الفهرس 
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Abstract
In EFL context, writing is a very important skill to develop. This vital skill requires knowing not only how to generate and organize ideas, but also how to translate these ideas into readable text. So, writing is an important language skill. It is one of learners’ means of communication with others. Helal (2003, p.1) states that ”writing is one of learners’ means of expressing themselves and communicating ideas”.
Moreover, writing is one of the significant language skills that should be developed at an early stage of EFL learning. It can be used as a self learning activity in language acquisition, as students can learn by themselves through their active use of the prior knowledge, organization of ideas, and reflection on their own conceptualization.
Creating a good piece of writing is considered an important prerequisite for any language. However, in spite of the importance of the writing skill, it has been noticed that the 1st year October 6 university students were less able to pull the details together in order to write about a certain topic. They also were unable to generate or associate ideas in a well organized and coherent written manner.
This problem may be due to of the following reasons:
- Students often lose interest while writing before completing the task.
- Students usually feel that they have nothing to write about.
- Students are unable to reach fluency and ease in writing.
- Methods of teaching applied in the classrooms usually focus on lecturing rather than practice.
- Students are not given a profound intellectual freedom to think and write freely.
- Teachers do not expose students to authentic situations which motivate them to communicate in the foreign language.
Because of the previous reasons, the students’ writing skills had to be developed. So, the present research was conducted in order to investigate the effect of using mind mapping strategy on developing the 1st year university students’ writing skill. A program of five units was designed and taught through using mind mapping strategy. So, the following questions were asked:
1-What are the writing skills necessary for the 1st year October 6 university students?
2-What are the characteristics of a program based on using mind mapping strategy to enhance the 1st year October 6 university students’ writing skill?
3-What is the effect of the suggested program based on using mind mapping strategy on developing the 1st year university students’ writing sub-skills?
In order to answer the first question, the researcher applied a pre writing test upon the research group to measure their writing skills.
In order to answer the second question, the researcher reviewed literature and previous studies related to mind mapping strategy and the writing skills.
In order to answer the third question, the researcher analyzed the results of the writing post test and calculated the effect size.
The researcher hypotheses were verified as follows:
1) There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the group of the experiment on the writing pre-and post tests in the overall writing skill in favor of the post-test mean score.
2) There are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the group of the experiment on the writing pre-and post tests in each of the overall content, organization and vocabulary sub skills in favor of the post-test mean score.
3) There are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the group of the experiment on the post-test in overall content, organization, and vocabulary skills in favor of the organization skills.
In the present research the researcher adopted the quasi experimental design. The participants of the research were a group of 26 1st year faculty of education students randomly selected from October 6 university.
Findings:
Through analyzing the reached results, it can be said that:
1- The main aim of this research has been achieved, as the 1st year university students’ writing skill was developed due to the use of the mind mapping strategy.
2- The mean score of the participants’ overall writing in the post administration test was (27.22) with a large effect size at (6.707), which were higher than their mean scores in the pre administration test (11.65). The T value was significant at the level of (0.001). So, it can be concluded that the suggested program has had a very large effect on developing the 1st year university students’ writing skill.
3- The mean scores of the participants’ writing sub-skills on (content, organization and vocabulary) in the post test were higher than their mean scores in the pre test. So, it can be concluded that after the implementation of the proposed program, the group of the experiment members demonstrated tangible progress in both overall writing and each writing sub-skill.
4- The mean score of the group of the experiment on the post test in overall organization skills was higher than their mean scores in overall content and vocabulary skills. So, it can be concluded that using mind mapping has a larger effect on developing the 1st year university students’ organization skills rather than on the content and the vocabulary skills.
5- Finally, it was clear that throughout the proposed program mind mapping strategy helped the students to be capable of:
a - Collecting necessary ideas and information for writing essays.
b - Generating more and more ideas in a creative way.
c - Organizing their thoughts in an interesting way.
d- Developing the writing sub skills which belong to the main writing skills aspects of (content, organization and vocabulary).
e - Improving their essay writing and gaining self confidence.
Recommendations:
In the light of the present study results, the following recommendations are made:
1- Teachers should be aware of the writing sub-skills necessary for each stage.
2- Teachers are recommended to use a mind mapping strategy while teaching, in order to help students develop their writing skill and sub-skills.
3- Teachers are recommended to use technology as a tool of enhancing the knowledge, abilities, and attitude of students towards learning.
4- Teachers should enhance students’ use of certain software such as mind mapper, mind Genius and many other software that increase students’ ability to reflect prior knowledge in writing.
5- Teachers should be a facilitator, an organizer, an observer and a supporter instead of a traditional authority figure.
6- Students should be offered enough opportunities to practice pre- writing activities especially through mind mapping; this enables them to reflect ideas and information necessary for writing.
7- Students should be the centre of the learning process through sharing responsibilities in their learning. Students should be offered opportunities to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.
8- Students should be triggered to be more responsible for their learning, through informing them about the importance of each writing sub-skill.
Suggestions for further research:
1-Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of the mind mapping strategy program on developing Egyptian EFL students’ speaking, reading and listening skills.
2-Further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of using mind mapping strategy program at the preparatory and secondary stages.
3-Further research is needed to compare different pre-writing strategies in terms of their effectiveness on developing EFL students’ writing skills.