THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENT’S READING COMPREHENSION IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 3 BANDAR LAMPUNG

ABSTRACT

THE USE OF MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENT’S READING
COMPREHENSION IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS
OF SMP NEGERI 3 BANDAR LAMPUNG
By
CHAIRUNNISA

Reading is one of the language skills that should be mastered by the students after following a set
of English Instruction at school. One of the targets of national curriculum for English at junior
high-school (SMP) level is students’ comprehension on various types of texts, such as recount,
descriptive, and narrative. However, it is common that most students are observed being
reluctant to read reading texts, even the short ones. Their lack of vocabulary mastery also limit
their effort to achieve reading comprehension. Therefore, the teacher should be creative in
selecting the techniques to be used in teaching reading activities in classroom, in order to boost
students’ reading comprehension without stuck with such problems.
The objective of this research is to find out whether using Mind Mapping technique is an
effective way to increase the students’ ability in reading comprehension. The population of this
research was the second year students of SMP Negeri 3 Bandar Lampung that consists of seven
classes and two classes were chosen as the experimental class and the try-out class. This research
is quantative research. The research design was one group pretest posttest design. In collecting

data, the reseacher administered pretest, treatments, and posttest. In analyzing the data, the TTest was employed to reach the significant value.
The result of the students’ score before and after treatments implied that Mind Mapping
technique could increase the students’ reading comprehesions. Data analysis on the mean score
of pre-test was ( = 57.64) and post-test was (
). By comparing between the mean of
pre-test and post-test, it can be found that the increase of the mean was 14.47 point. Pairedsample t-test indicates signifiant increase of students reading comprehension achievement after
the implementation of Mind Mapping technique ( (33) = 8.790; p = 0.000, p 0.05). In
conclusion, Mind Mapping technique is worth applying in the teaching –learning of English
reading comprehension ability, particularly at the second year students of SMPN 3 Bandar
Lampung.

LIST OF CONTENTS
Page

ABSTRACT.......................………………………………………......

i

APPROVAL.......................………………………………………......

ii

ADMISSION.......................………………………………………......

iii

CURICULLUM VITAE....………………………………………......

iv

MOTTO............................……………………………………….........

v

DEDICATION...................………………………………………......

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.………………………………………......

vii

LIST OF CONTENS.........……………………………………….......

ix

LIST OF TABLES............………………………………………......

x

LIST OF FIGURES............………………………………………......

xi

LIST OF APPENDIXES...………………………………………......

xii

I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Problems...…………………………………..

1.2. Formlated of the Problem ……………...………………….........
1.3. Objectives of the Research ……………….……………………
1.4. Uses of the Research ……………………...…………..………..
1.5. Scope of the Research……………….…………………………..
1.6. Definition of Terms ……...………………………………….......

1
5
5
6
6
7

II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Concept of Reading Comprehension.........………………………
2.2. Concept of The Reading Aspects ………….....………………..
2.3. Teaching Reading Comprehension .................... ………………
2.4. Concept of Descriptive Text ………………………………........
2.5. Concept of Mind Mapping Technique …………………….........
2.6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Mind Mapping ………..........

2.7. Procedures of Teaching Reading Comprehension
by Using Mind Mapping......………………………….................
2.8. Theoretical Assumption …………………………………...........
2.9. Hypothesis ………………………...........…………….................

8
11
12
15
18
21
23
25
26

III. RESEARCH METHODS
3.1. Research design ……………………...………….............……….
3.2. Population and Sample ……………………………..……….......
3.3. Data Collecting Technique ..………..…………………………..
3.5. Procedures of Collecting Data ………......…………………...….

3.5. Criteria of Good Test of Reading ……………………………......
3.5.1. Validity…...........…………………………………………..
3.5.2. Reliability.......................……………………………....…...
3.5.3. Level of Difficulty ……………………………………......
3.5.4. Discrimination Power ……………………………………..
3.5.5. Scoring System ……………………………………………
3.6. Data Analysis …..................…………………………………….
3.7. Data Treatment……………………………………………...…..
3.8. Hypothesis Testing …………………………………………….
3.9. Statistical Testing ……………………………………………....

27
28
29
32
33
33
35
37
38

39
40
40
41
42

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Result of the Research …………………...……...….............…..
4.1.1. Result of Pre-Test.....................…………..…………….....
4.1.2. Result of Post-Test……….....…………………………….
4.1.3. Normality Test …………………………………………….
4.1.4. Increase in Students’ Reading Comprehension
Achievement ….....................................................................
4.2. Discussion of finding increase of each aspects of reading...........

48
51

V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. Conclusion ……..…………............……...……….............…….

