Theoretical Thinking Research Hypothesis

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Design of the Research

The method of this research was quasi-experimental research, which uses nonrandomized groups design. 1 This research consists of an experimental class and a controlled class which the researcher chose without any randomization. The writer taught the simple past tense of the second grade students at SMK Bintang Nusantara, by using Contextual Teaching and Learning. At the first meeting, the writer conducted pre-test to the controlled class and experimental class. After that, the writer gave treatment to the experimental class by teaching the simple past tense using Contextual Teaching and Learning. Meanwhile, the controlled class did not recieve any treatment. They were taught by using non-CTL method. At the end of the meeting, the writer conducted the post-test to both classes.

B. Time and Place of the Research

The research was held at SMK Bintang Nusantara, Tangerang Selatan, for the second grade students academic year 20122013. The research was carried out from January 30 th to February 24 st , 2014.

C. Content of the Experiment

This research was conducted in order t o improve students‟ mastery of the simple past tense through Contextual Teaching and Learning. The writer arranged six meetings. The first meeting was conducted by giving a pre-test to the students, in order to know their background of knowledge before the treatment given. The next meetings, the experimental group were taught differently from the controlled group, that was by giving them specific learning materials, by using Contextual Teaching and Learning. ________________________ 1 John W. Creswell, Educational Research, Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.,2012, p.309. 26 In the second meeting the students were taught about simple past tense by using curriculum vitae cv. The teacher gave some examples of curriculum vitae to the students, and asked them to explain the background of knowledge of each cv in groups and answered several questions given by the teacher. The third meeting had the same material with the previous meeting which discussed about background of education, since the time allotment was not enough to finish the material in the second meeting. In this meeting the students were asked to write their own education background and what they would do after graduating from school. After that they read their own writing in front of the class and shared it with their friends. In the fourth meeting, the teacher gave a news article from an online website to the students and asked them to read the text. After that the teacher gave them several questions according to the article. The next meeting the teacher gave them an example of personal letter to the students, after reading the letter, the students were asked to reply the letter by describing their own personal experience. In the last meeting, the students of experimental and control class were given a post-test to check whether they had an improvement in mastering the simple past tense. The teaching and learning processes described above were conducted in the experimental class. While the controlled class was taught by conventional method.

D. Population and Sample of the Research

The population of this research were the students in the second grade at SMK Bintang Nusantara, Tangerang Selatan. There are three classes, namely, XI Akuntansi AK, XI Multimedia MM and XI Teknik Komputer dan Jaringan TKJ, which consist of 62 students of all classes. The writer uses purposeful sampling to take the sample in this research. Purposeful sampling is a kind of sampling in which sample is selected by the researcher which heshe believes that the sample can be the representatives of the population. 2 Since this research is quasi-experimental, it used purposive sampling, without random assignment of participants to groups. There are three classes as the population in this research, but the writer chose only two classes. Those are XI AK and XI MM. The writer chose this class because the number of the students in both classes is not too different. XI AK class consists of 21 students, and XI MM class consists of 26 students. Meanwhile, XI TKJ class consists only 15 students which would not be equal to other class if it was taken as a sample of this research. Therefore, the writer decided XI AK and XI MM class as the sample of this study, after administered the pre-test. The pre-test was firstly given to both classes, in order to compare the background characteristic of the two classes in their understanding towards the simple past tense. The result of the pre-test showed that both classes had different score in average, in which XI AK was 60.15, meanwhile XI MM was 43.90. The writer decided to took XI MM as the experimental class, while XI AK as the controlled class, because the writer wanted to know if there is a significant development of XI MM class in their achivement in English Subject, especially in the simple past tense after given the treatment which would be compared to XI AK class which has better background of knowledge in the simple past tense. However, in the end of the research, the writer only got 20 students from each class because some students were absent. ________________________ 2 Jack R. Fraenkel Norman E. Wallen, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1993, p. 88.

E. Instrument and Data Collection of the Research

In collecting the data, the instrument that the writer used was tests, which were pre-test and post-test that administered to XI AK class and XI MM class. After five times of meetings, the writer gave post-test, which had the same questions with the pre-test, also to both classes. Then the writer compared the scores of the pre-test and post-test of experimental class and controlled classes. The writer used the same questions for pre-test and post-test See appendix in order to measure the gained score. Besides, the limitation of the time and saving cost are the consideration of the writer to choose the same questions for both pre-test and post-test. The test consists of 30 items of multiple choice, which also examined its validity and reliability. Validity is desribed as the degree to which a research study measures what it intends to measure. In order to check the validity of the instrument in this research, the writer used content validity. According to J.B Heaton, in this kind of validity, the test should be well constructed and contains a representative sample of a course. The test also should has relationship between the test items and the course objectives. 3 In measuring the content validity of the research instrument, the writer, first draw up list, which describes particular language skills and areas which will be included in the test. It is important to make the list in order to ensure that the test is assessed in suitable proportion, reflecting all areas according to the syllabus. The result of the content validity shows that the test items are in line with the standard competency, basic competency and the indicator. It means that the test is suitable with the course objective and it fulfils the requirement of the content validity. It can be seen in the table 3.1 in the next page: ________________________ 3 J.B. Heaton, Writing English Language Tests, New York: Longman, Inc., 1995, p.160.