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C. Research Participants
The participants of this research were students of VIIID in SMPN 1 Wungu. The class consisted of 10 female students and 9 male students. The
academic year was 20122013. At that time, they were at the second semester of eighth grade and they were learning the materials of a recount text. Then, in the
preliminary study, the researcher found that they had some problems in writing a recount text
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
There were some instruments used by the researcher during this research. They were field notes, questionnaires, interviews, observation checklist, and the
students‟ diaries.
1. Field Notes
The researcher made the field notes when the strategy was implemented in the classroom. She obser
ved the students‟ improvement overcoming their problems in writing a recount text during the implementation of weekly diary
assignment followed by the teachers‟ feedback. According to Dovey 2012 field
notes itself is Notes made by the researcher in the course of qualitative fieldwork, often
observations of participants, locations or events. These may constitute the whole data collected for a project as in an observational project or add to
it as when field notes supplement conventional interview data As cited in Wallace, 1998, P. 120.
When the researcher conducted the preliminary study, she also used field notes as the instrument to observe the teacher in classroom.
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Besides, the researcher always used it during taking action in the class like taking notes some information as date time, class, number present, absentees,
work done, homework, etc., as cited by Wallace 1998. Wallace 1998 also states that field notes could help the researcher to
prevent her hard-won experience, ebbing away and being lost in the tide of pressur
es caused by „getting on with the next thing‟ p. 58.
2. Questionnaires
The researcher distributed questionnaires twice during this research. The first questionnaire was distributed for all of the students in the preliminary study
to convince what the real problems which were faced by the students were. The second questionnaire was distributed for all of the students at the end of the
research to know whether the implementation of weekly diary assignment improved students‟ writing abilities in writing a recount text or not.
These are the sample of the questionnaires:
Table 3.1 The Sample of Questionnaire in Preliminary Study
No. Pernyataan
SANGAT TIDAK
SETUJU TIDAK
SETUJU SETUJU
SANGAT SETUJU
1. Saya
menyukai kegiatan
menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris Jelaskan alasanmu
2. Kemampuan menulis Bahasa
Inggris saya sangat baik 3.
Saya selalu mendapatkan nilai yang
baik pada
kegiatan menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris
4. Saya
pernah menuliskan
pengalaman masa lalu saya dalam Bahasa Inggris
5. Saya mempunyai kendala pada
saat menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris
terutama menulis
tentang pengalaman masa lalu
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Table 3.2 The Sample of Questionnaire at the end of the Third Cycle
No. Pernyataan
SANGAT TIDAK
SETUJU TIDAK
SETUJU SETUJU
SANGAT SETUJU
1. Saya semakin menyukai pelajaran Bahasa
Inggris. 2.
Menulis dalam Bahasa Inggris adalah kegiatan yang semakin menyenangkan untuk saya.
3. Menulis
pengalaman pribadi
berbentuk recount
dalam diary adalah hal yang menarik. 4.
Saya mengerjakan sendiri tugas weekly diary dengan tertib. 2x seminggu
5. Weekly
diary banyak
membantu saya
meningkatkan kemampuan menulis saya, terutama menulis pengalaman pribadi dalam
bahasa Inggris berbentuk recount.
Wallace 1998 states “we use questionnaires and interviews when we
want to tap into the knowledge, opinions, ideas, and experiences of our learners, fellow teachers, parents,
or whatever” p. 124. In other words, the researcher wanted to know students‟ opinion based on their experiences during the
implementation of weekly diary assignment. Wallace 1998, p. 124 also adds that questionnaires are more effective than the other instrument because it can save the
time and structured systematically. Burns 2009 divides questionnaires into three types as cited by
Nugroho, 2011, p. 35. They are closed items, scaled items, and open-ended items. The researcher used scale items as the form of each questionnaire. She used
Likert Scale which consists of four scales, such as strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Besides, the researcher completed the questionnaires with
some questions which are included into open-ended items.
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3. Interviews