5.2. Suggestions….....................…………………………..………...

62
63

REFERENCES
APPENDICES

44
45
46
47

LIST OF APPENDIXES

Page
APPENDIX 1 – The Research Schedule .........................................................

69

APPENDIX 2 – Tryout Test ............................................................................

71

APPENDIX 3 – Item Analysis on the Tryout Test ..........................................

80

APPENDIX 4 – Pretest ....................................................................................

86

APPENDIX 5 – Posttest ..................................................................................

93

APPENDIX 6 – Comparison Between Pretest and Posttest ........................... 100
APPENDIX 7 – The Computation of Distribution Frequency ........................ 101
APPENDIX 8 – Descriptive Statistics of Pretest and Posttest ........................ 102
APPENDIX 9 – Increases of Students’ Reading Comprehension ................... 104

APPENDIX 10 – The Distribution Answer of Reading Aspects ..................... 105
APPENDIX 11 – Normality Test .................................................................... 107
APPENDIX 12 – Critical Value of the t Distribution ..................................... 109
APPENDIX 13 – Lesson Plan ......................................................................... 110
Lesson Plan 1 ...................................................................................... 110
Lesson Plan 2 ...................................................................................... 116
Lesson Plan 3 ...................................................................................... 121

LIST OF FIGURES

Page
Figure 1. Increase from the Pre Test to Post Test ...........................................

49

Figure 2. Increases of Each Aspects of Reading .............................................

58

LIST OF TABLES

Page
Table 1. Difficulty Level of the Tryout Items .................................................

30

Table 2. Discrimination Power of the Tryout Items .......................................

30

Table 3. Table of Specification of the Tryout Test .........................................

34

Table 4. The Distribution Frequency of Students’ PreTest Scores .................

46

Table 5. The Distribution Frequency of Students’ PostTest Scores ...............

47

Table 6. Paired-Sample T-Test on the Means of Pretest and Posttest ............

49

Table 7. The Students’ Reading Comprehension Improvement ....................

50

Table 8. The distribution of students’ pre-test achievement
in each aspect reading Comprehension .............................................

56

Table 9. The distribution of students’ post-test achievement
in each aspect reading Comprehension ..............................................

57

Table 10. Increase from Pre-test to Post-test for Each Aspect of Reading
Comprehension .................................................................................

58

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This research contains a brief explanation of the introduction. It consists of the
background, the formulation of problem, the objectives of the research, the uses of
the research, the scope of the research, and the definition of terms.
1.1 Background
Language is a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate. In fact,
humans use it to express themselves and manipulate objects in their enviroment.
People use language to communicate with other people, express their personal
reaction, and think something out. Peitro (1990:50 ) said that language is one of the
most useful tools we have as human. It can be deduced that without language we
could not express our feeling clearly to other people even engaging in their activities.
English has become an international language in the world where people compete to
speak in English. The function is not only as a global language but also it is used in
relevance with science and technology. English is being a foreign language which is
taught in Indonesian schools. English has been learnt by the students in Indonesia
since at the elementary level. The educational system of school based curriculum

2

insists on mastering the four skills of language that are; listening, speaking, reading
and writing. Moreover, reading is very essential in learning English in order to get
information from the written English. In reading activity, the reader should interpret
the meaning of written text. According to Hornby A.S (1972:63) comprehension is
the power of understanding fully. It means that comprehension determine the essence
of reading process. And by reading with comprehension, the one will recognize the
purpose and the important point of the text beside understanding the surface of the
text. In other words, it can be said that there will be no reading without
comprehension. In the process, the students will perform some tasks given, such as
understanding the content. When student cannot get something from what they read,
they will not get the knowledge, that is a part of learning.
Teaching reading is not an easy task to do especially teaching reading in English.
Some students especially young language learners still encounter difficulties when
they are trying to read an English text. It might happen because of the lack of
consideration in applying the appropriate technique in teaching learning process
(Wood,1988) and lack of reading comprehension that is likely caused by the
assumption that reading is not daily habit or students’ need, even activity is perceived
as boring (Oxford, 1990). Indonesian’ students have the same problem. The students’
understanding in reading English is still low. Actually, reading ability in English
language is as important as the three other skills such as listening, speaking and
writing.

