Research Method RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher would like to present a description of research method. They are research method, research setting and participants, research instruments, data gathering technique, data analysis technique and research procedure.

A. Research Method

The study employed Classroom Action Research CAR as the method. This method was used in order to answer the research problem which was how can the tenth graders ‟ grammar accuracy of simple past tense in narrative writing be improved in SMAN 1 Depok. Mills 2007, as cited by Mertler 2009, p.4 points out that Action research is defined as any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, administrators, counselors, or others with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process or environment for the purpose of gathering information about how their particular school operate, how they teach and how their students learn. From the definition above, action research is a research which is done by people in order to find the solution of the problem by gathering and analyzing the data. According to Kemmis and McTaggart 1988, as cited by Burns 1999, p.32, there are four steps to do Action Research. Those steps are planning, action, observation and reflection. The steps were used and they formed cycles as presented as follows. 26 27 Figure 3.1 The Planning-Reflection Cycle Kemmis and McTaggart, 1988 1. Planning The researcher found the problem when she did Internship Program Program Pengalaman Lapangan in SMAN 1 Depok. Then, the researcher did preliminary study to make sure the problem faced by the students. The researcher started making plan after knowing the students‟ problems. The plan was giving feedback on the students ‟ drafts. The researcher planned to give feedback in order to remind and correct stude nts‟ errors while using the simple past tense in the narrative writing. 2. Action The researcher taught the students in the class about the generic structure of narrative texts. After that, the researcher asked them to write one paragraph of narrative texts. The paragraph consisted of ten sentences. They were given 50 minutes to do the assignments. Then, the researcher asked the students to submit 28 their works and corrected the s tudents‟ drafts at home. The researcher gave feedback on the student s‟ drafts by giving some comments and corrections at home. In the next meeting, the researcher asked the students to revise their students‟ drafts which had been given feedback by the researcher and submitted it. Then, they were asked to write new narrative texts. 3. Observation The researcher did the observation and the action in the same time. She observed the students in the class especially when they wrote narrative texts. The researcher was helped by the two observers. They helped the researcher to observe the students and the class situation during the implementation. 4. Reflection In this step, the researcher tried to analyze data. The researcher analyzed the data by checking the students‟ writing products. The researcher examined their works one by one. By doing that, the researcher could know the students ‟ errors especially in simple past tense. After having the results from the stude nts‟ drafts, the researcher tried to reflect whether the implementation worked well or not. After that, the researcher prepared the next action for the next cycle.

B. Research Setting