40 correct preposition. They have three options to choose as the answer to each item.
The options are prepositions at, in, and on. The type of the second part is translation test. It consists of six items. In this part, the participants should
translate six sentences in Indonesian into English in which they are required to use prepositions at, in, and on.
As the researcher has mentioned before, the results of the research would be valid and reliable if the research instruments used to obtain the data are valid and
reliable as well. Below are further descriptions of those two characteristics of the test.
a. Validity of the Test
Validity refers to the extent to which instrument could measure what it is intended to measure Ary et al., 1979: 196. Wiersma 1995: 313 agrees with this
definition by saying that validity of measurement is the extent to which the instrument measures what is designed to measure. There are three classifications
of the type of validity, which are used in this study, namely content validity, construct validity and face validity Hughes, 1989: 27. As the theories mentioned
above, the validity of the test of English prepositions at, in, and on is evaluated as follows.
1. The content validity
The purpose of the test is to measure the intended content area, or in other words, to see how well the students’ mastery of prepositions at, in, and on.
Therefore, the test consists of several items that demand the students to choose among prepositions at, in, and on. The test is developed to fulfill the content
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
41 validity and it gives the impression that it is convincing to measure the students’
ability on a certain topic. Bachman 1990: 244 divides this type of validity into two: content relevance and content coverage. Content relevance means that the
content of the test should be relevant to the purpose of the test. Whereas content coverage means that the test should cover or adequately sample all the elements of
the language intended to be tested. To give a clear description of the content of the test, the distribution of the test item is presented in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2 The Distribution of the Test Items
No. Aspect to investigate
Test item number Total
number of items
1. Preposition
at Indicating
place Part 1:1, 3, 7, 8, 30
Part 2: 5 6
Indicating time
Part 1: 5, 17, 22, 25, 26 Part 2: 2
6 2.
Preposition in
Indicating place
Part 1: 4, 13, 15, 28, 29 Part 2: 1
6 Indicating
time Part 1: 6, 10, 14, 16, 20
Part 2: 4 6
3. Preposition
on Indicating
place Part 1: 9, 12, 18, 21, 27
Part 2: 6
6 Indicating
time
Part 1: 2, 11, 19, 23, 24 Part 2: 3
6
Therefore, based on the content validity theory and the table of test items distribution above, the researcher could say that the test constructed in this
research has content validity. It has content validity because: 1 the content of the test of this research was relevant to the purpose of the test which was to measure
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42 the mastery of prepositions at, in, and on among the fifth semester students.
Besides, the language used in the test was also relevant to the ability of the fifth semester students. 2 The test constructed in this research covered all the forms
and sampled the meanings and uses of prepositions at, in, and on adequately. 2.
The construct validity According to Wiersma 1995: 313, construct validity is the degree to which
a test measures an intended hypothetical construct. The term construct here refers to the theoretical construct or trait being measured, not to the technical
construction of the test items. Therefore, a test is said to have construct validity if it can be demonstrated that it measures just the ability, which is supposed to
measure. Fraenkel and Wallen 1993: 145 suggest three steps involved in obtaining this type of evidence. They are:
a The variable being measured is clearly defined The variable or element of language being measured in this study was the
grammatical competence of the fifth semester students. Specifically, the researcher would investigate the fifth semester students’ mastery of prepositions
at, in, and on. b Formulate the hypothesis
Based on the theory underlying the variable being measured in this research, the researcher made a hypothesis. The hypothesis was related to the objective of
the test, which is to find out the students’ mastery of prepositions at, in, and on. Then, the researcher formulates hypothesis that the students whose understanding
of prepositions at, in, and on is low would obtain low score in the test, whereas
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43 those whose understanding of prepositions at, in, and on is high would obtain high
score in the test. c
Test the hypothesis Finally, the hypothesis made by the researcher was tested by administering
the test to the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. It was expected that the test could really measure what it was supposed
to measure, as it is mentioned in content validity. Thus, the test in this study has construct validity.
3. The face validity
A test is said to have face validity if the test looks as if it measures what it is supposed to measure Hughes, 1989: 27. Face validity is the extent to which
students view the assessment as fair, relevant, and useful for improving learning Gronlund, 1998:120. If the test items look right to the other persons, then it can
be described as having face validity Heaton, 1975: 156. Before the researcher conducted the test to the research participants, she consulted the test to her thesis
sponsor and some of her friends who have already become teachers in schools and English courses. By seeing the items included in the test, they agreed that this test
seemed to measure what it was intended to measure.
b. Reliability of the Test
