Reading Test Data Collection Method

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3.5 Data Collection Method

In this research, there were two kinds of data collected, namely primary data and supporting data. The primary data were collected by using reading comprehension test and observation checklist in each cycle. Meanwhile, interview and documentation were used to collect the supporting data. The data collection method used in this research will be explained in detail in the following parts.

3.5.1 Reading Test

In this research, test would be used to collect the primary data dealing with the grade VIII- C students’ score of reading comprehension. McMillan 1992:114 states that a test is an instrument that presents to each subject a standard set of questions that requires the completion of a cognitive task. In addition, Arikunto 2006:223 defines that test is a set of questions to measure skill, intelligent ability, knowledge, ability, or talent of individual or group. Moreover, Hughes 2003:11 defines that there are four types of tests covering proficiency test, achievement test, diagnostic test, and placement test. For gaining the primary data, the researcher used an achievement test in this research. According to Hughes 2003:13, an achievement test is directly related to language course that has a purpose to establish how successful individual students, group of students, or the courses themselves have been in achieving the teaching objectives. Therefore, the achievement test in this research is administered after the students are taught reading comprehension by using NHT technique. According to Heaton 1991:164 a good test must have validity and reliability. Validity has been defined as referring to the appropriateness, correctness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific inferences researchers make based on the data they collect Fraenkel and Wallen, 2012:148. In this research, content validity was used because the content of the test will represent the indicators measure. Hughes 2003:26 states that, a test is said valid if it measures accurately what is supposed to be measured. Based on those two definitions, it could be concluded that a test is said valid if it measures what should be measured. In relation to the reliability, Hughes 2003:36 indicates that 30 reliability refers to test result consistency. This research used the content validity. In addition, Hughes 2003:42 defines that to be valid a test must provide consistently accurate measurements, it must therefore be reliable. In other words, a valid test is also reliable. In this research, the researcher discussed with the English teacher of MTs N Arjasa to construct the achievement test. According to Hughes 2003:19, there are two kinds of test based on the method of scoring; they are objective and subjective test. Moreover, it is stated that there is no judgment required on the part of the scorer, and then the scoring is objective. Meanwhile, when there is judgment called for, the scoring is said to be subjective. The test forms that used in this research were Multiple-Choice and True-False statement. Hughes 2003:143 confirms that objective test is more practical and easier to do. It means that the students had to choose one correct answer based on the text given. Besides, it helped the researcher for scoring the test consistently and did not take longer time because there was only one correct answer on each test item. The students were given a reading comprehension test after doing the action on each cycle. There were 30 items in the reading comprehension test. 20 questions were given in the form of multiple choice, and 10 questions in the form of True-False statement. It covered 8 items identifying word comprehension, 8 items identifying sentence comprehension, 6 items identifying paragraph comprehension, and 8 items identifying text comprehension. Therefore, the total items of the reading comprehension test were 30. The total items of identifying paragraph comprehension were not equal because in each reading text, there were 5 paragraphs in one text. It made the researcher construct fewer questions of paragraph comprehensions to avoid two or more items that had the same answer. The number of narrative text that was used in the reading comprehension test was two texts in one test, in which 15 items were from reading text one and the other items were from reading text two. In the reading text one, items number 1 – 10 were in the form of multiple choice and items number 11 – 15 were in the form of True- False statement.While in the reading text two, items number 16 – 25 were in 31 the form of multiple choice and items number 26 – 30 were in the form of True – False statement. The tittles of the text were “The Crow and the Oyster” and “The Fox and the Crow”. They were taken from My Favorite Fables- Kuala Lumpur. The time given to administer the reading comprehension test was 60 minutes. Dealing with the scoring, each correct answer was scored 1. While, the wrong answer was scored 0. So the maximum score was 30. The final score would be calculated as the following formula: = Notes : E = Final score n = the total number of correct answers N = the maximum score 30 For example, if Anita got correct answers 20, her final score calculated as follow: = x 100 Therefore, Anita’s final score was 66.6. The data gaining from reading comprehension test were analyzed quantitatively by using two formulas for getting the mean score and finding the percentage of the students who get at least 75, since 75 was the standard minimum score of MTs N Arjasa.

3.5.2 Observation