42
By conducting the interviews, the researcher tried to find out the causes of
the participants’ errors in using the English phrasal verbs, especially in using the separable and the inseparable phrasal verbs, and to ask them about the possible
solutions they may offer. Additionally, the researcher did not only accommodate the causes for errors based on the participants’ personal feeling or attitude, but the
researcher also put emphasis on the causes of errors which were related to the teaching and learning process that the students have experienced.
The interview used by the researcher in this research was a semi-structured interview. The semi-structured interview, according to Borg 1983: 441, is
conducted by first asking a series of structured questions and then probing more deeply using open-ended questions in order to obtain data that are more complete.
Thus, it permits a more thorough understanding of the respondents’ opinions, provides a desirable combination of objectivity, and often permits gathering
valuable data that could not be successfully obtained by any other approach Borg, 1983: 441.
D. Data Gathering Technique
In order to answer the first research questions, the researcher gathered the data from the sixth semester students in the academic year of 20092010. The data
gathering was conducted in Translation II classes. The researcher collected the data by administering the test to students in three Translation II classes. The
researcher used class A for administering the pilot test on May 3, 2010. The real test, then, was administered to class B and C on May 14, 2010. At the days of the
43 test administration the researcher functioned as the supervisor to monitor the
process of the test administration. The time allotment to do the test was thirty 30 minutes. Since the focus of this research was on the sixth semester students, for
those who were not the sixth semester students but taking the class, their tests would be put aside and not scored.
Furthermore, to answer the second research question, the researcher conducted interviews to find out the causes for the errors encountered by the
participants in using the English phrasal verbs. The interview used to gather the data in this research was the semi-structured interview conducted by having face-
to-face interviews. This kind of interview enabled the researcher to clarify the participants’ answers by asking additional questions, as stated by Jaeger 1988:
313. The participants of the interview were chosen from the participants of the test who were considered to have made errors most frequently and variously.
Additionally, through this gathering technique the researcher would like to discover the possible recommendation to improve their mastery of the English
phrasal verbs.
E. Data Analysis Technique
The researcher measured the participants’ mastery of using the English phrasal verbs by scoring the test to find out the students’ results and to identify the
participants errors in using the English phrasal verbs. Then, after scoring the students’ answers, the researcher counted the final score. To obtain the final score,
the total score achieved by each student was divided by the total number of items,
44 and then the result was multiplied by 100. Then, the scores for each student were
classified using a scoring category. Next, the researcher also discussed the errors committed by the
participants in producing the phrasal verbs. The researcher classified the errors and from those errors the researcher could identify the difficulties faced by the
participants in using phrasal verbs. Then, in order to determine the students’ mastery of the English phrasal verbs, the mean score of the test was calculated.
Then, after analyzing the errors, the researcher interviewed five participants who made errors most frequently. The researcher tried to identify the
reasons why the participants made errors in using the English phrasal verbs. From the results of the interview, the researcher could also discover the possible
recommendations that would be useful for improving the participants’ mastery of the production of English phrasal verbs. The results of the interview, thus, were
used to answer the second research question based on the students’ point of view.
F. Research Procedure