3

In some situations, reading in the first languange is very different from foreign
language. In fact, reading foreign language is more difficult from reading the first
language. Cohen (1994) said that reading foreign language is often slower and less
succesful because the reader must understand many unknown vocabularies and
complicated sentence structure which make the reader difficult. In addition, it is
found that Indonesian students encounter reading difficulties as foreign language
learner such as, read slowly word by word, incompetence to apply reading strategy,
easy frustated and dissatisfied particularly when they meet some difficult words, read
the text aloud in which it may inhibit comprehension, and they confuse to read
authentic text in foreign language (Nuttal, 1996 ).
Based on 2006 curriculum (SBC), the student is supposed to deal with many kind of
text such as descriptive text, recount text, narrative text, report text, procedure text,
and functional texts such as advertisement, brochure, schedule, message, notice,
personal letter, invitation (Depdiknas, 2006). In this research, the researcher was only
focus in descriptive text. Descriptive text is a simple text that use simple present tense
that has been learned since in elementary school. In descriptive text, students have to
read after describing something or someone related to material given.
Based on the researcher’s pre-observation, when conducting teaching practice (PPL),
the reseacher find out that the students’ reading comprehension test score which are
mostly stated lower than the minimal mastery criterion (KKM) of that school which
requires the students getting score 70. It caused by some problems such as the
technique of teaching. The students tend to be passive in reading class if the

4

technique is dominated by the teacher (teacher-centered). It is necessary for English
teacher to make reading materials more interesting and motivating so that the students
can progress in reading.
To overcome the problems above, the researcher assumes that there should be some
suitable technique in teaching reading in order to motivate the students to read all the
texts so they can get the information fully.There are many ways and techniques to
increase students’s reading ability. One of them is by using mind mapping technique.
In fact teaching reading by using mind mapping is not new issue in English language.
Mind mapping technique has been applied in many studies. Buzan (2003) argues that
the children can learn in interesting way using certain technique which is called Mind
Mapping. In the use of mind mapping, students not only use their left side of their
brain but also use the right side of their brain in the same time to identify words in
learning language. In mind mapping, students were having occasion to make
symbols, lines or signs to help them recognize the words or fact in their mind maps.
Futhermore, in their own way, student can comprehend certain topic or material by
using mind mapping. So, every student was not feeling depressed in understanding
the material.
Buzan (2003) also stated that mind mapping can help children in memorizing,
making a better notes in their text book, rising the idea, saving their time in order to
understand the material, and rising their concentration with the material. In addition ,
at the end of lesson, they will be able to understand the material well so they can

5

easily tell other people about their understanding of certain topic by using their own
mind mapping.
Reffering to those explanation above, the research is aimed to investigate the
effectiveness of mind mapping technique in descriptive text to increase student’s
ability in reading comprehension. In details, the research entitle “ THE USE OF
MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ READING
COMPREHENSION IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT THE SECOND YEAR
STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 3 BANDAR LAMPUNG”.

1.2 Formulation of the Problems
Based on the background above, the writer formulated the problem as follow :
Is there any significant increase students’ reading comprehension achievement after
the implementation mind mapping technique in teaching reading descriptive text at
the second year students of SMPN 3 Bandar Lampung ?

1.3 Objective of the research
Based on the background above, the objective of this research is:
To find out whether or not using mind mapping technique will increase students’
reading comprehension ability in descriptive text.

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1.4 Uses of the research
The uses of research are as follow :
1. Theoretically
The results of this research can be used as the reference for those who want to
conduct a research in English teaching process.
2. Practically
This research can be used to English teachers to increase their students’ reading
achievement.

1.5 Scope of the Research
This research is quantitative research. This study was conducted in the second year
students of junior high school of SMP Negeri 3 Bandar Lampung. The reseacher was
tried to investigate students’ reading comprehension by implementating the use of the
mind mapping technique in increasing students reading comprehension. The
researcher was taken one class as the subject in SMPN 3 Bandar Lampung. There
were seven classes of the second year in SMPN 3 Bandar Lampung. The researcher
was taken the class randomly by lottery and the class is academic year 2012/2013 that
consists of 34 students. This research focuses on students’ reading comprehension
through mind mapping from descriptive text. And the students reading achivement
was measured by a set of pre test and post test in form of multiple choices.

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1.6 Definition of terms
There are some terms used by the writer and to make it clearly, the writer gives the
definition as follow :

Reading
It refers to an active process which involves readers, material of reading and the
readers’ previous knowledge in order to get meaning of the text they read.( Nuttal,
1987)

Reading comprehension
It refers an active thinking process in which a reader simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through intercation and involvement with written language
(Tankersley, 2005)

Mind mapping
It refers to a technique of making outline which is used the represent words, ideas,
tasks, or another linked to arranged radically around a central key word or idea by
lines and typically it contains words, ideas, shorts phrase or picture .(Buzan, 2006)

Descriptive text
It refers to a text which describe a vivid image of a person, place, or thing. It draws
on all of the senses, not merely the visual. Its purpose is to enable the reader to share
the writer’s sensory experience of the subject (Zahrowi, 2009).

