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Step 1: Define purpose objective of the
research
Step 2: Formulate research questions Step 3: Define population and sampling technique
Step 4: Design and construct instruments
Step 5: Pilot study Step 6: Collect data
Step 7: Organize and process the data
Step 8: Analyze and interpret data
Step 9: Report findings
Figure 3.1 below . The process of conducting the study on students‟ attitudes is
summarized into points as follows:
Figure 3.1. The Steps of Conducting Survey Research Singleton Straits, 1999, pp. 92-94; Cohen Manion, 2000, p. 173; Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen,
2010, pp. 378-379; Creswell, 2012, p. 223
Step 1: Defining the purposeobjective of the research The research began by defining the purpose of the research. The purpose
of the research gives clear picture of what to obtain from the research. The research was conducted to identify students‟ attitudes towards TKBI test. This
was the first research which conducted around the area of TKBI test and the
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attitudes of the test takers. The result of the study was expected to provide information about the effects of test on the students as well as to anticipate the
negati ve effects which can lower students‟ performance. In addition, the findings
could be used as consideration for better test and better policy making. To provide the background, the researcher had an opportunity to informally interview five
examiners to gather some information about their experiences interviewing the test takers. They shared about how the difficulties faced by the students, their
failures, and their attitudes during the test.The information provided the guidelines, the motives, and the goals to conduct the research on the students
‟ attitudes.
Step 2: Formulating research question After defining the research purpose, the researcher formulated the
research question. The research question was related to the students‟ attitudes towards TKBI and it reflected the problem to answer through this study. The
process of formulating the research question also involved reviewing the theories to build the constructs of the research and the instruments. The constructs of this
research were noted as attitudes, English proficiency, and speaking test. Reviewing the theories made the research question clear and logical to provide
tentative answers to the question.The question was answered empirically through analyzing the data and theoretically by reviewing the literatures.
Step 3: Defining population and sampling strategy Before sampling, the researcher observed the test takers to gain deeper
information about the students as the data source and to support the process of
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constructing the research intruments. Creswell mentions that observing the students is important to record information from the setting, gain information
about the actual behaviors and attitudes, and study the population 2012, p. 213. Therefore, the observation helped the researcher to understand the condition, the
population, and the real situation in the setting. The observation was carried out twice on early October, 2014. In the observation, some students were informally
interviewed while waiting for their turns to come inside the room and take the test. Some students shared their experiences during test preparation and test taking.
They also shared some obstacles and challenges they found during the process. The result of the observation was used to confirm the theories as the underlying
constructs to design the research instruments. The researcher also informally interviewed some examiners to gather information about the test and the attitudes.
The population of the research was the non-English department students who were required to take TKBI as the requirement to graduate. This was quite
large population. Since the research used cluster random sampling, the population was broken down into some subpopulations. The subpopulations were determined
by the faculties of the intended respondents. Since there were five faculties, the population was broken down into five sub-populations, including Language and
Letters Faculty, Teacher Education and Training Faculty, Accounting and Economic Faculty, Psychology Faculty, and Science and Technology Faculty. The
sample was taken from one department in each faculty and chosen randomly. The questionnaire would be distributed in those departments. In order to support data
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gathering process, the next step was gaining permission from each faculty to gather the data.
Step 4: Designing and constructing the research instruments Before designing and constructing the instruments, the researcher should
determine the type of information to obtain in the research. Therefore, the instruments can be used to gather information to answer the research question.
Designing the instruments should also refer to the constructs which provide tentative answers to the research question. The process of designing the
questionnaire as the instrument began by constructing the blueprint. The concept of the constructs was that the test affects students‟ cognitive attitudes, affective
attitudes, behavioral attitudes, learning goal, learning motivation, and perceptions. This concept was then elaborated into subconcepts and indicators to make
the blueprint. The blueprint can be seen in Appendix 1. After designing the blueprint, the researcher then wrote the questionnaire items. As triangulation, the
researcher also formulated interview questions to support data from questionnaire. The interview format was semi-structured, therefore the questions could be
elaborated or modified during the implementation. The process of designing and constructing the instruments also involved defining the measurement technique.
Step 5: Conducting pilot study After all instruments were constructed, they were pre-tested to ten
respondents. The pilot study was conducted to review and revise the questionnaire items. The pilot study was used to check if there were ambiguous and misleading
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statements. If these items were found, they would be revised or eliminated. The interview was also pre-tested to two respondents. It aimed to simulate the
interview process and test whether the questions were clear or not. The pilot study was conducted on the last week of September to some students in the language
institute of Sanata Dharma University.
Step 6: Collecting data After having the permission letters, the questionnaires were distributed to
the students in the five departments. The questionnaire distribution was conducted for two weeks, the last week of October and the first week of December. There
were 130 questionnaire sheets were distributed and responded by the students. Then the questionnaire results would be calculated to obtain the frequency, mean,
median, and mode t o describe the students‟ attitudes towards TKBI test. After that,
the researcher used Spearman‟s rho to confirm the relation between the constructs.
Then, the questionnaire results were triangulated with the interview result to confirm the descriptive data which were previously obtained from the
questionnaire. The interview was conducted on the second week of December. Three students from Mathematic Department, two students from Psychology
Department, two students from Accounting Department, one student from Elementary Education Department and two students from Indonesian Letters
Department were interviewed. These students had taken TKBI test, and only five of them had passed the test. In the interview, the students shared their experiences
handling TKBI test, their perceptions about the test, and their self-reflections after the test.
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Step 7: Organizing and processing the data Before analyzing the data, it is important to organize the data to help the
analysis. The questionnaires were numbered to avoid losing them and to arrange them for counting the frequency. The results of the questionnaires were calculated
into frequencies to see how many respondents disagreed and agreed to the statements. The researcher also calculated the mean, median, and mode to
measure the central tendency. The data were organized and presented in the form of table. After the descriptive analysis, the questionnaire results were calculated
using Spearman ‟s rho to check the validity and reliability of the results as well as
to confirm the correlation between the components of attitudes. Then, the results of the interview were transcribed and translated to
organize the data. For the coding, the researcher adapted Saldana ‟s coding system.
The interview results could be used as triangulation to validate the instruments. The information given by the students during the interview could support and
confirm the data from questionnaire. From the interview, the researcher could gather some new information that could not be identified from the questionnaire
results.
Step 8: Analyzing and interpreting data The next research procedure was analyzing and interpreting the data.
After the questionnaire results were organized and processed into numerical values, the researcher analyzed and interpreted the data to answer the research
questions. The findings were described by interpreting the numerical values into verbal description based on the criteria. In this process, the researcher had to
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derive general and logical understanding from the data to descri be the students‟
attitudes towards TKBI test. In order to do so, the researcher tried to relate the research results with the theoretical constructs. Both questionnaire results and
interview results were used to describe students‟ attitudes towards language, language learning, and TKBI test. The questionnaire results could show the
characteristics of the test takers and would be supported with the interview results for triangulation.
In order to identify the correlation between the components of attitudes, the researcher analyzed the result of Spearman
‟s rho computation from questionnaire results. The correlation was identified by the phi coefficient 0.05.
If the components were correlated, the coefficient should be less than that point. Hence, it could confirm the theoretical background of the research that one
component was related to the other components.
Step 9: Reporting the findings The final step of this survey research was reporting the findings. The
researcher reported the results of the data analysis in the forms of table and figure which were presented in the Appendix. The data would be discussed in the
discussion section of the research report. After that, the researcher derived conclusion based on the data and the theoretical constructs.
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CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
