Writing, among the four skills, is clearly a complex process, and being competent in writing is frequently accepted as being competent of last language skill to acquire (Nunan, 1991:91). Idea mapping refers to mind mapping which can help students to generate and organize their ideas in writing. This study attempts to investigate how can idea mapping improve the writing ability of the third semester students of English Department at Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang. The classroom action research design employed in this study is a collaborative classroom action research. The design of classroom action research utilized in this study follows that of Kemmis and McTaggart (2000:595) cited in Koshy (2007:4) which comprises four main steps, namely, planning, implementing the action, observing, and reflecting which are preceded by reconnaissance (preliminary study). The findings of the study are presented based on the result of students’ writing, observation checklists, and field notes. All the findings are about the activities done in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. Based on the results of the students’ writing, there was a slight improvement of the students’ mean score from the previous score in the preliminary study to Cycle 1. The mean of the previous score was 46.25 and the mean score of the students’ writing in Cycle 1 was 59.69. The students’ involvement in writing activities was more than what had been stated in the criteria of success. This situation implied that the second criterion of success had not been fulfilled. Better improvement of mean score is gained from the preliminary study to the Cycle 2. The mean of the previous score in the preliminary study was 46.25 and the mean score of the students’ writing in Cycle 2 was 69.85. The improvement met the first criteria of success because there was 75% of the students who achieved the target score 65. Further, Idea mapping has revealed improving the writing ability of the third semester EFL college students at Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang. Based on the implementation of idea mapping in teaching writing, it is suggested that English teachers apply idea mapping especially in teaching writing. Besides, it is advisable for teacher to give more and various tasks to the students. To the future teacher-researchers, particularly those who are interested in applying idea mapping in their classroom research, it is suggested that they conduct classroom action research on the use of idea mapping in teaching writing related to other text types, such as narrative, procedure or recount.
Investigating the Use of Hedges in Iraqi EFL College Students’ Essay Writing
