Enhancing Freshman Students’ Writing Skills with a Mind-mapping Software Prof. Reima Al-Jarf King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia e-mail: reemasado@msn.com Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf eLSE 2009. Carol I National Defense University. Bucharest, Romania. April 8-10, 2009

What is s Mind Map? It is a graphic organizer in which the major categories radiate from a central image & lesser categories are portrayed as branches of larger branches. It can be used to generate ideas, take notes, develop concepts & ideas, & improve memory.

Importance of Mind Maps They enhance learning & create a foundation for learning. An illustrative tool that assists with managing thought, directing learning, & making connections. To introduce an overall topic, increase student involvement, & get thoughts down quickly. to express ideas & show interrelationships between concepts & content.

Aims of Study Does utilization of a mind mapping software have any positive effects on EFL freshman students’ writing achievement? Does utilization of a mind mapping software have any positive effects on freshman students’ attitudes towards writing skill development & the mind mapping activity?

Subjects 86 EFL female freshman students in two intact groups (43 students each). Both groups were in their first semester of the translation program at COLT. The EFL program at COLT offers four writing courses ranging between elementary & advanced levels to students in semester 1-4. Age 18, all Saudi, all native speakers of Arabic.

Pretesting Before instruction, the 2 groups took the same writing pretest. Results showed no significant differences between the experimental & control groups in their writing ability before the writing instruction began.

Traditional instruction Both groups were exposed to the same traditional in-class writing instruction. They studied same textbook, covered same skills, exercises & took the same tests.

Treatment Free Mind 0.8.1 was integrated in in-class writing instruction as a prewriting activity. In week 1, I trained the students to use Free Mind using an LCD projector. Every week the software was used to create mind maps for the topic that the students had to write a paragraph about in class with the my help. They continued to use Free Mind at home.

A mind map begins with a word or image that symbolizes the topic the student have to write about in the middle using at least 3 colors. The students write down or drew the first things that come up to their mind when they start to think about related issues, people, places, events, reasons, characteristics or examples. They put their thoughts around the central thought.

Type one or two word descriptions of the ideas on lines branching from the central focus. Expand ideas outward into branches & sub- branches. Express ideas in words, images, codes or symbols. Select keywords. Each word/image sat alone on its own line.

When ideas slowed down, the students draw empty lines, & watched their brain automatically find ideas to put on them. Sometimes they could see relationships & connections immediately & could add sub-branches to a main idea. The first requirement was to get the ideas out of their head & onto the screen. Organization always came later.

The aim of the prewriting activity was not to teach the students how to apply the details of the Free Mind software & how to use it in studying, reading, vocabulary building ...etc. Focus was on placing the paragraph topic in the center, how to add branches for the details, how to add pictures & change the font color, size & case.

Posttesting Students in both groups took the same posttest. The experimental group answered a post-treatment questionnaire.

Results   T-test results revealed a significant difference between the experimental & control suggesting that experimental students’ made higher gains in writing achievement as a result of integrating the mind mapping software in writing instruction.

The experimental group wrote more relevant details & better organized & connected ideas than paragraphs written by the control groups. During posttest most students drew mind maps by hand to help them visualize & organize ideas.

Effect of Mind Mapping on Attitudes Positive attitudes towards mind mapping & the writing course under study. Students found the mind mapping software fun & helpful in generating & organizing ideas, & considered it a new way of brainstorming & planning a paragraph. They could use the mind mapping software any time & as many times as they needed.

They could write down a central idea, focus on key ideas, think about new & related ideas which radiate out from the centre, & personalize it with lines, colors, arrows, branches to show connections between the ideas generated to construct visual & meaningful relationships between ideas. They found MP important for constructing a structured paragraph plan.

Thank You!