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the theories that support the research. There are some theories
that were described in framework. It consists of the concept of reading
comprehension, the concept of reading aspects and the concept of teaching reading
comprehension . This chapter also discusses about the concept of the descriptive text.
Futhermore, this chapter is elaborates mind mapping technique, the advantages and
disadvantages of mind mapping, procedures of mind mapping technique in reading
descriptive Text, the theoretical assumption and the hypothesis.

2.1 Concept of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension means that a reader acquires information from reading. It is
highly related to the conceptual background of the reader. In reading process, a reader
utilizes vision, perception, comprehension, and reaction (Brown, 1982: 6).
According to Tankersley (2005), reading comprehension can be defined as an active
thinking process in which a reader simultaneously extracting and constructing
meaning through intercation and involvement with written language. From the
explanation above, Tankersley (2005:108)

explained that “ comprehension is a

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process not a product”. Readers filter understanding through the lens of their
knowledge and experience (Tankersley, 2005:108) because she /he is able to relate
the information given which has been stored in her/his mind( Clark and Silberstein,
1987, cited in Brown, 2001:299-300).

Based on Howart (2006), reading is just as communicative as any other form of
language. It means that reading is an interaction between the reader and the writer
through texts where the writer tries to encode the message to the readers. So that the
readers try to decode the messages that sent by the writer.

Basiclly, these concept said that reading always deal with printed materials, which
stresses on the grasping meaning from printed language. It means that reading activity
is the interaction between the perception of the graphic symbols that represent the
language and the readers’ language skill, cognitive skill and the knowledge of the
world. From this process, the reader tries to create meaning intended by the writer.

Brown stated that reading is comprehending. How much and how easily readers
comprehend depends on variables within and outside them (Durkin, 1979 in
McIntyre, Hulan, Layne, 2011). The variable include the reader, the activity of
reading and the text. Actually, reading English as foreign language seems to be more
complicated for the students since it is not their native language according to Brown
(2011), but, if those three intersect, it will affect how well comprehension will occur.
Based on these views, it is clear that reading and comprehension are regarded as one
activity which cannot be seperated, and each program is depending on the progress of

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the activity in their mind. In other words, reading comprehension is an activity to
graps the meaning of written materials with full understanding.
Simanjuntak (1988: 4) added that the first point about reading process is reading
comprehension. Knowledge is the basic element for comprehension. It means that
knowledge related to what we do not know or new information that we have already
known. For example, we already knew the word ‘stationary’, there are words
denoting the kind of stationary like : pen, book, rules, eraser, etc. And we can
imagine those pictures.
Moreover, Doyle (2004) stated that comprehension is a progressive skill in attaching
meaning that begin at the same level and proceed to attach meaning to entire reading
selection. All comprehension revolve around the reader’s ability in finding main idea
and topic sentence from the text.
Referring to the definition above, it can be said that when comprehending the text the
students have to know their strategy in reading. It means that the student can easily
identify the specific information in the text. There is one aspect that becomes
essential in student’s reading is the reading strategy. Based on that explanation, the
researcher assumes that reading comprhension is students’ competence in
comprehending the specific information, words and surface meaning in the texts
which is described by student’s score with an appropriate strategy.

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2.2 Concept of the Reading Aspects

Suparman (2012) stated that there are several aspects of reading comprehension skills
that should be mastered by reader to comprehend the text : main idea, specific
information, references, inference, and vocabulary. These aspects are explained
below:
1) Main Idea
Finding the main idea of a paragraph is one of the most important reading
comprehension skills. In some paragraphs, the main idea is not expilicitly
stated in one sentence. Instead, it is left to the reader to infer or reason out. In
other words, the main idea is the most important idea that the author develops
throughout the paragraph. For example, in My family, the main idea of text is
‘ My family has four members’
2) Specific information
Supporting sentence or specific information develops the topic sentence by
giving definition, examples, facts, comparison, analogy, cause, and effect
statistics and quotation. For example of supporting sentence in the second
paragraph of My family is’ My mother is 47 years old’.
3) Reference
Reference are words or phrases used either before or after the reference in
reading material. They are used to avoid unnecessary repletion of words or

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phrases. It can give the readers signals to find the meaning of words elsewhere
in the text. For instance, She in sentence ‘She's thin-faced and she's got long’
refer to his mother (from My family)
4) Inference
Inference is an educational guessing or prediction about something unknown
based on available facts and information. It is the logical connection that the
reader draws them between his observes or known and what he does not
know. For exampel, question ‘ why the writer can not speak Sundanesse well?
makes the reader a prediction based on the facts he find in the text.
5) Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the stock of word used by the people or even person.
Concerning with those statements indeed vocabulary is fundamental for
everyone who wants to speak or to produce utterances for reading. In the
Elephant , for instance reader would know that ‘ a carnivore’ is the anwer to
the question ‘ what is the opposite meaning of a herbivore?’ after reading the
sentence in the text that build the context for the word ’ a herbivore’.

