Table 15: The Post-test Mean Score of Each Writing Aspect C
O V
LU M
Total Mean
23.7 15.8
15.9 19.1
4.1 78.6
C: Content O: Organization
V: Vocabulary LU: Language Use
M: Mechanics
Figure 7: The result of a student’s writing in the post-test
Figure 8: The result of a student’s writing in the post-test
C. Discussions
The research aimed at describing how the use of mind mapping could improve the writing skills of class VIII B students of SMP Negeri 3 Depok. There
are five different aspects that are evaluated; they were content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics.
The one of main problems with the students’ writing skills was difficulties in expressing their ideas. Before the implementation of mind mapping, the
students found it hard to generate their ideas into a piece of writing. They were also confused about developing their ideas so that their writings seemed to be
confusing and lacks of logical development. Buzan 1993 states that mind mapping can be an effective way to help students in developing and organizing
their ideas before they began to write something. The mind map as a product of
mind mapping map can help them to generate and develop their ideas in a logical way.
It is supported by Hofland 2007 that a mind-map can activate the students’ thinking ability and creativity. The special features in mind maps can be a great
way to get the imagination of the students. Mind mapping can save time because it helps the students to plan about what they are going to write.
As mentioned before, the implementation of mind mapping as teaching technique and the supporting actions, such as providing various grammar and
vocabulary exercises, giving feedback on the students’ works, allowing them to have a group work, and showing a slide as a guidance were successful in
improving the students’ writing skills of the class VIII B students of SMP Negeri 3 Depok, Sleman, Yogyakarta in the academic year of 20142015.
The students’ writing skills before the implementation of the actions were evaluated through pre-test on August 19th, 2014.In the pre-test, the students were
asked to write a descriptive text about a tourism object in their area individually. The post-test was conducted on September 9th, 2014 after the implementation of
the actions. In the post-test, the students had to write a descriptive text about one of their favorite tourism objects individually. The comparison between the pre-test
and post-test scores in general can be seen in the table below.
Table 16: The Comparison between the Pre-Test and Post-Test Results Score
Pre-Test Post-Test
Mean 56.2
78.6
The table above shows the improvement on the students’ score in the pre- test and the post-test. In the pre-test, the students only earned 56.2, while in the
post test, their score was 78.6. From the changes of their scores, it can be seen that there were significant improvements. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use
of mind mapping was proven to be effective to improve the students’ writing skills. The change between the results of pre-test and post test can be seen in this
following chart.
Chart 1: The Comparison between the Results of Pre-Test and Post Test
To support the finding that the use of mind mapping could improve the students’ writing skills, the results of students’ writing skills during the
implementation of the actions were also presented. The improvement of student’s writing skills during the implementation of the actions can be seen in this
following chart.
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90
Pre Test Post Test
Improvement
Improvement
Chart 2: The Mean Scores of the Students’ Performance on the Five
Aspects of Writing Skills during the Implementation
5 10
15 20
25
Pre-Test Progress Test
Post-Test Content
Organizat i on Vocabulary
Language Use Mechanics
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter discusses the conclusion of the research, implications and suggestions. The discussions of each section are presented as follows.
A. Conclusions