Background of the Study

The first problem is related to the teacher. In most of the teaching time, the teacher only focused on delivering the materials and paid less attention to the students‟ motivation. The teacher did not present the materials by using interesting activities, many students were noisy and talked with other friends. The teacher did not stop them, so the English teaching and learning process was not effective. The second problem is related to the students. The students had less motivation to learn English. They thought that English was a very difficult subject. The students were less discipline, so they only wanted to learn something they liked. The students also had very low motivation because theteacher never gave them interesting activities to learn English. The third problems related to the technique of the teaching and learning process. The technique used in the teaching and learning process was not appropriate to improve the students‟ writing skill. The technique that is used inthe class was not motivating the students to write in English. For example, thestudents did not have opportunity to write in English, so they could not improve their writing skill. The fourth problems related to the material. The material presented for thes tudents mostly based on the course book. That was not appropriate to improve the students writing skill because most of the material was only in form of “filling in the blank” and multiple choices. The material for writing skill was very specific and the teacher had to make a specific material for improving the students‟ writing skill. Fifthly, the problem is related to the media. The media used by the teacher in every meeting were only course book and blackboard. In that school, there were a tape recorder, a CD player, and a monitor, but the teacher never used the media for improve the students writing skill. The media were very appropriate to drive the students interest in learning English. Sixthly, the problem is related to the activity. There were many activities that could improve students writing skill, but the teacher did not use the activities in all teaching time. The teacher always wrote the material in the blackboard and asked the students to make a note in their books. After that, the teacher gave the students assignment taken from the course book. This activity was done in every meeting. The last problem is related to the evaluation of the teaching and learning process. The teacher evaluated the teaching and learning process by asking the students to do some tasks according to the course book. The evaluation for writing skill never taught in all teaching time. So, the teacher did not have writing assessment.

C. Limitation of the Problem

Based on the problems above, the researcher needs to conduct an action research study. The researcher assumes that the problem here is about the technique. The students need a technique which can make them enjoy learning writing in the class. If they have an appropriate technique to write, it will help them to make their own writing. The mind mapping can help students to explore their mind. Through the mind mapping the students can be supported to express what they want to write freely. The researcher believes that the mind mapping is a good technique in conducting writing skill. By conducting the action research which implements the mind mapping, it is expected that the researcher will be able to improve the stud ents‟ writing skill. That is why in this research the researcher only limits the problem on the use of the mind mapping technique to improve the students‟ writing skill.

D. Formulation of the Problem

In line with the limitation of the problem as mentioned above, the problem is formulated as follows. How is the mind mapping technique applied in the classroom to improve the students‟ writing skill in the English teaching- learning process at MAN Yogyakarta III?