The Influence of Cluster Mind Map on ESL University Students’ Writing Skills
Keywords:
academic writing, brainstorming, cluster mind map, pre-writing, writing skillsAbstract
In academic writing, harnessing creativity and effectively organizing thoughts are pivotal for producing coherent content. Cluster mind mapping is a useful tool that can aid students’ writing skills from the beginning such as drafting to the final stages of writing. Therefore, this research investigates to what extent planning, brainstorming, and idea matching can influence students’ writing. This research specifically examines the application of the cluster mind map in student’s academic writing. This study involves a total of 60 participants from the institutions of higher education in the state of Perlis. A quantitative research approach was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of Cluster Mind Map using inferential statistics through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study highlight that effective planning, brainstorming, and idea generation were the key categories that significantly influenced students' writing performance in a cluster mind map. This study also points out that cluster mind map acts as a valuable resource for educators seeking to improve students’ academic writing and seeking to enhance students’ learning outcomes. It is useful in aiding English language practitioners in equipping students with metacognitive processing skills particularly in the area of academic writing.
References
Abbas, M. F. F., & Herdi, H. (2018). Investigating EFL learners’ ability in generating, organising and elaborating ideas in an argumentative essay. Journal of English for Academic, 5(2), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.25299/jshmic.2018.vol5(2).1991
Abd Karim, R., & Mustapha, R. (2020). Students' perception on the use of digital mind map to stimulate creativity and critical thinking in ESL writing course. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(12A), 7596-7606. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2020.082545
Akhtar, R., Hassan, H., Saidalvi, A. & Hussain, S. (2019). A systematic review of the challenges and solutions of ESL students’ academic writing. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 8(5C), 1169-1171. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijeat.e1164.0585c19
Astriani, D., Susilo, H., Suwono, H., Lukiati, B., & Purnomo, A. (2020). Mind Mapping in Learning Models: A Tool to Improve Student Metacognitive Skills. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn, 15, 4-17. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i06.12657.
Azman, H. (2016). Implementation and challenges of English language education reform in Malaysian primary schools. 3L: Language, Linguistics and Literature, The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 22 (3), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2203-05
Bae, S. S., Kwon, O. H., Chandrasegaran, S., & Ma, K. L. (2020, April). Spinneret: Aiding creative ideation through non-obvious concept associations. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13). https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376746
Buzan, T. (1993). The Mind Map Book, BBC Books, London.
Chen, L. (2023). Research on the Application of Mind Mapping in English Teaching in Primary Schools. Journal of Education and Educational Research. 5(3), 291-294 https://doi.org/10.54097/jeer.v5i3.13788.
Ghulamuddin, N. J., Mohd Mohari, S. K., & Ariffin, K. (2021). Discovering writing difficulties of Malay ESL primary school level students. International Journal of Linguistics and Translation Studies, 2(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlts.v2i1.105
He, X., Fang, J., Cheng, H. N., Men, Q., & Li, Y. (2023). Investigating online learners’ knowledge structure patterns by concept maps: A clustering analysis approach. Education and Information Technologies, 28(9), 11401-11422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-11633-8
Karim, R. A., Abu, A. G. & Khaja, F. N. M. (2016). Brainstorming approach and mind mapping in writing activity. In Proceedings of the 1st English Education International Conference (EEIC), pp. 12-13. https://jurnal.usk.ac.id/EEIC/article/view/16277/11923
Li, K. L., & Razali, A. B. (2019). Idea sharing process-based approach to writing in Malaysian English education. PASAA: Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, 58, 319-341. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1227023.pdf
McGriff, S. (2007). Instructional systems program, Pennsylvania State University, 62(2), 8-25.
Rusdin, D., & Tabise, M. (2020). Comparative Study between Clustering Technique and Mind Mapping Technique to Improve Students’ Writing Ability at the Eight Grade of SMPN 2 Tolitoli. Jurnal Madako Education, 6(2), 94-103. https://ojs.umada.ac.id/index.php/jme/article/view/134/132
Sapitri, L., Rachmawati, E., & Surachmat, A. M. (2019). The use of mind mapping technique to increase EFL students’ motivation in writing. a case study at the eighth grade of a junior high school in Brebes. Journal of English Education and Teaching, 3(3), 392-402. https://doi.org/10.33369/jeet.3.3.392-402
Singh, M. K. M. (2015). International graduate students’ academic writing practices in Malaysia: Challenges and solutions. Journal of International Studies, 5(1), 12-22. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1052831.pdf
Sovakandan, H., Jaganathan, P., & Husain, F. M. (2017). Investigating low proficiency ESL students’ perception of the use of i-Think Maps. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 14(1), 1-13. https://meltajournals.com/index.php/majer/article/view/572/555
Stokhof, H., de Vries, B., Bastiaens, T., & Martens, R. (2020). Using mind maps to make student questioning effective: learning outcomes of a principle-based scenario for teacher guidance. Research in Science Education, 50(1), 203–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-017-9686-3
Sudirman, |J. (2022) The Effect of Mind Mapping Technique on Students’ Writing Skills. JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 11(1), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v%vi%i.6692
Zheng, X., Johnson, T. E., & Zhou, C. (2020). A pilot study examining the impact of collaborative mind mapping strategy in a flipped classroom: Learning achievement, self-efficacy, motivation, and students’ acceptance. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(6), 3527–3545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09868-0
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcia Jane Ganasan, Mohamad Iqbal Muhamad Fauzi, Thanavalli Suparmane, Weicong Li, Abdul Karim Gazi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
