USING MIND MAPPING IN TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE WRITTING (An Experimental Study at

the First Grade of Private Junior High School Riyadlul Jannah Bogor)
1)
Arif Prayogo); 2)Saiful Ihsan; 3) Ahmad Mawardi; 4) Tri Juliawan); and 4) Sugiyanto)
1, 2)Pamulang University, South Tangerang, Banten
3)
Pamulang University Master of Management Postgraduate Program
1)
[email protected]
2)
[email protected]
3)
[email protected]
4)

5)
[email protected]

Abstract:
English as compulsory subject is aimed at preparing the student to develop science,
technology and culture, and at making them competent and good Indonesian citizens who are
ready to participate in the national development. This subject includes listening, speaking,
reading and writing equally. However, to achieve the objective of English instructional material
the syllabus may be given emphasis depending on the need and the level of the students’
proficiency.
In teaching-learning process, mind mapping is very important to help the students to
automatically inspire interest in them, thus making them more receptive and co- operative
in the classroom. They made lesson and presentation more spontaneous, creative and
enjoyable, both for the teacher and the students. Especially for the teacher become more
creative in preparing his teaching-learning process.
The aim of this study is to get the information from the English teacher, of using
Mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing at the first semester of seventh grade of SMP
Riyadlul Jannah Bogor. This study is experiment or quantitative research, which is, used two
classes as the research objects, which are divided as an experiment class by applying mind
mapping in teaching descriptive writing, and the other one, as a controlled class that is not used
the method as in the experiment class
The research findings of this study showed that the English teacher using Mind
Mapping in their teaching-learning activities, to make the students more co-operative and
receptive in the classroom. Therefore, the using mind mapping could help the students become
easier in understanding the materials.
Based on the findings above, it is suggested to the teacher to use mind mapping in
Teaching writing skill, especially in descriptive writing. It is aimed to make the students
interested, so become more creative and motivated in learning English.

Keywords: Mind Mapping, Descriptive Writing, SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor

INTRODUCTION
English plays an important role in all aspect of national relationship, with other countries such as
diplomatic, international commerce, social and cultural, including education.
In educational, English has an important role. It could be seen that language has been learned in
any levels of educational. For instance, in Indonesia. English has been taught from elementary
level up to the Universities. Most books in the libraries of universities and institutes are also

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written in English. At least 80% of the journals, bulletins, and articles relevant for any fields are
written in English. It means that unless we understanding English, we will not be able to improve
our knowledge through the books.
In social and cultural, language and society are as intertwined that is impossible to
understand one without the other. Every social institution is maintained by language.
Individually we use language to “Carry On” love and to “Carry Out” hate. We use
language to reveal or conceal
our personal identity, our character, and our background. Almost all of our contacts with
everyday live: how you talk to your friends, family, and teachers, as well as to store keepers
and strangers, everyone you meet in the course of a day. In addition, why you talk as you do
and they talk as they do. Conversely, it also shows how social situations determine what kinds
of speech will be used and how speech develops to meet social needs. Perhaps most
important, sociology of language tell us what message we are really giving when we speak.
Messages that are not necessarily put into actual words.
In diplomatic and international commerce, people from countries all over the world have
diplomatic affairs and commerce between one another. In every events or
Summit international conference, the committees have appointed English as lingua franca
To deliver their national point of view, policy, and taxes rate for example. Therefore
unless the national delegation can speak English, he will not be able to share with other
countries delegations in term of diplomatic and commerce.
In Indonesia, English is considered as a foreign language because it is taught as a school
subject. It is not used as the medium of instruction and it is not widely used by people in the
country. English is included in the curriculum as a compulsory subject for the students of
junior and senior high schools. Meanwhile for the elementary schools, English is included as
an optional subject or local content for those that are capable and ready to conduct it. In
these schools, English is taught for the fourth to six year students.
The term “language proficiency” includes both accuracy and fluency. Accuracy refers to
mastering language components; Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Grammar. Whereas
fluency refer to mastering language skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
Of all the four language skill, writing is something most native speakers never master
(Nunan, 1998). This statement implies that not every one can produce writing although in
his/her mother tongue. Such a difficulty is due to the fact that writing is different from
speaking in the sense that much higher standards of languages are normally
demanded in writing than in speaking.
Writing is a part of language learning is an activity that requires enough time to think about
the specific topic, to analyze, to select and to organize and experience
According to a certain purpose. All the language skills must be applied and integrated on
Teaching English, especially in writing.
Writing is very important in education particularly for those who are studying at universities.
They have to be able to write a proposal, paper, some reports, scientific writing, and so on.
Without mastering writing skill both native or in the target language, it is impossible for the
students to graduate their education at university level. Therefore writing skill is not a
neglected skill in educational world.
Furthermore as one of the four language skills, writing is very important to express one’s ideas
in a piece of paper clearly. It will be understood and good when each part of the sentence
connects to each other. That is why writing seems to be the hardest thing to do in
teaching-learning process besides speaking. The differences between writing and
speaking sometime is considered as easier because the grammatical pattern in speaking is

