Mind Mapping Techniques to Enhance EFL Writing Skill

Abstract

The study identifies appropriate Mind mapping techniques to enhance the EFL learners’ writing ability. It reviews and examines the traditional techniques used in teaching writing to the Saudi intermediate learners and identifies appropriate Mind mapping techniques along with an application procedure to enhance the writing skill. The sample included 40 intermediate learners and 20 English language teachers at the English Language Institute. The study divided into two phases; a Survey Phase and an Experiment Phase; started with the learners’ placement test and a questionnaire distributed in EL teachers to collect the data on practicing usual techniques and problems faced while teaching writing. Since, the main focus of the study was to identify the appropriate Mind mapping techniques to enhance the learners’ writing ability, the experiment phase continued for 7-8 weeks. The statistical analysis of the data was carried out by using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. The results indicated that the learners, who were taught through Mind maps, improved cohesion and coherence; content paragraph structure and length in writing. The results manifested that the hierarchical structure of the Mind mapping techniques used in the pre-writing process enhanced the EFL learners’ writings.