Research Design Type of The Research

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design

This research was action research. The aim of the research was to improve the students‘ speaking skill at XI IPS 3 of SMA N 1 Pleret through Alternative Rock Songs. The researcher and the collaborator tried to improve the way of teaching speaking especially by using alternative rock songs to the students. There were two cycles in this research. The researcher planned the action, implemented the action and did reflection in each cycle. In the planning stage, the researcher prepared the lesson plans, the course grid, the pre-test, the post-test 1 and the post-test 2, the observation checklist, interview guidelines and the questionnaire. In implementing the actions, the researcher worked together with the English teacher as a collaborator and the students to identify and to investigate the problems that occurred in the English teaching and learning process. The researcher then did a reflection and continued to the next cycle when the action of the previous cycle was considered unsuccessful.

B. Type of The Research

This study was using Action Research. There are some definitions stated by experts. Bassey 1998 stated action research as an enquiry which is carried out in order to understand, to evaluate, and then to change, in order to improve educational practice. Later, Hopkins 2002 describe that action research 43 combines a substantive act with a research procedure; it is action disciplined by enquiry, a personal attempt at understanding while engaged in a process of improvement and reform. There is another definition that action research is a self-reflective, a flexible methodology, and not merely in terms of being eclectic in research methods but systematic and critical approach to enquiry by participants who are at the same time members of the research community. With the aim is to identify problematic situations or issues considered by the participants to be worthy of investigation in order to bring about critically informed changes in practice and in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out. It is underpinned by democratic principles in that ownership of change is invested in those who conduct the research with small scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention. Or in brief action research can be said as the study of a social situation with the view to improving the quality of the action in it. Carr Kemmis, 1986; Elliott, 1991; Somekh, 1993; van Lier, 1996; in Burns, 2010 Action research itself has some characteristics. Action research is contextual, small-scale and localized —it identifies and investigates problems within a specific situation. It is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change and improvement in practice. It is participatory as it provides for collaborative 44 investigation by teams of colleagues, practitioners and researchers. The last is the changes in practice are based on the collection of information or data which provides the impetus for change. Burns, 1999; Nunan, 1999, in McKay, 2006

C. Research Setting