2.3 Teaching Reading Comprehension

Hedge (2003:18) states that any reading component of the English language teaching
may include a set of learning goals for :

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1) The ability to read is a wide range of text English. This is language range goal
for most teachers seek to develop through independent readers outside
EFL/ESL classroom. It is supported by the knowledge of vocabulary that
should be the ability to read text. For instance, if student are reading about
animal, they should have known most words related to the topic of animal,
such as cat, tiger, lion, etc.
2) Building knowledge of language will facilitate reading ability. Students can
build their language competence, progress in their reading ability, become
more indipendent in their studies, acquire cultural knowlege, and develop
confindence and motivation to carry on learning. The teacher’s responsibility
is to motivate reading by selecting appropriate materials.
3) The ability to adapt the reading technique according to reading purposes. In
this case, teacher with EFL/ESL, learners can use a variety of adapted texts or
authentic text that are suitable with the students’ level. These students are then
taught to use different reading techniques for specific purposes. Such as,
skimming may be sufficient in reading for finding specific information, but
would not serve well in reading for entertaiment.
4) Building schematic knowledge. Reading can be seen as an interactive process
between the reader and the text which leads to automaticity or reading
fluency. From this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as
he/she tries to elicit the meaning and where various kinds of knowlege are
being used. For example, when student read the text, they should know the
elicit meaning in the story.

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5) Taking a critical stance to the contents of the texts. It can be implemented at
advance level, in which students can check the authenticity of the text by
looking at the following indicators: whether the article gives the name of the
author or not, the date of publication, the aim of article, etc.
6) Developing an awareness of the structure of written text in English. In
creative reading, students would be acquainted with writing mechanisms. For
example, when they have to read other texts, they will have the knowlege of
the text structure that is useful in their effort to achieve comprehension.

Woods (2005:63) classifies the activities in reading class into three a follow :
a) Pre- Reading Tasks
This task can be in form of vocabulary games,word searches, and matching
synonyms. These activities can help students to approach a text in more
confident way. Pre-reading stage helps the students activate the relevant
schema.
b) While-Reading Tasks
These kinds of task, according to Hedge in Woods (2005:63) states, have
become usefull since the adoption of the idea of reading as an interactive
process. This stage is to develop students’ ability in tackling test by
developing their linguistic and schematic knowledge.

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c) Post-Reading Tasks
These tasks follow up the work covered and seek to extend candidates. Such
as activities are directed writing activities, or role play and group discussion
activities.
Principally, the aim of teaching reading is to develop students’ skill of reading
English texts effectively and efficiently. Effective and efficient reading is always
useful and tending to focus mainly on the purposes of the activity. This is realized
when students are reading and interacting with various types of texts.
In short, in teaching reading, the teacher should provide a strategy to reach the
purpose of reading to anticipate the different types of reading text in teaching reading.
Therefore, in teaching reading, apropriate and possible technique should be applied
based on the purpose of reading in order to get the most of classroom reading
activities.

2.4

Concept of Descriptive text

There are many texts that are used as learning materials on a second year students of
Junior High School based on KTSP, one of which is a descriptive text. Descriptive
text is a type of written text which has specific function to give description about
particular person, place or things according to Gerot and Wignel (1994), which is
used to create a vivid impression of those subjects (Zahrowi, 2009). In line with this,
Mark and Anderson (2003) argue that a factual description is specifically used to
describe a particular place, person or thing. Then, the purpose of a descriptive text is

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to tell about the subject by describing its features without including person opinions.
Futhermore, Mark and Anderson (2003) elaborate a factual description differs from a
informational report because describes a specific subject rather than a general group.
For example, the descriptions of a specific animal, the descriptions of a particular
building or descriptions of a specific person.

As described by Gerot and Wigel (1994: 208), the generic structure in descriptive text
are indentification used to identify phenomenon to be described and desription used
to mentions parts, qualities, and characteristics of subject being described. According
to Mark and Anderson (2006), in a paragraph of the descriptive text, it usually has an
opening paragraph by introducing the subject of the description that give the readers
brief details about when, where, who, or what. A series of paragraphs that describe
one features of the subject, and a concluding section that signals the end of
description (Gerot and Wigel 1994).

