Subject of the Study Roles of the Researcher Research Design

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CHAPTER III METHODS OF INVESTIGATION

This chapter discusses the methods of investigation which consists of subject of the study, roles of the researcher, research design, research procedure, research variables, types of data, instruments for obtaining data, procedures of obtaining data, and procedures of analyzing data.

2.3 Subject of the Study

The subject providing the data of this study was the eleventh graders of PGRI 2 Private Vocational School Salatiga. This school is located at Jl. Nakula Sadewa I, Kembang Arum, RT 02, RW 03, Kel. Mangunsari, Kec. Sidomukti, Salatiga. The researcher used class XI D-AP which consisted of 34 students as the sample who still possessed low mastery of grammar based on the data obtained in preliminary observations during the teaching practicum PPL. Moreover, eleventh graders were chosen because the simple past tense was taught at this education level.

2.4 Roles of the Researcher

The researcher played important roles in this research as a teacher who patiently taught the materials to the students and checked their mastery of the simple past tense through tests; a data collector who collected the data obtained from observation, tests, and questionnaire; and a data analyzer who then analyzed the collected data in order to be able to draw any conclusions based on the end results.

2.5 Research Design

Research design refers to the plan that will be used to conduct the study. According to Pollard and Triggs 1997:65 “action research involves researchers, with teachers or other practitioners, in a cyclical process of planning, action, observation, and reflection before beginning the whole process all over again ”. These processes or phases could be elaborated as follows: 1 Planning At this phase, the researcher planned a detailed set of decisions about how to take the action in the future and how to improve an action. What is the actual problem arises in the class? Who will do the action? When will it happen? What are the proposed changes to the learning process? How do I intend to apply my revised teaching methods? This is because it is so much important to find out if the plans are able to be done and to consider how students‟ reactions to the implementation are. 2 Acting At this phase, the researcher implemented the arranged plan in the class. After answering questions at planning phase, I tried to give the treatments to the students in the hope of improving their learning achievements. The researcher also had to make sure that any deviations from the plans had been recorded since reality sometimes could be unpredictable. 3 Observing Observing phase ran along with acting phase. There was a detailed observation, monitoring, and recording during the treatments were given in the classroom. This was used by the researcher to assess how much the improvement of the action was. 4 Reflecting At this phase, the researcher reflected the overall learning process considering the results of the observations. By reflecting, I could make a strong decision whether a replan was truly needed or not.

2.6 Research Procedure