Enhancing Freshman Students’ Writing Skills with a Mind-mapping Software

1. Enhancing Freshman Students’ Writing Skills with a Mind-mapping Software Prof. Reima Al-Jarf King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia e-mail: reemasado@msn.com Website: http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/aljarf eLSE 2009. Carol I National Defense University. Bucharest, Romania. April 8-10, 2009

2. What is s Mind Map? • It is a graphic organizer in which the major categories radiate from a central image & lesser categories are portrayed as branches of larger branches. • It can be used to generate ideas, take notes, develop concepts & ideas, & improve memory.

3. Importance of Mind Maps • They enhance learning & create a foundation for learning. • An illustrative tool that assists with managing thought, directing learning, & making connections. • To introduce an overall topic, increase student involvement, & get thoughts down quickly. • to express ideas & show interrelationships between concepts & content.

4. Aims of Study • Does utilization of a mind mapping software have any positive effects on EFL freshman students’ writing achievement? • Does utilization of a mind mapping software have any positive effects on freshman students’ attitudes towards writing skill development & the mind mapping activity?

5. Subjects • 86 EFL femalefreshman students in two intact groups (43 students each). • Both groups were in their first semester of the translation program at COLT. • The EFL program at COLT offers four writing courses ranging between elementary & advanced levels to students in semester 1-4. • Age 18, all Saudi, all native speakers of Arabic.

6. Pretesting • Before instruction, the 2 groups took the same writing pretest. • Results showed no significant differences between the experimental & control groups in their writing ability before the writing instruction began.

7. Traditional instruction • Both groups were exposed to the same traditional in-class writing instruction. • They studied same textbook, covered same skills, exercises & took the same tests.

11. Treatment • Free Mind 0.8.1 was integrated in in-class writing instruction as a prewriting activity. • In week 1, I trained the students to use Free Mind using an LCD projector. • Every week the software was used to create mind maps for the topic that the students had to write a paragraph about in class with the my help. • They continued to use Free Mind at home.

12. A mind map begins with a word or image that symbolizes the topic the student have to write about in the middle using at least 3 colors. • The students write down or drew the first things that come up to their mind when they start to think about related issues, people, places, events, reasons, characteristics or examples. • They put their thoughts around the central thought.

13. Type one or two word descriptions of the ideas on lines branching from the central focus. • Expand ideas outward into branches & sub- branches. • Express ideas in words, images, codes or symbols. • Select keywords. • Each word/image sat alone on its own line.

14. When ideas slowed down, the students draw empty lines, & watched their brain automatically find ideas to put on them. • Sometimes they could see relationships & connections immediately & could add sub-branches to a main idea. • The first requirement was to get the ideas out of their head & onto the screen. • Organization always came later.

15. The aim of the prewriting activity was notto teach the students how to apply the details of the Free Mind software & how to use it in studying, reading, vocabulary building ...etc. • Focus was on placing the paragraph topic in the center, how to add branches for the details, how to add pictures & change the font color, size & case.

16. Posttesting • Students in both groups took the same posttest. • The experimental group answered a post-treatment questionnaire.

17. Results • T-test results revealed a significant difference between the experimental & control suggesting that experimental students’ made higher gains in writing achievement as a result of integrating the mind mapping software in writing instruction.

18. The experimental group wrote more relevant details & better organized & connected ideas than paragraphs written by the control groups. • During posttest most students drew mind maps by hand to help them visualize & organize ideas.

19. Effect of Mind Mapping on Attitudes • Positive attitudes towards mind mapping & the writing course under study. • Students found the mind mapping software fun & helpful in generating & organizing ideas, & considered it a newway of brainstorming & planning a paragraph. • They could use the mind mapping software any time & as many times as they needed.

20. They could write down a central idea, focus on key ideas, think about new & relatedideas which radiate out from the centre, & personalize it with lines, colors, arrows, branches to show connections between the ideas generated to construct visual & meaningful relationships between ideas. • They found MP important for constructing a structured paragraph plan.

21. Thank You!