Then, descriptive text also has the language features. Language features in a
descriptive text can be indentified by the reader because it usually uses identifying
process, adjectives and classifiers in nominal group and also simple present tense.
Zahrowi (2009) stated that the dominant language features in a descriptive text as
follows: descriptive text usually uses simple present tense, action verb, passive voice,
noun phrase, and adverbial phrase, technical terms, general and abstract noun and
also conjunction and cause-effect. A writer relies on adjectives to explain how
something feel, look, taste, smell, or sound. The following the example of descriptive
text:

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Identification

Description

MY FAMILY
My family has four members: those are I, my
sister, and parents of course.
My mother is 47 years old. Her name's Anisa.
She's thin-faced and she's got long, blond hair
and beautiful green eyes. She is still slim because
she always tries to stay in shape. She is very
good-looking, always well-dressed and elegant.
My father, Lukman, is 5 years older than my
mother. He is 52. In spite of his age he's still
black-haired, with several grey hairs. He has
bright blue eyes. He is quite tall, but a bit shorter
than me. He's very hard-working. Besides that he
is working in a travel company. He can even
make a dinner when my mother is outside. His
cooking and his meals are always very tasty as
well as my mothers'.
Finally, my sister Nadina. She is 22. She is also
red-haired and green-eyed. She has long wavy
hair and freckles. She is definitely shorter than
me. She is rather introverted. But she is very
sensible, smart and co-operative. Right now she
is studying English and also knows Arabic and
Mandarin. I want to be so smart as she is.
They all, except me, speak Sundanese very well,
because we were living in Bandung for 5 years.
My sister have been going to primary school
there. Unfortunately I was only 3 when we were
leaving to Jakarta, so I can't speak Sundanese.
Now we are happily living in Jakarta.

Referring to those explanation, it can be concluded that descriptive text is a text that
has function to describe something or somebody in our daily life with purpose to
identify the features of some objects clearly. As the other text genres, descriptive text

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has charateristic in the form of generic structure and language feature which make the
text has certain characteristics that will be different from the other text genres.

2.5 Concept of Mind Mapping Technique

Mind mapping is popularized by Tony Buzan who claims that it is an enourmous
superior note taking method. Buzan (2006) argued that mind mapping is a diagram
which created as a way to organize ideas and to represent words, tasks, or another
linked to an arranged radically around a central keywords by lines and typically it
contains words, colors, short phrase, or picture.

Moreover, mind mapping is a technique which enhances creativity used to generate,
visualize, structure, and classify idea, and as an aid in studying, organizing, problem
solving, decision making, and writting (Buzan, 2006). In line with that, Margulies
(1991) states that mind mapping is an analytical process that involves creativity
integrating a combination of visual, colour, codes, words, and connectors. It can be
employed as a method to takes notes, to study before an exam, to brainstrom, or make
connections between ideas.

Mind mapping has a natural organizational structure that radiates from the center and
uses lines, symbols, words, colors and images (Margulies,1991). According to
Hobartswan (2010), a mind mapping changes the paradigm of teaching and learning
process and converts monotonous information into a colorful, memorable, and highly
organized diagram that works in line with someone’s brain. There are five essential
characteristics in mind mapping:

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1) The central topic is the starting point for mind map that gives a brief
description of a story (Eppler, 2006:2);
2) The main themes of the subject radiate from the central image a branches. The
first level of branches is called basic ordering ideas that can be organized into
different sections or topic. (Eppler, 2006:2 & Margulies, 1991);
3) The topic of lesser importance are represent as ‘twigs’ of the relevant branch
(Margulies, 1991);
4) Keywords are the words given to each of branches to convey meaning of the
topic(Eppler, 2006:2);
5) Images are widely seen as the best way to describe a mind mapping because it
can give better meaning than words. It can be used anywhere, as a subtitute
for central topic, the branch or instead of a keyword on the branch(Eppler,
2006:2).
Mind mapping can help someone to maximizes the potential ability of the brain to
memorize and organize ideas (Wycoff, 2003, cited in Kusumaningsih, 2008) because
mind map help enhance the brain’s capacity to recall information (Beare, 2009). It
also motivating way for students to summirize a unit, because it assists in digesting
information, retaining it and exploring new concepts and topics in our own unique
way (Margulies, 1991).

In addition, Hobartswan (2010) stated mind mapping is an important technique that
increases the way to record information, and enhances creativity, imagination, and
also motivation, especially in drawing and coloring image to represent the

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information in mind map. In line with that, the usage of visual and colors can
provides an interesting way to make sense of something the student is learning
(Margulies, 1991) and maximize the brain’s ability in associating number with visual
qualities (image and color) and as a result, the memory will able to store more facts
(Beare, 2009). The following example of mind mapping :

(prafulla.net)
Based on explanation above, mind mapping is an effective technique to represent and
rearrange ideas which come on mind. By using mind mapping, we can quickly
identify and understand the structure of a subject and also see the way that pieces of
information fit together, as well as recording the raw facts contained in normal notes.

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2.6. Advantages and Disadvantages of Mind Mapping

Mind mapping has some advantages and disadvantages for teaching. Althought mind
mapping is good technique for teaching reading, but mind mapping also has
disadvantages.