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not so necessary as long as the audience get the ideas during the communication.
Meanwhile writing has only one chance to convey some information as meaningful as
possible for the readers. Thus, teaching writing in an appropriate way is required to facilitate
student’s second language acquisition.
Unfortunately many college students do not consider writing as leisure and easy activity,
writing often make them frustrated, this is because they do not have an adequate knowledge
and skill, which are needed in writing. The problem of most students is that they are worry to
make mistake about writing in English. They are worry about paragraph writing, research
paper, expressing idea. They think every thing they write is full of errors. Most of the
students feel that writing is not an easy skill. Most of students also feel that writing is
more difficult than speaking. In writing process the writer works alone. Even if we are
writing a letter to a friend, he or she will not suddenly materialize to prod or prompt us into
speech, to help us fill in the gaps. Different with speaking, writing must be difficult without
practicing regularly.
Writing is a means to convey message, ideas and feeling through printed word. So, writing
is very complex and difficult, it is not only in terms of structure but also vocabulary,
punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. Actually, writing skill should be given right from the
start of students learning, so he/she may have both speaking and writing skill.
However students seem to have difficult to write in English. That is why the writer
thinks that is necessary to give them some techniques, which can be solved their problem.
Thus the writer decide to look at further information about teaching writing especially
descriptive writing by using mind mapping. Descriptive writing here used to teach writing
more specific than the complex writing to be taught. Because as a general strategy,
describing is used in many form of writing. Readers employ their imagination as they are
reading, and descriptive details help make the subject matter become real for them.
Visual forms of expression-photography, painting, and film, to name a few- have the
advantage of fully engaging one of four senses-sight-but they are still limitied. example,
film can appeal to both our eyes and our ears, but three more senses remain:touch, taste, and
smell. Good descriptive writing can stimulate the reader’s imagination to form sensory
responses from all five senses. Frequently, the reader has no choice.
Description is powerful strategy, one that allows the writer to exercise a great deal of control
over the reader’s perception. Description is used to add details about something physical: a
person, place, or thing. This method uses sensory language, that is, words that appeal to the
five senses. Description is a development method used to depict physical items or object that
have concrete, touchable features.
To teach descriptive writing by using mind mapping more helpful because through mind
mapping, can throw away boring at the students and time consuming notes in favour of two
dimensional structure which shows the ‘shape’ of topic, related ideas and concepts, and the
relative importance of all the in information. This process engages much more of the brain
than conventional note taking and design system.
Mind mapping work in a similar manner to the brain. Mind Maps incorporate keywords, colour
and images, which are much easier to remember than sentences and paragraphs. The
structure of your mind maps will reflect the way your brain organizes and shorts information.
Based on the explanation this study is intended to investigate about Teaching Descriptive
Writing by Using Mind Mapping.

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RESEARCH METHODS
The research design of this study is categorize as an experimental research about using mind
mapping in teaching descriptive writing at SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor. An experimental study
focuses on a treatment and and outcome. This study may also include two classes of 7th grade
students’ that is 7.A and 7.B of SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor, as the context in which the
experiment is conducted. Different English teacher handled the two classes but they own similar
educational background. This study expected gave the visible image of teaching English include:
(1). the teaching preparation made by the English teacher. (2). Kinds of materials used by the
English teacher. (3). Teacher’s ways to evaluate the students’ skill in descriptive writing.

RESEARCH VARIABLE
The data of this study were three types, there are: (1).The-teaching preparation made by the
English teacher before teaching descriptive writing. (2).The kinds of materials used by the
English teacher in teaching descriptive writing. (3).The teacher’s ways to evaluate the students’
skill in descriptive writing.
The data about the teaching preparations were made by the English teacher of SMP Riyadlul
Jannah were derived from teacher’s document and questioner to answer the first research
question, the data about the teaching materials were used by the English teacher were stated in
her lesson plan, curriculum and questionnaire to answer the second question of the research
question, and the data of the evaluations are applied and given by the English teacher to the
students’ achievement in teaching and learning activities were obtained from the questionnaire,
and test to answer the last research question.

