47 Briefly, the test already met the requirements of an effective test. It was already
valid from the content and the look, and it was also reliable. The test was ready to be administered to the students.
C. Data Gathering Technique
After designing the test, and assuring that it already met the requirements, the researcher administered the test to 2007 students. It was administered in two
classes of sixth semester students in the academic year 2010. It was conducted on 8 and 12 April 2010.
After conducting the test, the researcher classified the sixth semester students’ work and other semester students’ work. The researcher ignored the work of those
who were not 2007 students. In brief, only the sixth semester students’ work was analyzed.
D. Data Analysis Technique
After the data were gathered, they were analyzed. There four steps that the researcher would do in analyzing the data. Those steps were: 1 checking the test
result, 2 counting the percentage of the right answers that occurred in the students’ test, 3 identifying the source of the errors, and 4 comparing the
theories underlying the errors made by students to the Indonesian and English Grammar theories. The first three steps were to find out the concepts that the
students have mastered and the errors made by the students, and the last step was
48 aimed to find out the possible causes of errors. For the first and the second step,
the researcher used Microsoft Excel. The presented data were the students’ answers for each test item, the amount and the percentages of the right answers of
each test item, and the amount and the percentages of the right answers for each article function. The data would show students’ mastery in percentagefor each
function which consisted of four test items. If more than 50 of the test takers answer a test item correctly, the students were said to master the concept
underlying the item. The detail classification of the mastery level was derived from Panduan Akademik of ELESP.
The third step of analyzing the data for the first and second research problem was identifying an error. An error was also determined by comparing the percentage of
a wrong answer, which had highest percentage, with the percentage of the correct answer. If the percentage of the wrong answer was higher or slightly lower below
50 difference that of the right answer, it was called an error, but if the right answer has the highest percentage or there was no other answer which has almost
the same percentage, it was not an error.
After finding out the errors, the researcher compared the theories underlying the students’ errors of articles and several theories of English and Indonesian
Grammar theories. It was aimed to find out the possible causes of errors. The researcher tried to analyze reasons of the errors.
49
E. Research Procedure