2.6.1 The advantages of Mind Mapping

Buzan (2007) proposes to use mind mapping technique because it makes students to
be imaginative, to find new idea, to save time, to be creative, to keep note, to develop
a concept, and to perform a presentation. Moreover, Plotnik (1997 cited in Dolehanty,
2008) states that “ the main advantages to concept mapping are the use of the visual
symbols which are easily recognized. It also easy to scan for specific word or general
ideas and it allows for a more holistic understanding of a concept”.

In addition, Hofland (2007) argues that mind mapping can contributes to learner’
motivation because of its creative aspects. This statements is supported by Bono
(1969 cited in Hofland) who states that “creativity” is a great motivator because it
makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that can be a
worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement
everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more intersting.

Futhermore, Hobartswan (2010) affirms mind mapping is an important technique
that improves the way to record information, enhances creativity, imagination, and
also motivation, especially in drawing and coloring image to represent the

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information in mind mapping. When the students are making their mind mapping,
they feel challenge to draw appropriate symbols or pictures because each
student wants their mind mapping be the most interesting one. Therefore, it
can motivate them to be more creative in the learning process because
unconciously they need to increase their imagination.

Additionally, Porter (1999, cited in Kusumaningsih, 2003) states that mind mapping
could increase the freedom of expression and instructs the innovative and
comprehensive approach in ideas arrangement. It is also supported by Stanley (2004,
cited in Kusumaningsih, 2003) who affirms that mind mapping techniques can help
students generate their ideas more easily

Based on theories above, it can be concluded that the use of mind mapping technique
in classroom is effective because it could increase student’s motivation and make the
teachers easier to explain the learning material.
2.6.2 The Disadvantages Of Mind Mapping
the disadvantage is mind mapping technique can be time consuming activity. Since
the students are not familiar with mind mapping technique it takes time to train them
using and applying mind mapping. According to Hofland (2007), creating mind
mapping may take time but, this help you to recall information and will check your
understanding. To make mind mapping more interesting, the students need media.
They are difficult about media because they do not have media needed such as
color pencils/pens and HVS p

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2.7 Procedures of Teaching Reading Comprehension by Using Mind Mapping
Technique in Descriptive Text

Based on the theory, the researcher gives treatment to the students by understanding
the teaching reading descriptive text through mind mapping technique using
descritive text as the materials. The teaching procedures are described based on the
steps implemented for mind mapping technique

Pre reading activity
In pre reading activity, it is as an opening act in order to lead the teacher to the core
of teaching and learning. Pre-activity facilities students to build up their schemata
before coming to the topic of the lesson.
The main purpose of giving pre-reading activities is to lead students’ attention to the
topic. According to Markstein and Hirasawa (1981: 183), if the teacher spends more
time in introducing the reading, the result will be better. Careful reading preparation
really helps the intermediate level students which give them benefit to be more
receptive to the content. In general, pre-reading activities that will do in class as
follows: brainstroming, showing picture, and asking question based on the topic.
1) Greeting
2) The teacher checks the students’ attendance list.
3) The teacher showing the picture media in order to attract students’ interest and
help the student understand the contents of the text.

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4) The teacher brainstroms students knowledge of the text by asking several
questions related to the theme they just have already heard.
5) The students are informed the material they are going to learn, the goals of
learning to achieve and reading technique the students use.

While reading activity
6)

The students competitively complete the provided cluster related to the

question from the teacher.
7)

Based on the students’ answer, the teacher make mind mapping as the

example in the white board, to make the students understand when they make their
own mind map.
8)

The teacher started make mind mapping in the center of blank page in the

whiteboard and use image in the central idea. After that, the teacher connect to each
branches to central image and in each branches, the teacher give the keywords to
make the student understand when they are fill in the branches.
9)

The students get the text from the teacher after that the students read the text

and the students make their own mind map.
10) Some students explain their mind mapping.
11) Asks the students to answer the question that relates with the text which have
given by the teacher.

Post reading activity
12)

The teacher asks the students to collect the assignment and evaluates the
students by giving questions to be answered in written form

25

13)

The teacher arises the students’ reflection by asking them, what they have got
and what they have learnt.

14)

The teacher closes the meeting while greeting the learners.

By implement this technique, it is expected that there was a significant difference of
students’s achievement in understanding reading descriptive text through mind
mapping technique and there is an increase of learners’ reading achivement before
and after being taught through mind mapping technique.