Research Instrument
For research instrument the researcher used three instruments to get the data, they are:
observation, questioner, documentation, and test.

Data and Source Data

The data of this study were three types, there are: (1).The teaching preparation made by
the English teacher before teaching descriptive writing. (2).The kinds of materials used
by the English teacher in teaching descriptive writing. (3).The teacher’s ways to evaluate the
students’ skill in descriptive writing.
The data about the teaching preparations were made by the English teacher of SMP
Riyadlul Jannah were derived from teacher’s document and questioner to answer the first
research question, the data about the teaching materials were used by the English teacher
were stated in her lesson plan, curriculum and questionnaire to answer the second question
of the research question, and the data of the evaluations are applied and given by the English
teacher to the students’ achievement in teaching and learning activities were obtained from
the questionnaire, and test to answer the last research question.

Techniques of Collecting Data

Observation
This observation is the main technique in collecting the data of teaching preparation, teaching
materials, and the evaluations were used in the teaching and learning process. The

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observation was conducted 6 times in September, October, November, December 2008,
January, and February 2009. In this case, the researcher acted as an observer who observed
the teaching – learning process without being involved in the process. Therefore, this
technique can be categorized as non – participant observation.
Questionnaires
In the study the researcher takes the questioner by using two ways, there are first the
questioners for the English teacher and the other ways by the questioner for the students.
The questioner for the English teacher was expected to get data from the teaching
preparation, materials are used, and the ways to evaluate the students were conducted in
teaching and learning activity. The questioner gave to English teacher on 24 October 2008,
and returned it two week later to the researcher. And the questioner for the students was
aimed to take the data from teaching materials that the English teacher gave to the students
and the ways of the English teacher to evaluated the students’ skill in descriptive writing.

Documentation
This documentation was used to complete the data such as the English teacher made the
teaching preparations. It was carried out by copying the teacher’s documentations of the
teaching preparations.

Test
The test technique was used to find out of the result of students’ achievement in learning
descriptive writing and it is as main technique in collecting the data. This test was applied in
the experimental and controlled class to find out of the score of the students’ achievement in
understanding descriptive writing, and it is as a comparative between experimental and
controlled class. It was conducted four times in which two.

Techniques of Data Analysis

The technique of data analysis consists of data from observation, data distributing from
questionnaire, data from documentation, and data from test were analyzed in some steps
as bellow.

Data from Observation

The data from observation was conducted by the researcher to make him easier in reporting
the research report, this data analyze about the teaching process were conducted by the
English teacher in the classroom. This data was analyzed to answer the second and third
research questions.

Data from Questionnaires

This data has two types, from the teacher and the students. The data from the teacher’s
questionnaire was used to check whether the descriptive writing was applied in the physical
classroom activities or it was neglected. Besides, the questionnaire from the students is to
recheck to the teacher’s responses in line with the students’ faced in teaching and learning
activities. Therefore, questionnaires were concluded that used to answer the first, second,
and third research questions.
Data from Documentation
The English teacher in which applied to the teaching and learning activities in the classroom
made the data from documentation covered about the teaching preparations. In this step the

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researcher also analyzed the teaching preparations were made. It was used to answer the
first research questions.

Data from Test

This data was gained to find out the result score from the students in teaching descriptive
writing by using mind mapping in which applied into two classes, experiment and
controlled class. It was obtained from 7.A class as an experiment class and 7.B as a
controlled classn of SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor. Finally, the test was summarized that used
to answer the third research question.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The researcher found some findings from the research conducted at SMP Riyadlul
Jannah Bogor, which are explained generally as follows;

Teaching Preparations
The teaching preparations based on the theories given in the chapter II is a lesson planning
that had been made by the English teacher. The teaching preparations had been made by the
English teacher will help him in conducting and applying teaching-learning process in the class
and as a consideration for the learning objectives which are reached regularly.
The Kinds of Materials used by the English teacher at SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor.
The instructional materials used in teaching-learning activities gathered from the students’
answer sheet by using mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing presented in the figure 4.1
and 4.2 in the bellowing page:

The Ways Used by the English Teacher to Evaluate the Students’ Skill.
The ways used by the English teacher to evaluate the students’ in learning, descriptive writing
still used the conventional strategy. Besides, the writing skill avoided by the English teacher in
delivering subjects to the students’. The three research findings will be briefly discussed in the
research discussion as follows:

Teaching Preparation
From the observation which is conducted by the researcher, he gained some documents of
teaching preparations which are made by the English teacher. The real English teacher does not
annual program and semester program, but the English teacher made the teaching preparation
for teaching the lesson at the class tomorrow. And the teaching preparation is different from the
context of teaching preparation had been made by the government.

