The impact of mind mapping in the pre-writing process in EFL of fifth graders at Nueva Inglaterra Campestre School in Saboyá, Boyacá

Abstract

This research aims to describe the impact of mind mapping in the pre-writing process in fifth grade students at Nueva Inglaterra Campestre School. There were found some factors in the students´ writing process that did not allow them to write as it should be at their level, so that, it was necessary to look for a strategy to help students improve their writing skills. The data collected was done in the teacher´s journal, checklist, and the students' artifacts. These instruments allowed to follow the students' pre-writing process; the gathered information from what the students were learning helped to identity their weaknesses or strengths to help the teacher to find a strategy to reinforce their writing. On the other hand, the action-research study was developed in two cycles and designed with the qualitative paradigm which helped to analyze the outcomes of the students related to their prewriting abilities. The results showed that writing, using a mind map as a tool, into the pre-writing process, let most fifth graders, progressively, start learning how to write in English, in around ten weeks. They could write a short paragraph using a mind map and organize their ideas to be able to write about any topic which was suggested by the teacher. Although, they still had some mistakes that needed to be improved, in their pre-writing process, the use of mind maps let the students organize their ideas in a better way. Key words: pre-writing process and mind map.