can add a word to describe this idea. It is important to try and only use one key word here. This is because one word will create many more connections than two. It also allows the student’s mind to have the freedom to stimulate new ideas and thoughts.
3. Conclusion and Suggestion
This study discuss about the use of mind-mapping software to help students from senior high school learn vocabulary. The students of senior high school, in general, have problems in writing skills related to generating ideas and writing paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting sentences. From the discussion it can be inferred that mind-mapping software can help the students to tackle those difficulties. The mind-mapping software uses lines, colors, arrows, branches to show connections between the ideas generated on the mind map. It has many advantages to help the students generate ideas and relate main ideas and supporting details. Since this study use mind-mapping to help students improve their writing skills, the future researchers might examine the use of other media beside mind-mapping software which can help students to improve macroskills and microskills of writing.
4. References
Adams, Anthony and Brindley, Sue. 2007. Teaching Secondary English with ICT. England: Open University Press.
Buzan, Tony. 2003. Mind Maps for Kids: An Introduction - The Shortcut to Success at School. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
Grenville, Kate. 2001. Writing from Start to Finish: A Six-Step Guide. South Australia: Allen & Unwin.
http://pkab.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/peta-pikiran-mind-mapping/