Materials Used at SMP Riyadlul Jannah

The English teacher used the material in teaching – learning activities only from the text book
that used by the students. The textbooks which is used in teaching-learning activities, namely
English on Sky for seven grade junior high school.

Evaluations Applied by the English Teacher in the Classroom

The English teacher made the evaluations for the students consist of: assignment or room work.
The evaluations conducted while using mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing was
running, and the test. The test used for two classes, first, for the experiment class where using
mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing in teaching-learning activities and the last is for the

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controlled class where teaching-learning activities conducted without using mind mapping in
teaching descriptive writing in teaching-learning activities. The data of both classes described at
(a) data description, (b) data interpretation, and (c) test of hypothesis as follows:

Data Description
To show the test result of both classes which comprise of experiment and controlled class, the
writer writes out the students’ table score as bellow:
In this term the researcher tried to discuss the comparison result between test score of
experiment class (7.A) and test score of controlled class (7.B). Which are explained generally
with the tables as follows:
Table 4.1

Data of test score the students in Experiment Class (7.A)

Student Score Student Score

Students 1 50 Students 12 70

Students 2 70 Students 13 90

Students 3 70 Students 14 90

Students 4 50 Students 15 100

Students 5 60 Students 16 100

Students 6 60 Students 17 90

Students 7 90 Students 18 80

Students 8 60 Students 19 90

Students 9 60 Students 20 100

Students 10 100 Students 21 90

Students 11 90 Students 22 70

From the table 4.1 previously, the highest of students’ score in experiment class was 100
obtained by four students, namely :( a) student 10, (b) student 15, (c) student 16, and
student 20. Meanwhile, the lowest of students’ score in experiment class was 50 obtained by
two students, namely: (a) student 1 and (b) student 4. From the differences scores obtained
between the highest students’ score was 100 and the lowest students’ score was 50, it can
be concluded that there was an effect of using mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing.
By using mind mapping students are can help the students construct a written text. Student’s

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main ideas can become a paragraph. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence. Therefore,
most of them did not have the difficulties in doing the test that the researcher made.
According to the explanation about the analysis of the result above, it can be categorized that
using mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing is adequate success. It can be seen on the
tables above that using mind mapping in teaching descriptive writing have significant
differences. It means that there is a significant influence of teaching descriptive writing to
improve students’ writing ability by using mind mapping. So, the students’ scores of learning
descriptive writing taught by using mind mapping are better than teaching descriptive writing
without using mind mapping.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the research conducted by the writer then the writer concludes as follows.
th
About teacher teaching preparation, the English teacher who taught at 7 grade in SMP
Riyadlul Jannah Bogor didn’t make teaching preparation based on the model of teaching
preparations (RPP) are made by the local government and followed the model teaching
preparations are made by curriculum academic staff. Those models are made by the curriculum
academic staff are not fulfill the prerequirement of the models are made by the local
government.
About kinds of materials are used by the English teacher at SMP Riyadlul Jannah Bogor the
English teacher used the textbook only. Therefore, the teaching and learning activities are
based on the text book (English on Sky VII), and Teacher’s w a y s t o e v a l u a t e the
s t u d e n t s ’ s k i l l , b y using m i n d mapping in teaching descriptive writing make the student
easier when perform the test it can be proved by the result of the test hypothesis (see
page 46) there can be seen about the result of the test between student that perform the test
by using mind mapping and without is clearly different. The student that used mind mapping is
better than none.
According to the result analysis of the research, it shows that the value of to is bigger than
the value of tt. Therefore, the null hypothesis (Ho) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis
(Ha) is accepted, and it can be said that there is significant influence of using mind mapping in
teaching descriptive writing and adequate success. It can be seen on the table of the students’
scores.
Therefore, it can be conclude that the students’ scores of learning descriptive writing by
using mind mapping is better than taught without mind mapping.

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