Once Upon a Time
The Essence of Mind Mapping within Genre-based Approach to Enhance
Students’ Writing Ability
Tiara Cita Maharani
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Keywords: Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Narrative, Writing Skill, Mind Mapping, Genre-based Approach.
Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the text structure and register of narrative text written by an expert and
students. It employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to analyse the texts. A narrative text
written by an expert and three narrative texts written by the tenth grade of senior high school students were
used as the primary data. The texts were analysed covering three metafunctions, namely interpersonal,
ideational, and textual. The findings demonstrate that the expert’s narrative text conforms the conventional
narrative text structure which consists of orientation, complication, and resolution. The specific findings
exhibit that the expert’s text is dominated by Material Process and Finite Past. The result of students’ text
analysis reflects certain issues – one of which is disorganisation of narrative text structure. Thus, a pedagogical
implication has been drawn to enhance students’ ability in writing a more well-structured narrative text. Mind
mapping has been chosen as the pedagogical implication under genre-based approach to improve students’
narrative writing ability.
1 INTRODUCTION
Texts which share the same context of situation will
administer the same experiential, interpersonal and
textual meanings so they belong to the same register
(Butt et al., 2000). To analyse such dimensions,
systemic functional linguistics (henceforth SFL) has
appeared to be a framework that accommodates how
the grammar of a language functions as a resource for
making and exchanging meanings. By understanding
the making and exchanging meanings within a
language, in this context, the texts produced by
students, pedagogical implications of language
learning can be comprehensively drawn to improve
teaching and learning English. Therefore, this study
emphasises the SFL analysis of narrative text that is
one of the text types utilised in Indonesian
educational context. The analysis covers the three
main metafunctions, namely interpersonal,
ideational, and textual which are realised by tenor,
field, and mode.
Narrative has been chosen in this study because
of its importance. First, as required by the Indonesian
curriculum, narrative texts are taught both in junior
and senior high schools. Thus, narrative texts written
by the tenth graders of senior high school have been
selected to function as the source data. Second, as
cited in a website of Bright Education Services and
Testing, narrative writing allows students to tell an
engaging story, foster their creativity and reading
ability, develop a better understanding of language
and other styles of narrative text. Last, according to
Herman and Vervaeck (2001) narrative platforms
have always been central in society since they are able
to unveil fundamentally cultural perspectives about
reality and humankind.
Nevertheless, in the real situation, students have
been encountering difficulties in developing a
narrative text. The most obvious one that the writer
can spot is constructing a well-organised narrative
text that affirms conventional text organisation,
namely orientation, complication, and resolution. A
well-constructed narrative text is central since it
enables readers to comprehend the essence of the
story presented in the text. As postulated by Meyer
(1999, as cited in Ram and Moorman, 1999), the key
of understanding the writer’s ideas is organisational
plan of text. Moreover, Meyer adds that readers
possess limited ability to memorise every piece of
information written in a text, thus, certain ways must
372
Maharani, T.
Once Upon a Time - The Essence of Mind Mapping within Genre-based Approach to Enhance Students’ Writing Ability.
DOI: 10.5220/0007167503720375
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 372-375
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

be considered to highlight vital points within the text,
one of which is through text structure.
Based on the aforementioned background of the
research, this study attempts to answer the following
research questions (1) what is the text structure of
expert’s narrative text? what is the register of the text?
how is it described? (2) what is the structure of
narrative texts written by students? what is the
register of the text? how are they different from the
expert one? (3) what is the pedagogical implication
drawn from the analysis of expert’s and students’
narrative texts?
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics
(SFL)
According to Eggins (2004:3), the growing interest of
SFL has led the approach to advance four important
theoretical tenets about language underlying
functional language use, the function of language that
is to make meanings, the meanings are conceptualised
by the social and cultural context, and the process of
using language is a semiotic process that is making
meanings by choosing. Moreover, the systemic
approach to language is functional in two essential
domains, namely how people use language and how
the language is structured.
