33 looked like. Second, was to obtain information about the levels of thinking skill
employed in the three consecutive years of Junior High School English UN.
2. Defining the Terms
The researcher defined the important terms of this research to avoid misconception. As Fraenkel and Wallen 2006, pp. 485
– 486 state that researchers as in all research might incur misunderstanding, the important terms
must be defined. Consequently, there are two important terms in this research to define. First is UN abbreviated from Ujian Nasional. The term UN was important
to be defined because it was one of many examinations which were held in Indonesia. The definition of the term UN helped the readers avoid
misunderstanding about what kind of test UN was. Second, “English test items”
was another important term in this research. It was important to define because it would frequently appear in each chapter of this research. It helped the reader also
not to assume that the term “items” was the test questions. Briefly, the researcher defined the term “English test items” as the English reading passages along with
their following questions since Junior High School English UN consisted of reading passages and questions.
3. Locating the Relevant Data
The researcher located the relevant data based on the objective of this research. As Fraenkel and Wallen 2006, p. 486 argue, researchers located the
data after they defined the research objectives clearly. Therefore, the researcher used the three consecutive years of Junior High School English UN items as the
34 located data. The researcher used that data since the objective of this research was
to describe Junior High School English UN.
4. Developing a Sampling
The researcher developed a purposive sampling in this research. The researcher then chose 10 greeting card, 19 letter and 31 filling-gap texts along
with 183 following questions. The researcher intentionally determined the sample because it had specific reasons which supported the topic she investigated. As
Fraenkel and Wallen 2006, p. 100 state, researchers could use a purposive sampling to determine the sample which specifically supported the purposes of the
research.
5. Formulating Coding Categories
The research conducted two coding processes in this research. It was because the researcher applied two techniques when determining the coding
categories. The researcher determined the coding categories to gather the data about the levels of thinking employed in the three consecutive years of Junior
High School English UN before any analysis began. Fraenkel and Wallen 2006, p. 485 argue, researchers could determine the categories before any analysis
began.
6. Reliability and Validity
Reliability and validity were process to measure the consistency, correctness and meaningfulness of the data collecting process which had been
conducted Fraenkel Wallen, 2006, p. 150. This research used triangulation techniques to check how reliable and valid the data was. Campbell and Fiske
