Research Design RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the following sections: research design, setting and subject of the study, research procedure, problem identification, planning of action designing the lesson plan, selecting drama activities and deciding the criteria of success, and implementation of the action, observation, and reflection.

A. Research Design

In this study, the researcher uses Classroom Action Research design. This study is a phenomenological one because it is designed to describe and interpret the researcher’s own experience and problem in her daily teaching practice which focuses on a group of students in a certain class. As defined by Mills 1997: v CAR has the potential to be a powerful agent of educational change. For English learning, CAR aims at discovering learning-teaching strategies that match learners’ style and strategies in learning English. CAR may be done in several cycles each of which is repeated in the next cycle if the result is not satisfactory yet with the better revised lesson plan. Each cycle begins with planning, implementing the plan, observing the implementation, and reflecting or evaluating the process and the result of the implementation. The result of the reflection determines the next cycle. It can be said that the developing teaching strategies is expected that the teachers may solve their problem in class. lvii Mills 1997: 21 defines that CAR is systematic inquiry done by the teacher or other individuals in the teachinglearning environment to gather information about-and subsequently improve the ways their particular schools operate, how they teach and how well their students learn. It means that CAR encourages the teacher to be aware of her own practice, to be critical of that practice and to be prepared to change it. Moreover, Kemmis in Siti Zulaihah, 2007: 3 states that classroom action research is a concept of doing X to improve Y. It is held because there are one or more problems found in something or because the belief that the condition of something is not good and need improvement. In this case APS is the X variable while speaking skill is the Y variable. The researcher will apply APS technique to improve students’ speaking skill. The researcher will record all the students’ activities regarding their attitude, respond and progress in speaking skill. The research will be implemented in the form of collaborative action research by inviting one of the English teachers in SMP Negeri 1 Kalitidu. This research will be done in four steps of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Considering the aim of CAR, that is, improving teaching-learning quality, the researcher wants to apply this design to improve the speaking skill of the eighth year students at SMPN I Kalitidu through APS. In this study, the researcher is as a designer, the observer and the rater of this CAR implementation and works together with the collaborator who assists the researcher for the reliability of the result. lviii

B. Setting of the Study