The Population of the Study

4. The Research Instruments

There were some research instruments used in this study. While gathering data, the writer used questionnaires. Checklists and tables were used while the writer analyzed the data. Questionnaires were distributed to the respondents to obtain information concerning respondents’ facts, and intention. There are two types of questionnaires, open-ended questions and close-ended questions. This study used questionnaires with close-ended questions because “they are more easily processed” Babbie, 1973: 141. Through questionnaires handed out, the writer knew facts about respondents’ personal data, respondents’ language usage, and respondents’ process and efforts of learning English. The writer could also gain information about respondents’ intention of learning English. Checklists were very important when the writer analyzed the data because “checklists are mnemonic devices, i.e., they reduce the chances of forgetting to check something important. They reduce errors of omissions” Scriven, 2005 as cited in http:www.wminch.eduevalctrchecklistspaperslogic_methodology.pdf , accessed on August 20, 2007. Checklists were used to help the writer answered the first and second problem. This checklist was useful because it helped the writer to categorize types of sentences produced by the respondents, whether they were correct or incorrect sentences. The types of sentence patterns had been discussed in Chapter II. They were simple sentence, compound sentence, and complex sentence. Since this checklist helped to categorize types of sentences, this checklist was named Sentence-Type Checklist. Below is an example of Sentence-Type Checklist. Table 1. Example of Sentence-Type Checklist Sentence-Type Checklist Reference Correct Incorrect Simple Sentence Compound Sentence Complex Sentence The reference column was for the numbers of line or lines in which certain sentences analyzed could be found. They were categorized as a correct or incorrect sentences by giving a tick in the column “Correct” or “Incorrect”. Of course, a sentence could only be a member of one category. This categorization of whether or not the sentences are correct, helped the writer to anwer problem formulation number two. In the Sentence-Type Checklist, the writer categorized the type of sentence by giving a tick to the most appropriate type of sentence in the next column. This checklist was used to answer the Problem Formulation number one about types of sentences produced by tour guides in Prambanan Temple. Obviously, a sentence could only be a member of one category of types of sentence, whether it is a simple sentence, compound sentence, or complex sentence.