MIND MAPPING AS A TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILL Prepared by, Azura Binti Abdul Aziz ( P73939 )

 Mind Maps are a great way of gathering and organizing material for books, articles, theses, and technical documentation – in fact, any sort of writing.  The Mind Mapping process involves a unique combination of imagery, colour and visual-spatial arrangement which is proven to significantly improve recall when compared to conventional methods of note-taking and learning by rote.  A study by Farrand, Hussain and Hennessey (2002) found that Mind Mapping improved the long-term memory of factual information in medical students by 10%. They reported that “Mind Maps provide an effective study technique when applied to written material” and are likely to “encourage a deeper level of processing” for better memory formation.  Research by Toi (2009) shows that Mind Mapping can help children recall words more effectively than using lists, with improvements in memory of up to 32%.

 In all types of examinations in Malaysia, writing skill remains an integral part of the evaluation system. The overwhelming biasness towards writing as the essential core of evaluation has to do with practicality and cost rather than construct and content.  Writing is still the main contributing factor for students to do well in their English paper.  Smith (1982) notes that "much is known about which practices in teaching the writing process are effective, [but] several of these findings are in conflict with widespread practices in the schools"  Neill (1982) conducted a survey of 425 school districts and found that 90 percent of the respondents considered student writing to be a problem either a serious problem (40 percent) or a minor problem (50 percent).

 In writing, sentence construction is always as the crucial part. Here, a bad sentence construction will impede reading.  Therefore, students must be well trained on how to construct good sentences which will lead to a clear and precise communication.  Throughout the primary years, students have been taught of how to construct good sentences. But then, still at primary level sentence constructions has become the major problem among ESL learners in Malaysia.  According to the report from the Malaysian Examination Syndicate (2002) on UPSR English Paper, students were not doing well in their writing because of the weaknesses in sentence construction.  This study is going to find out and gathered how mind map can improve the writing skill.  So, that is why I recommended to do this research.

 Considering the issue and importance of writing skill, one would like to suggest that the use of mind mapping technique in writing should be taking into consideration as a tool to improve the performance in writing skill among the students.  The present study will explore the previous research on the use of mind mapping technique in writing skill.  This paper should shed some light and provide ground information for future research in the technique use in writing skill for students.

 Based on the statement problems, the researcher has formulated the following questions as guidelines of the study and they are as follows: 1. to find out the use of mind mapping in writing skill 2. to identify whether the use of Mind Mapping technique was effective in improving the students’ writing achievement 3. to identify how SLL may contribute in promoting mind mapping in writing skill.

 The intention was to review articles that discussed about mind mapping in writing skill in 30 journals.  The primary data source was from the internet journals and print- based journals.  The intention of this study was to review articles that discussed about mind mapping technique to improve the writing skill among the students/learners.  Some of the findings was taken from the master’s thesis/reports/journals.  Also from books and most of the literatures were originated internationally such as from Indonesian, China, UAE, Taiwan, etc.

Mind mapping - This particular technique was the brainchild of Mr. Tony Buzan located in London, England. - He developed the system as his way of providing help to students who were experiencing great difficulty in formulating notes within their classes. - Mind maps tend to make it easier for a student to completely memorize and to organize their notes in a positive manner consistent with clear effective learning techniques. - A study by Al-Jarf (2009) confirms that Mind Mapping software offers a powerful approach for improving the ability of anyone to generate, visualise and organise ideas. - The subjects taking part in the study reported that the Mind Mapping tool encouraged creative thinking and they became faster at generating and organising ideas for their writing.

Writing Skill  - Graves (1978) identified several ways that writing is important in our lives:  As a contribution to the development of a person, no matter what that person's background and talents... Writing is a highly complex act that demands the analysis and synthesis of many levels of thinking.  Writing develops initiative. In reading, everything is provided. In writing, the learner must supply everything: the right relationship between sounds and letters, the order of the letters and their form on the page, the topic, information, questions, answers, order.  Writing develops courage. At no point is the learner more vulnerable than in writing.  Writing, more than any other subject, can lead to personal breakthroughs in learning.  Writing can contribute to reading from the first day of school. Writing, some say, is active, whereas reading is passive.  Writing contributes strongly to reading comprehension as children grow older. The ability to revise writing for greater power and economy is one of the higher forms of reading.

 Mind mapping is a learning technique which uses a non-linear approach to learning that forces the learner to think and explore concepts using visuospatial relationships flowing from a central theme to peripheral branches which can be inter- related.  Mind Maps were popularized by author and consultant, Tony Buzan. He used a two-dimensional structure, instead of the list format conventionally used to take notes. As Tony Buzan (2002), mind mapping is a graphic representation of ideas (usually generated via a brainstorming session). It shows the ideas which are generated around a central theme and how they are interlinked. It is a tool primarily used for stimulating thought.

 According to Margulies (1991), before children learn a language, they visualise pictures in their minds which are linked to concepts. Unfortunately, once children are trained to write only words in one colour, on lined paper, their creative channels and mental flexibility diminishes. Using images, like Mind Maps, keeps this creativity fired up.  Mind mapping is one of Higher-order thinking, known as higher order thinking skills (HOTS), that is a concept of Education reform based on learning taxonomies (such as Bloom's Taxonomy).  Higher order thinking involves the learning of complex judgemental skills such as critical thinking and problem solving.  Higher-order thinking skill enable students to create the mind map in order to help them do the writing exercise and expand their ideas in writing.

 This research is represents the researcher’s effort to investigate more possible ways to enhance students’ writing.  As Gannon (1985:32) asserts, “Learning how to write well is dependent upon actually doing it when you need or wish to do it”, it is hoped that students, as well as this researcher, would benefit from the reviews and would devote more time and effort to improving the learning and the teaching of writing.  As Hughey et al. (1983) point out, Mind Mapping is a kind of working outline which can help student visualize the parts of writing more clearly. It is worthwhile introducing this planning technique to students.