Participants of the Study Issue Under the Study

CHAPTER III METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

3.1 Participants of the Study

Participants of the study deal with population. The definitions of population are given in many books. According to Arikunto 2006: 130, population is the whole subject of the research. In line with Arikunto, Tuckman 1978: 227 says that the population is that group about which the researcher is interested in gaining information and drawing conclusion. Thus, population is the group which will be taken as the data source in our research. The population in this study is the year eighth students of SMP N Kesesi Pekalongan, in academic year of 20082009.

3.2 Issue Under the Study

In conducting a research, sources of the data are very important to collect the data. As stated by Arikunto 2006: 129 that the sources of the data in the research is the subject from whom the data can be obtained. In this study the writer used an action research procedure in order to get the required data. In gathering the data, the writer used three ways. Here are the instruments of collecting data: 1 Test There are two kinds of test instruments used to measure the four language skills of the students, namely the objective test and the essay test Harris, 1969: 30 71. Harris makes comparison between the objective and the essay test writing which can be concluded that as both objective test and composition test have their own special strength, the ideal practice is understandable to measure the writing skill with combination of both types. The writer conducted an essay test to collect the data in this study. 2 Questionnaire Questionnaire is a number of written questions used to get information from respondents Arikunto, 2006: 151. A questionnaire is basically a list of questions one wants to ask other people. It is one way of checking whether other participants in the same situation would give the same answer to the kind of question one has asked oneself on a checklist. In constructing the questionnaires, the writer used closed questionnaire. It means that the respondents answer the question by choosing one of the answers given by the researcher. In this study the writer used questionnaire to get additional information about the students’ reflection toward the learning activities using cooperative learning. 3 Observation Form Observation is usually used to get some information from an action. In this study, the observation form used was observation sheet. It was used to know the way how the teacher conveyed and managed the classroom. In addition, the writer also observed the students’ motivation before and after the teaching learning process. In this section, the writer invited a partner in the classroom. The partner was the English teacher in that class. 4 Field Notes The field notes in this study were used to know the activities during the teaching and learning process, such as how the teacher carried out the material and the students’ response. In using field notes, the writer systematically kept notes of the classroom. For example: 1 Students’ participation In this study, the writer analyzed the students’ participation in the teaching and learning activities by using cooperative learning, whether they followed all the activities or perhaps they only followed some of the activities. 2 Students’ interest and motivation In doing this study, the writer took notes of the students’ interest and motivation in learning English using cooperative learning and writing descriptive text. If the students enjoyed the activities and liked the technique given to them, the writer concluded that the students were interested and motivated in writing descriptive text using STAD technique. 3 Students’ improvement in writing descriptive text After the writer presented the STAD technique, she took some notes about the students’ ability in writing a descriptive text.

3.3 Instruments of the Study