2.8 Theoretical Assumption

Students’ reading ability can be developed through various techniques. The same
technique might be better to be applied in reading comprehension ability. One of
reading ability for the students is identifying main idea, references, inference, finding
detail information, and vocabulary. The students have to be able to identify main idea
in various types of texts

Referring to the frame of the theories, the writer assumes that mind mapping
technique can be use to increase students’ reading comprehension in reading ability.
In mind mapping technique, students are given freedom of expression and
instructions to the innovative and comprehensive approach in ideas arrangement. By
expressing their ideas, automatically they will try to think creative and get the deep
meaning of the story on the text. And also can help to improve the students’ ability in
reading such as in note taking and summarizing the crucial information for better

26

understanding and memorizing. When the students interpret the texts visually, it
reflects their understanding of what they have read in a unique way.

Transferring these visuals into words, phrases, and sentences make it easier as the
ideas and comprehension of the texts has become much clearer to them. In line with
this process above, the students will be more active in the class after using mind
mapping technique. It helps the students to create meaningfull reading experiences in
the classroom and it is an effective technique in understanding reading skill for
students’ achievement because there will be significant differences of their
understanding toward the reading text and finally toward their achivement.

2.9 Hypothesis
Based on the theoretical assumption above, the researcher formulated the hypothesis
as follows:

There is significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement of
descriptive text after they are taught through Mind Mapping technique.

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter discusses the methods of research used in this study, those are: the
research design, population and sample, data collecting technique, proceures of
collecting data, criteria of good test of reading, the data analysis, data treatment,
hypotesis testing, and statistical testing.

3.1 Research Design

This research was conducted as quantitative research based on the experimental class.
This research was applied one group pretest-posttest design. There were two class as
taken as the investigated groups in this study which classified as diffrent groups. One
group was the subject of the research as the experimental class and the other group
was the try out class. The experimental class that was receive mind mapping
technique in teaching descriptive text as its treatment. In teaching experimental class,
the teacher was used mind mapping technique as the treatment in classroom activities,
meanwhile, the other as try out class.

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In this study, reading test was conducted to find out whether there was significant
changes in experimental group after being given mind mapping technique or not by
comparing the average score (mean) of the pre-test with the average score (mean) of
the post-test. The researcher was conducted pretest, three treatments, and posttest. In
this design, pretest and posttest was administered to see whether mind mapping
technique can be used to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement.
According to Setiyadi (2006: 132), the design of the study as follows
T1

X

T2

Where :
T1 = Pretest
X = Treatments
T2 = Posttest
3.2. Population and Sample

Population is the whole subject of the research ( Arikunto,2002). The population in
this research is all the second year students of SMP 3 Bandar Lampung. There are
seven classes of the second grade student. Each class consist of about 34 students.
Out of the population, two classes were taken, one as the tryout class (Class VIII F) ,
and one as the sample or the experimental class (Class VIII D), which is selected by
using Simple Random Sampling. The class is selected randomly by using lottery,
since the first grade in SMPN 3 Bandar Lampung is not stratified class. There is no

29

priority class. It was applied based on the consideration that every student in
population has the same chance to be chosen in order to avoid the subjectivity in the
research (Setiyadi, 2006:39). The steps in determining experimental group and try out
group were the writer provides seven pieces of paper printed the name of class of
population. Then, the writer takes two classes randomly and get the first classes as try
out group and the second as experimental class. The experimental class has pretest,
posttest, three treatments.

3.3 Data Collecting Technique

In collecting the data, the research uses some technique as follows:
1) Try Out Test
The try out test was administered to Class VIII F that considered of 34 students.
This test was given to identify the quality of the test before it was used to obtain
the data for the research. The test included multiple choices that consist of 40
items with four alternative options A, B, C, and D: one correct response and three
distractors. The try out test was conducted for 90 minutes. In determining the
quality of the test the researcher see in these aspects such as validity, reliability,
level of difficulty, and the discrimination power. From the computation of level of
difficulty, the researcher got that there are 3 items (3, 30, 39) categorized as the
difficult items which were less than 0.30 (difficult items) and there are 12 items
(1,13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 29, 31, 32, 33, and 36) categorized as the easy items in
which the range of the item is >0.70 (Easy). Then, the researcher found that there

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were 25 items which categorized as the moderate difficulty items (in the range of
0.30-0.70) 12 items in easy category which had less than 0.20 indexes. In short,
the researcher had 20 test items that had a good discrimination power and positive
value since a large acknowledgeable the students that poor students got the items
correct. The result is shown in table belows, which summarize the difficulty level
and the discrimination power:
Table 1. Difficulty Level of the Tryout items
NO Item Number

Value Range

Criteria

1

3, 30, 39

< 0.30

Difficult

2

2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12, 14, 0.3- 0.70

Average

15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28,
34, 35, 37, 38, 40
3

1,13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 29, 31, >0.70

Easy

32, 33, 36,

Table 2. Discrimination Power of the Tryout items
NO

Item Number

Value Range

1

1, 3, 13, 17, 18,