The Research Approach METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

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CHAPTER III METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

This chapter discusses the research approach, object of the study, roles of the researcher, procedures of collecting the data, unit of analysis, and procedures of analysing the data.

3.1 The Research Approach

The study aimed to investigate the Thematic structures and Thematic progressions displayed on the 3 rd semester s tudents‟ speeches by analysing the Theme and Rheme. Therefore, the qualitative approach was used to figure out the realization of the meaning. According to Creswell 1994: 145, qualitative research is descriptive in that the researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through word or picture. In unfolding meaning, data analysis is considered to be a systematic search. Hatch 2002: 148 describes that it is a way to process qualitative data so that what has been learned can be communicated to others. Analysis means organizing and interrogating data in ways that allow researchers to see patterns, identify themes, discover relationship, develop explanations, make interpretations, mount critiques, or generate theories. The object of the study was speech which is a kind of text, so discourse analysis was used. Schiffrin 1994: 416 in Lazaraton 2002: 26 states that 46 analysis discourse is empirical: actual data rather than intuitions are used; analyses are accountable to the data and are meant to be predictive of other as yet unecountered data. In addition, what is said, meant and done is sequentially situated; that is, utterances are produced and interpreted in the local contexts of other utterances. To put it in a nutshell, since the objects of this study were speeches produced by the 3 rd semester students varied on two different classes, it involved the study of an issue explored through one or more cases within a bounded system. In another words, case study, as one of the approaches in qualitative study, was used. Creswell 2007: 73 states that case study research is a qualitative approach in which the investigator explores a bounded system a case or multiple bounded systems cases over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information, and reports a case description and case- based themes. According to the statements above, I attempted to employ qualitative approach to analyse the data. In addition, the quantitative approach was also used to produce some statistical data in order to strengthen the qualitative analysis.

3.2 Object of the Study