Eggins (2004:8) further explains that how people
use language covers the relationship between
language and context. Language and context are
interrelated. It is possible to depict how people are
utilising language by comprehending the context of
use, for instance, the language is used to write a recipe
(Eggins, 2004:8). By reading the choice of words,
people can easily interpret that the piece of text is a
recipe since it employs the words commonly used to
describe how to make a certain dish.
Context of language includes register, genre and
ideology in SFL. Register is defined as the same
context of situation that is shared by texts realised by
the same goals and connections, also patterns of
lexicogrammar. Register is important to construct a
certain type of text (Butt et al. 2000:9). Register is a
functional variety of language (Halliday and
Matthiessen, 2004). It explains the impact of
dimensions of the immediate context of situation of a
language circumstance in which how the language is
employed (Eggins, 2004:9). The context of situation
can be realised by three main dimension, namely
field, tenor, and mode (Butt et al. 2000:9). Field is
defined as the topic or focus of a particular situation
(Eggins, 2004:9). Tenor emphasises the relationship
between the language user and the receiver (Butt et
al., 2000:5) and mode is the form of the language use.
2.2 Why Narrative?
Among many text types, narrative becomes an
important text type to be learnt as it has always been
central in life since any particular matter people say
and think about at certain time or place would
naturally become narrative (Herman and Vervaeck,
2005:1). Furthermore, they argue that narrative also
unveils fundamental culture-specific opinions about
reality and humankind. In a similar vein, Refnaldi et
al. (2010:385) state that narrative deploys cultural
values through unfolding the way characters behave
to solve the problem or to act upon a crisis point in
problem of the story.
Another definition of narrative is proposed by
Derewianka (1990:34) who states that basically,
narrative is a text type to entertain though it also may
seek to teach or inform or embody the writer’s
reflections on experience, and to nourish and extend
reader’s imagination.
3 METHOD
Since the present study was aimed to identify the
genre moves in narrative texts, document analysis
using the framework of Halliday’s SFL was
employed as the tool for the analysis of text. Bowen
(2009) defines document analysis as structure
procedure for assessing documents (both printed and
electronic) materials. Document analysis using SFL
framework was employed to identify the genre
moves: ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings
in both expert’s text and students’ texts. SFL serves
to provide insightful understanding into texts
(Martínez Lirola, 2006, in Arancón, 2013). It has
been explained as a functional-semantic approach to
language which considers both how people use
language in various contexts, and how they organize
language to use it as a semiotic system (Eggins,
2004).
One narrative text written by an expert was
selected as the sample for the study. The title is The
Origin of Cianjur. The rationale for taking the text as
the sample are: (1) the text was taken from a
compilation of text types including reading exercises
for students in English practice book entitled
Membongkar Habis 1000 Soal Bahasa Inggris; (2)
the text introduces the origin of a region; and (3) the
text promotes culture. Moreover, three students’
narrative texts from the tenth grade of one of senior
Once Upon a Time - The Essence of Mind Mapping within Genre-based Approach to Enhance Students’ Writing Ability
373

high schools in Bandung were selected to analyse.
The selection was conducted in order to analyse the
texts based on three metafunctions: ideational,
interpersonal and textual and to compare them with
the expert’s text.
4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Expert’s Text Structure and
Register of Narrative
From the analysis, it is confirmed that the expert’s
text is an imaginary narrative text because it tells the
readers about the story of the origin of Cianjur from
writer’s own perspective (since there are no data
provided to support the story) and includes the
character of villain (Mr.Stingy) and hero (Tetep), and
some imaginative scenes to engage the readers and
make them imagine it (water comes out from a hole
and create unendurable flood). It is in line with
Derewianka (1990) who states that the purpose of
narratives is to entertain readers or listeners and hold
their interest in reading or listening to the story, it may
also aim to teach or inform, to embody the writer’s or
story teller’s reflections on experiences, and, the most
important, to nourish and extend the readers’ or
listeners’ imagination.
The language features of the text fit the language
features of narrative which are explained by
Derewianka (1990) as follows:
 It is specific; it has individual participants with
defined identities.
