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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Research Settings
The research was conducted in SMP N 4 Magelang. The school is located in Magelang, Central Java. Administratively, SMP N 4 Magelang has 36 teachers
including 4 English teachers, 15 staffs consisting administrative staffs, librarians, laboratory staffs, security, and janitors. This school has 18 classrooms in good condition
also some supporting facilities such as multimedia Lab., science Lab, mosque, canteen, library, and school yards. Then, there is a language laboratory which was not used again
as in every class has been completed with the language laboratory devices such as speaker, LCD and CPU., these devices sometimes do not work well and interrupt the
teaching learning process. The research study was carried out in class VII F in the second semester in the
academic year of 20132014. It was conducted from February to June 2014, starting from the preliminary observation to the implementation of the use of photographs to
enhance the students‟ writing performance of the seventh grade students at SMP N 4 Magelang. The class consisted of 28 students. The number of female students was more
than males. There were 17 females and 11 males. The English subject was held twice a week at Thursday 10.45-11.25, 11.40-12.20 and Saturday 08.30-09.10, 09.25-10.00.
The classroom of grade VII F was quite large. It was supported by some equipment such as white board, LCD, CPU, and speaker. As usual, the students had to
sit in pairs according to the gender. The seats were arranged neatly facing the front in directing the white
board and the teacher‟s desk. Sometimes, students felt little bit uncomfortable regarding the air circulation and the lighting so the teacher turned on the
fan and the lamp.
B. Research Design
This study is an action research study in nature. According to Ebbut, 1985 action research is a study conducted systematically by a group of participants as a way
to improve the quality of education by using particular actions and reflections on those actions. In addition, Burns 1999:30 proposes the characteristics of action research.
First, action research is contextual, small scale and localized as it identifies and investigates problems in a specific situation. Second, this action is aimed to bring about
the change and improvement in practice. Third, it is participatory as it involves collaborative investigations which are consisted of colleagues, practitioners, and
researcher. Fourth, the changes in practice are obtained based on the collection of information or data that provides the thrust for change.
It is assumed that action research as a type of research which aims to improve the ongoing condition in the teaching learning process. Action Research can be done
firstly by finding problems in the field then trying to find some solutions to solve these problems. The emphases of participatory and collaborative nature are empowered in
conducting this research.
The research was conducted collaboratively with the English teacher, students, and three collaborators. The first and second collaborators became the investigator
collaborator during applying the action in class while the third collaborator helped to asses the students writing product in pre test and post test. The team collaborated and
worked together in planning, implementing, and reflecting stages of the study. Some processes including finding a problem, formulating a possible solution, implementing
the actions, and reflecting the result of the actions were conducted. These action research cycles could be drawn in the figure below:
Figure 3.1 Scheme of Actions Research by Kemmis and McTaggart
C. Research Data Collection
1. Type of the data
This research design used both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data were obtained with the scoring rubric adapted from Lindsay Cael from Seattle
Community Collage and 2013 Curriculum. These rubrics were used to assess the students
‟ writing products scores in pre test and post test which were in the form of numeric data. The numeric data showed
the enhancement on students‟ writing performance related to some aspects in writing test. Meanwhile, the qualitative data
were in the form of field notes, questionnaire result and some interview transcripts of teaching and learning process that showed some students existing problem in writing,
and the situation before and after implementing the use of photographs in writing class. In addition, there were some photographs taken to support the data.
2. Techniques in Collecting Data
There were some techniques used in data collection. To gain both of qualitative and quantitative data, four techniques of collecting data were done. To collect the qualitative
data, some interviews, observations, and distributing questionnaire were conducted. Meanwhile, to collect quantitative data testing technique was used. Furthermore, those
techniques are explained as the following:
1 Interview
Some interviews with the English teacher and the students were conducted in order to know the students
‟ difficulties in writing and reflections after using the
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