incorrect words to express the meaning. It made the meaning of the sentences obscured. They only wrote the translation in the dictionary without
considering the appropriateness in English language context. Most students also had problems related to the sentence structure of
the text. They did not use correct grammar in writing. They were still confused with the use of verbs and to be. Some students wrote sentences without a verb
or to be, while others used double verbs or to be. They also had difficulties to differentiate the use of the past tense and present tense. The researcher also
found many mistakes on the verbs agreement, preposition, pronoun, and articles. It was in line with the teacher’s statement that sentence structure was
the biggest problem in writing. Lastly, students had problems in using correct mechanics in writing.
The researcher found that many students made mistakes in using the correct punctuation and capitalization in writing. They were not aware of the
important of those aspects in writing. They also had problem in writing correct spelling of some words. Some students wrote incorrect spelling of some
common words in their daily life such as study, bus, that, and school.
C. Delimitation of the Problem
The researcher found many problems in the writing class when she did the observation, interviews and the pre-test. It was impossible for the
researcher to solve all the problems that were found in the class. After discussing the problems with the teacher, the researcher made the selection of
the problems. This
research focuses on the problems related to the students’ writing skill and motivation in writing. The researcher tried to improve the
students’ writing ability in the aspect of content, organization, vocabulary, grammar and mechanics by using the mind mapping technique.
Mind mapping was used in the pre-writing activity to help the students in generating and
developing ideas. By using this technique, the students would find it easy to get a topic and arrange it into a draft of a recount text. It also motivated the
students in writing because of the pictures and colors in making mind maps.
D. Formulation of the Problem
The researcher formulates the problems as: “How can mind mapping be implemented to improve writing skills of the
eighth grade students of SMP N 1 Ngemplak in the academic year of 20132014?”
E. Objective of the Study
The study is aimed to improve writing skills of the eighth grade students at SMP N 1 Ngemplak by using mind mapping.
F. The Significance of the Study
In this study, the researcher expects that the research has both theoretical and practical significances.
1. Theoretical Significance
The findings of this research can enrich the theory of teaching writing to the junior high school students. The readers will get more information
about teaching writing by using the mind mapping technique. Other researchers who take the same topic can use this research as a reference to
conduct the research. 2.
Practical Significance English teachers can make use of the research to enrich their methods in
teaching writing in ord er to improve students’ writing skills. For the
students, they will learn how to improve their skills and motivation in writing by using the mind mapping.