 The verbs are mainly action verbs, and also
some of verbs which refer to what human
participants said, felt, or thought.
 The verbs are past tense, except the verbs
which are used in dialogue.
 Many linking words to do with time.
 Dialogues are included.
 Descriptive language chosen to enhance and
develop the story by creating images in the
reader’s mind.
 It is written in third person’s point of view.
Moreover, specific findings from the text can be
summed up that Subject and Finite are the most
frequent metafunctions used in this text. The Finite is
mostly past tense, with a few modal Finite. Since the
dialogues between characters are not analysed, the
Finite Present can only be found in Coda.
4.2 Students’ Text Structure and
Register of Narrative
There were three students’ narrative texts that were
analysed in this study. The overall findings
demonstrate certain issues such as confusion and
inconsistency of the use of finite past, lack of
pronouns, deficiency of lexical cohesion, and the
most apparent one is disorganisation of the text
structure.
4.3 Pedagogical Implication: Mind
Mapping within Genre-based
Approach
Having elaborated the SFL analysis of expert’s and
students’ narrative texts, the issue of disorganized
text structure faced by the students has caught the
writer’s interest. Thus, in order to decode the
problem, the pedagogical implication has been
constructively designed.
The utilization of mind mapping has been chosen
as the implication to improve students’ ability in
producing a more well-organised and well-elaborated
narrative text. If the students are able to write a well-
structured narrative text, the purpose of the text can
be achieved which enables the readers to fully
understand the essence of information presented in
the text.
Mind mapping has gained its popularity in
promoting students’ writing ability for over decades.
Some researches on mind mapping have proven its
strengths and fame (Khoiriyah, 2014; Buran and
Filyukov, 2015; Bukhari, 2016). A mind map can be
perceived as a visual construction of information
which is mapped in a web-like structure supported by
other elements, such as pictures, lines, and words
(Green, 2014). According to Green, mind mapping is
claimed to be 15%-20% more effective in memory
development and successful learning compared to
other methods, such as brainstorming, note taking,
and studying. Another benefit of mind mapping is it
enables people to digest certain tasks more easily so
they are able to solve them faster.
Mind mapping has been utilised in various fields
including education. Newman (2013) suggests that
mind mapping is usually employed for educational
goals in order to improve students’ academic
performances. Students are expected to improve their
concept visualisations, decision-making ability,
critical thinking, presenting skills, reading and
writing qualities by integrating mind mapping in their
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
374

learning process. Therefore, a number of researches
have focused on the importance of mind mapping in
accelerating students’ ability to grasp knowledge.
In Indonesian setting, a study of mind mapping
technique to enhance students’ writing was carried
out by Khoiriyah (2014). The study was a classroom
action research which involved 44 students of the first
year students of English department at Nusantara
PGRI Kediri University. It included observations,
field note, and questionnaire to obtain the data. It had
been done in two cycles and the result showed that
students demonstrated significant progress in the last
cycle which concluded that mind mapping technique
is able to improve students’ writing ability.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The present study aims to investigate the structure of
narrative text and register written by expert and
students under SFL framework, and the pedagogical
implication of the study. After analysing and
comparing the expert’s and students’ narrative texts,
some findings have been obtained which leads to a
crucial drawback – students’ disorganised narrative
text structure. Having insights of the issue, the
pedagogical implication has been formulated to
resolve the mentioned problem. Mind mapping has
been selected to be the implication that is expected to
enhance students’ ability in organising narrative text,
thus, they are able to construct more well-organised
and well-elaborated narrative text.
This study only draws the pedagogical
implication based on the SFL analysis of students’
narrative texts compared to the expert’s. Based on the
pedagogical implication, the writer has proposed
certain teaching and learning activities within genre-
based approach (GBA) to be applied in the classroom.
Thus, it is suggested that teachers can follow the
formulated activities to teach narrative and analyse
the result of students’ narrative texts. The findings
can be employed as feedback to the betterment of
teaching and learning texts within GBA.
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