Method Research Setting and Participants

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into six sections. The first is research method, the second is research participants, the third is research instruments, the fourth is data gathering technique, the fifth is data analysis technique, and the sixth is research procedure.

A. Method

The first objective of this research was to investigate the Writing VI class students’ reading habits of English texts. To accommodate this research, first of all, the writer employed survey research. The survey was aimed to collect information about the students’ reading habits of English texts. It was held by distributing a questionnaire to a group of research participants. The second objective was to analyze the contribution of students’ reading habits towards writing cohesion. Therefore, the writer also conducted document analysis in order to analyze the students’ writing cohesion. Next, the writer correlated the students’ reading habits and writing cohesion. Therefore, this research is called a correlational research. According to Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh 2002: 25, “correlational research seeks to examine the strength and direction of relationships among two or more variables.” It relates two or more variables measured from the same group of subjects. In this case, the writer did not have control over both observed variables.

B. Research Setting and Participants

The research took place at Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, to be exact at the English Language Education Study Program. The research subjects were chosen from the target population of the sixth semester students of Writing VI classes of the English Language Education Study Program from 20042005 academic year. There were four classes included. The reason of choosing this target population was the accessibility, since it is located at the same faculty as the writer’s. Ary et al. 2002: 163 define population as “the larger group about which the generalization is made.” Considering certain limitation in time and finance, it seemed impossible to manage all of the students to be the sample of the research. Sample, in a research, refers to “the small group that is observed” Ary et al. 2002: 163. Thus, in order to simplify the population, the writer applied cluster sampling, in which she chose one class out of four Writing VI classes randomly. To sum up, the sample consisted of 32 participants in total. The main reason of choosing the sample was that the students of Writing VI class are required to produce a form of academic writing at the end of the semester. In producing a good academic writing, sufficient and appropriate cohesive devices are highly important. In applying sufficient and appropriate cohesive devices in academic writing, the students’ reading activities have an important role to their writing. Therefore, it was appropriate to choose the students of Writing VI as the sample for the research.

C. Research Instruments