The Setting of the Study

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Design This study employed the qualitative research method with case study approach. Qualitative method was chosen because this study aims at providing an insight into the case of language anxiety in the 8 th grade of SMPN 9 South Tangerang, specifically anxiety in learning English. According to Fraenkel and Wallen, case study is a qualitative study approach that studies a single individual, group, or important example to formulate interpretations to the specific case or to provide useful generalization. 1 Therefore, the study case approach allowed the writer to study particular students in an attempt to understand the case of language anxiety.

B. The Setting of the Study

The setting of the study was SMPN 9 South Tangerang. It is a junior secondary school which located in Jalan Lontar Matril, Sarua Permai, Pamulang, South Tangerang, Banten. The school was established in 1991 and has been operated since 1992. There are eight classes registered from grade VII until IX. English is taught as compulsory subject. There are two meetings in a week with time allocation 80 minutes for each meeting. The study conducted at SMPN 9 South Tangerang from April 14 to May 17, 2014. It consisted of interviews and multiple classroom observations for around a month in class 8.8. The first three weeks were used for interviews and the rest of the weeks used for classroom observations. 1 Jack R. Fraenkel and Norman E. Wallen, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education: Seventh Edition, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009, p. 13. To determine the participants of this study, the writer used a purposive sampling in order to help the writer understand the phenomenon being studied. According to Creswell, purposeful sampling is aimed to learn or understand the central phenomenon by selecting individuals and sites intentionally. 2 The participants of the study were a number of SMPN 9 South Tangerang students in class 8.7 who were considered to be anxious in English class based on the characteristics of anxious students illustrated by Oxford such as:  General avoidance: Showing carelessness, low levels of verbal production, lack of volunteering in class, seeming inability to answer even the simplest questions.  Physical actions: Squirming, stuttering or stammering, displaying jittery behavior, conversational withdrawal, lack of eye contact, image protection or masking behavior exaggerated smiling, laughing, nodding, joking, and being unable to reproduce the sounds or intonation of the target language even after repeated. 3 Students who showed those characteristics were selected as the participants. C. Data Sources and Data Collection Techniques To obtain the data, the writer used two techniques of data collection. Since the study is a case study, therefore the writer use in-depth interview technique as the primary technique and then it is followed by classroom observation for a validity check. 2 John W. Creswell, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, Fourth Edition, Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2012, p. 206. 3 Rebecca L. Oxford, “Anxiety and the Language Learner: New Insights”, in Jane Arnold ed., Affect in Language Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 60. 1. Interview Interview is a data collection technique by way of interviewing selected individual as a respondent. Furthermore, it is a direct face to face attempt to obtain reliable and valid measures in the form of verbal responses from one or more respondents. According to Bungin, in-depth interview is a process to obtain information for the purpose of research by face to face questioning between the interviewer and informant or interviewee, with or without the use of an interview guide. 4 Before conducting the interview, the writer observed the class in order to find anxious students as the participants. The observation guide was followed, using the signs of language anxiety by Oxford, as explained on the previous page. Students who showed the signs of language anxiety were asked if they ever experienced anxiety in English class. The first step in conducting the interview was to obtain a poll of the students who considered themselves to be anxious in English class and were willing to be interviewed. The participants recruited in several ways. Those students whose responses suggested high levels of anxiety were asked and invited to participate. Furthermore, the writer also contacted the teacher for referrals of students who appeared to be highly anxious in the class. Most of the students were willing to participate, and some looked to be quite eager to share their experiences. During the initial process with the students, the writer explained the nature of the study and that all interviews would be conducted in Bahasa , students’ first language, to elicit answers without limiting or inhibiting the students. Those who indicated a willingness to participate were scheduled for an interview. 4 Burhan Bungin, Penelitian Kualitatif: Edisi Kedua Jakarta: Kencana Prenada Media Group, 2007, p. 111. Later on, fifteen participants were interviewed. From fifteen, four were eliminated from the study because their interview did not indicate that they experienced the anxiety or because they were unable to answer the interviewer’s questions. The eleven remaining participants, nine were males and two were females. All were students of class 8.7. Each interview spent for about ten minutes and was recorded with pa rticipants’ permission. The interview guide was adapted from Price 5 focusing on foreign language anxiety. The following questions were asked: 1. Please tell me something about how you have felt during English classes? 2. What bothers you the most about English classes? 3. Do you have any idea why you feel so anxious in your English classes? 4. How do you think people in your classroom will react if you make a mistake? 5. Do you think English is a difficult language to learn? 6. Have your teacher played a role in your feelings, either good or bad, about your English classes? 7. Do you have any ideas of how English classes might be less stressful? 2. Observation Another data collection technique is observation. Observation, according to Bungin, is a data collection technique used to collect research data through observation and sensing. 6 In this case, the observation conducted by observing students’ behavior during teaching and learning. 5 Mary Lou Price, “The Subjective Experience of Foreign Language Anxiety: Interviews with Highly Anxious Students ”, in Elaine K. Horwitz and Dolly J. Young ed., Language Anxiety: from Theory and Research to Classroom Implications, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1991, p. 103. 6 Bungin, 2007, op. cit., p. 118. The writers’ role in the observation was non-participant. He observed all of the students in class 8.8, especially the eleven participants who had an interview with the writer before. In two weeks, two meetings were observed. Each observation lasted approximately 80 minutes, following the duration of a meeting. The writer observed the signs of language anxiety as suggested by Oxford 7 that appeared in every single phase of English learning took place in the classroom. Furthermore, the observation was used to find out when was students likely to feel anxious and in what situations that might trigger their anxiety in English class.

D. Data Analysis Techniques and the Validity of Data