4 possible without worrying about how to use them. It is very useful to help writers
organize their thought, whether they have too many ideas or too few ideas. Considering the issue above, the researcher tries to have a case study
research about mind mapping technique. Furthermore, the researcher conducted a case study research on the student
s‟ responses to the use of mind mapping to increase their ability in organizing ideas in writing descriptive text. The aim of
this research is to find out the students‟ responses, whether mind mapping
increase students‟ ability in organizing their ideas effectively or not, based on the student‟s responses. Besides, this research is to obtain the strengths and
weaknesses of mind mapping based on the students and teacher‟s point of view.
The aim of this researcher is to help the teacher to know about the effectiveness of the mind mapping. This research is beneficial for the teacher to
know students ‟ responses to the use of mind mapping, students‟ improvement,
students‟ perception of the strengths and weaknesses of mind mapping and students‟ suggestions. Furthermore, the teacher can conduct more interesting
materials when teaching English, especially in writing skill.
B. Problem Formulation
There are three problem formulations in this research. The problems are presented as follows.
1. What are students‟ responses to the use of mind mapping technique to
increase their ability in organizing ideas in writing descriptive text? 2.
What are students‟ improvements after using mind mapping technique?
5 3.
What are students‟ suggestions for further implementation of mind mapping in a writing class?
C. Problem Limitation
Since the researcher conducted research about st udents‟ responses, the
researcher focused and limited the proble ms on the students‟ responses to the use
of mind mapping. Besides the identification of the students‟ responses, the researcher also obtained the
students‟ improvements and suggestions after using mind mapping technique. The participants of this study were the students of 7J
class SMP Negeri 15 Yogyakarta who had an experience in using mind mapping. The researcher also asked the English teacher of 7J class about students‟
responses to the use of mind mapping.
D. Research Objectives
Based on the research problems above, the researcher has the research objectives of this study. The objectives of this study are presented as follows.
1. To find out students‟ responses to the use of mind mapping to increase their
ability in organizing ideas in writing descriptive text. 2.
To find out students‟ achievement after using mind mapping technique 3.
To obtain students‟ suggestion about the use of mind mapping in the further occasion.
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E. Research Benefits
This research is expected to give some contributions and benefits to English language teaching, especially for:
1. The English Teacher of SMP Negeri 15 Yogyakarta
Since this research focuses on students‟ responses, it is beneficial for the
English teacher of SMP Negeri 15 Yogyakarta. As stated previously, this research provides a research about
students‟ responses to the use of mind mapping to increase their ability in organizing ideas in writing a descriptive text.
The result of students ‟ responses about mind mapping will be varied. The English
teacher can use the students‟ responses in developing their writing skill through
mind mapping technique. This research also presented students‟ suggestion on
the use of mind mapping. The students‟ suggestions give the contribution to the English teacher of SMP Negeri 15 Yogyakarta in implementing better learning
material in writing. This research can also reflect to the teachers whether the use of mind mapping has improved the
students‟ ability in organizing ideas or not.
2. The other Students or Readers
Since the researcher conducted the research about learning strategies, especially in writing skill, it is useful for the students or readers to choose the
most appropriate learning strategies that can be used in some scales of learning.. In this research, the researcher conducted a research about a strategy called mind
mapping. Students or readers have to know the learning strategies which can work effectively on himher so it can help them to increase their ability in writing. By
reading this research, the readers can get more information about the use of mind
7 mapping so that it can really help the readers to increase their ability in organizing
their ideas. The readers can also use the result of this research to be their consideration and knowledge when they want to use mind mapping especially in
writing.
3. Future Researchers
This research is expected to support other researchers to do further discussions which are related to the topic of the use of mind mapping in teaching
writing. The future researchers can develop this research into a classroom action research using the same topic, which is the use of mind mapping, to increase the
students‟ ability in organizing ideas in writing descriptive text. Moreover, the future researchers can also make some modules for the research and development.
F. Definition of Terms
In order to clarify the concepts and avoid misinterpretation, the researcher provides the definition of several key-terms which are used in writing this
research. The key-terms are presented as follows.
1. Responses
According to Power as cited in Dunkin, 1987, a response is any verbal or non-verbal act designed to fulfill the expectation implicit in the questions,
commands or requests of others. In this research, students‟ responses refer to the
verbal or non- verbal act. Students‟ responses can be seen from the teaching
learning activities in the classroom.
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2. Writing
There are four basic skills of the English language learning, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those four basic skills are divided into
receptive and productive skills. Writing belongs to productive skills because it requires the writer to produce a written product.
Zamel 2007 states that writing is the process of discovering meaning and producing something in a written form so that people can read and perform it or
use it. Moreover, writing is a way of sharing personal meanings and writing course emphasizes the power of the individual to construct his or her own views
on a topic Richards, 2003. It means that something which is provided in written form will be used by people to discover the meaning of the writing.
Writing is how to produce a written product. However, to make a written product, the writer should have some processes. It means that the writer should
have a good skill to organize their ideas which can help them to make the best written product. It can also help the reader to understand the meaning easily.
3. Ability in Organizing Ideas
An ability is the fact that somebody is able to do something. An ability can be improved by doing exercises. In this research, the students were asked to do some
assignments which were related to writing skill. In order to make a writing product, writers or students should have a good ability in writing skill moreover in
organizing their ideas. Therefore, they can produce the connected sentences.
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4. Mind Mapping Technique
Michelco 1998 notes that mind mapping is an organized brainstorming method and it makes learning, note-taking, and organizing ideas become simpler
and easier. Buzan 1993 states that mind maps attempt, visually and graphically, to portray a relationship of ideas or concepts. To create a mind map, someone
usually starts in the middle of the page with the central thememain idea and from that point, he or she works outward in all directions to create a growing diagram
composed of keywords, phrases, concepts, facts, and figures.
Buzan 1996 states that mind map, as well as encouraging the infinite continuous flow of ideas, enables the brain to be awake and alert by making the
brain uses its skills. It means that by using the mind mapping technique, students tend to use their brain to organize and specify their ideas before doing the writing
tasks and it can also develop students‟ thinking skill. Anderson et. all 1993 state
that mind mapping also activates the imagination, the combined use of words and symbols which increases the creativity as well as thinking skill.
5. Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a kind of text with a purpose to give information. The context of a descriptive text is the description of particular things, for example
animals, persons, objects, appearances, landscape, or phenomenon naturally. In this research, the descriptive text refers to the description of someone, animal or
things around the students. Therefore, the students were familiar with the things that they were going to describe.
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G. Research Significant
This study has significant of di scovering students‟ responses to the use of
mind mapping to increase their ability in organizing ideas especially in writing descriptive text. This research presented detail information about students‟
responses, improvements and suggestions on the use of mind mapping which hopefully can be a reflection for the teacher to have more interesting learning
activities. Moreover, the teacher can also have better learning materials that help the students solve their problems, especially in writing skill.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In order to give a fundamental theory of this research, this chapter presents a discussion on the related literature as a theory based upon the research that has
been conducted by the researcher. The discussion includes theoretical description and theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
This theoretical description is concerned with theories that are related to the keywords used in this research. There are three major points that will be
discussed in this part, namely responses, mind mapping, and writing. The theoretical descriptions are presented as follows.
1. Responses
The main term which is used in this research is responses. Responses are discussed at first to answer the first question in the research problems. In this
chapter, the researcher does not only discuss the definition of responses but also
the related theories to the responses.
According to Power as cited in Dunkin 1987, response is any verbal or non-verbal act designed to fulfill the implicit expectation in the questions,
commands, or requests of others. In this research, the researcher knew about the
