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different majors. Their majors include Computer Science, Biology Education, Anthropology, Research and Education, Management, Hard Science Education,
Education Technology, Electrical Engineering, and Agricultural Engineering.
3.5 Data Collection
As stated above, this study employed a qualitative research and several data collection techniques. There were three data collection techniques used in this
study including interview, questionnaires, and documentation of students’ texts.
3.5.1 Classroom Observation
Observation is one of qualitative forms of data Creswell, 2008: 220. Observations represent a frequently used form of data collection, in which the
researcher is able to assume different roles in the process Spradley, 1980, cited in Creswell, 2008. In this study, the researcher was a non-participant observer. She
was an observer who visited the research site and recorded notes without becoming involved in the activities of the participants. Creswell 2008: 222-223
says that the nonparticipant observer is an “outsider” who sits on periphery or some advantageous place to watch and record the phenomenon under study i.e.
the back of the classroom. In this research, classroom observations were conducted for six meetings.
During the observations, the researcher observed the teaching and learning activities in the classroom. It covered the interaction between the teacher and the
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students. Further, the researcher made notes of what was said and what was done by both the teacher and the students in classroom interaction.
Unfortunately, the classroom activities were not recorded. This may become the weakness of the study. However, Alwasilah 2002: 226 states that researchers
are suggested to videotape the observation. This implies that videotaping is not a must. Instead, a researcher must be a good note taker who is able to note the
whole activity in the classroom. In this case, the researcher had tried to be a good note-taker who noted the activities covering all that the teacher and the students
said and did.
3.5.2 Documentation of Students’ Texts
This technique constitutes the ways to elicit the information by analyzing the written or visual contents of a document Fraenkel and Wallen, 1993:385. In
line with Travers 2001:5, the researcher could gain a lot of data from documents available. They can be a valuable source of information in qualitative research
Creswell, 2008: 230 since they provide the advantage of being in the language and words of participants, who have usually given thoughtful attention to them.
As stated above, the participants whose texts analyzed were chosen based on their level of achievements as recorded by their writing teacher. In collecting
documents, the researcher collected nine students’ texts in the form of Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module.
The compositions were the last students’ works of a three-month IELTS Preparation program. Those texts were written to accomplish the task of the last
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practice test. These texts were chosen based on a consideration that they could represent the students’ achievement after taking the IELTS preparation program
for about three months. The texts were written based on a task. The participants were given a chart
giving information about global population percentages and distribution of wealth by region. Then, they were asked to summarize the information by selecting and
reporting the main features, and make comparison where relevant. As usual, for accomplishing Writing Task 1 candidates are suggested to spend about 20 minutes
on writing at least 150 words. The texts collected were analyzed based on the assessment criteria of
Writing Task 1 of IELTS Academic Module. The data found then were classified into four categories: problems related to task achievement, problems related
coherence and cohesion, problems related to lexical resources, and problems related to grammatical rage and accuracy.
3.5.3 Interview
