students when they are in groups rather than individually. Futhermore, cooperative learning is believed for enhancing students’ motivation in
terms of writing as they discuss the topic and have evaluation or feedback among the group members to achieve the group’s goal. In addition,
cooperative learning let the students generate ideas and construct sentences together which can lead to a better understanding of the topic when they
write. Eventually, they will be able to write a concrete, accurate, creative piece of writing.
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter contains of five subchapters. It covers type of research, research setting, the research subjects, the data collection, and research
procedures.
A. Type of Research
As mentioned earlier in the objective of the study, the research study was aimed at improving the students’ writing ability through the use
of cooperative learning among XI IPS1 students at SMAN 1 Seyegan. Thus, it was categorized as action research in which the focus of this
research was on improving the real condition of the English teaching and learning process to reach the improvement of the students’ writing ability.
According to Burns 1999, there are four characteristics of action research. Firstly, action research is contextual, small scale, and localized.
Secondly, it is evaluative and reflective. Thirdly, action research is participatory. Lastly, it has changes in practice which are based on the
collection of information. The researcher conducted an action research by implementing the
model proposed by McTaggart in Burns 1999 with some modification. The researcher and the English teacher carried out the action research and
worked together in collecting input about the obstacles and weaknesses of
the English teaching and learning process related to the students’ writing skills.
After that, the research problems were identified and the actions which were planned to solve the problems were figured out in the planning
step. During the implementation, observations were also carried out in the teaching and learning process. After observing the teaching and learning
process, the research and the English teacher reflected and evaluated the actions implemented in the study. Finally, there were some other
considerations related to the result of the actions if there was no improvement. Then the other actions were implemented in the cycle 2 to
improve the students’ writing performance.
B. Research Setting
The researcher conducted the study at SMAN 1 Seyegan which was located in Tegalgental, Margoagung, Seyegan, Sleman. The school had
one hall and one main building which was divided into some rooms for a headmaster’s room, a principle room, and a teacher’s room, and a guide
and counseling’s room. Those rooms are all equipped with chairs and desks while in the principle room and the guide and counseling’s room
equipped with three computers and three printers. Next to the main building, there was a library that provided some kinds of books for
students like novels, magazines, newspapers, and other books. It was also equipped by two computers and one printer. On the other side of the
building, there were more eight buildings that are X, XI, XII classes. The school also had a very large yard, a basketball court, badminton court,
volley ball court. Moreover, the school provided other rooms that were functioned as school health unit, a computer laboratory, a physics
laboratory, a mosque, eight toilets, and a cafeteria. The XI IPS1 classroom was located near the library. It was
equipped with LCD, a white board, chairs and desks for students. In the classroom, class organization structure and the schedule of students’ duty
for cleaning the classroom for each day can be found hanging on the wall next to the white board.
This research study was conducted in the second semester of the academic year of 20132014. The observation was done in November 2013.
The researcher carried out the research from February to April 2014. The action research was carried out based on the school schedule which was on
every Mondays and Saturdays.
C. The Research Subjects
The subjects of the research were the XI grade students of IPS1 at SMAN 1 Seyegan in the academic year of 20132014. The class consisted
of 18 students. Eight of them were male while 10 students were female. This class was chosen because their English level proficiency was
considered at the lowest level amongst the XI classes. They claimed that
they still find many problems in writing after conducting observation and interviews.
D. Data Collection
1. Types of Data
This research was action research in which the data could be both qualitative and quantitative. The data of this research were in two forms.
The quantitative data was collected through the interviews and observations while the quantitative data was the results of the students’
writing tests.
2. Data Collection Techniques
The data in this research study were obtained from the instruments. The data needed were the writing scores, opinions, obstacles, and
expectations of the implementation of the actions gained from the research members. The data were collected through class observations,
documentation of the students’ writing tests, and the interview with the research members.
The data collection techniques used were qualitative through interviewing some of the members of schools and observation. In the
beginning of the research, the researcher conducted personal interviews to the principal to find out the main language skills needed to improve. By
doing so, the researcher found out that writing skills of the students at the
