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In addition, action research is also participatory Burns, 1999: 30. It provides for collaborative investigation by teams of colleagues, practitioners and
researchers. In this research, two English language teachers were also involved in the investigation. They helped the writer in conducting the research. The English
language teacher recorded the progress of the students who were observed using instruments provided by the writer. On the other hand, the another language
teacher also recorded the students’ progress in a different point of view based on the guideline provided by the writer. In addition, their assistance was also to
ensure that the writer could concentrate fully on teaching.
C. Research Instruments
There were four research instruments which were used to obtain the data. The employment of those various instruments was to obtain vast amount of
information and to maintain the validity and the reliability of the research by means of data triangulation. All research instruments are attached on the
appendecies. The first research instrument was field notes. According to Burns 1999: 87, field notes are descriptions and accounts of events in the research
context which are written in a relatively factual and objective style. Similarly, Suparno 2008: 46 adds field notes are used to record everything which is
observed during the research. The field notes were employed to answer all research problems. The employment of the field notes enabled the writer to record
students’ progress and behavior in response to the treatment that the writer gave. In addition, self reflection as one of the most important aspects in action research
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could be maintained in the field notes. The writer wrote the field notes after the class ended. Therefore, whenever the writer wrote the field notes, she could make
a self reflection of her teaching as the basis of improvement of her action on the next meeting. In addition, the writer wrote the field notes for six times.
The second instrument was rating checklists. The rating checklist was used to answer research problem number one and three. According to Johnson as
quoted by Suparno 2008: 49, rating checklist is used to record certain performance and level. In this research, the rating checklist was used to measure
and to see the fluctuation and improvement of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique. In
addition, the writer made criteria of the students’ grammar and pronunciation accuracy to be used as the benchmark. The complete criteria is attached on the
Appendix B. The following table is the rating checklist used in this research.
Table 3.1 Rating Checklist Technique A
Technique B Technique C
Technique D Criteria Criteria Criteria Criteria
Technique Student
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1
2 3
4 5
6
The operation of the rating checklist was also based on the criteria that the writer made. As an example, Student 1 could repeat or alter sentences or answer
teacher’s question correctly with ample teacher’s explanation. Therefore, according to the criteria, the student was categorized in criteria number one. Then,
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the observer would simply put a check mark √ corresponded to the student and
the criteria. Those worked both for grammar and pronunciation accuracy. The third instrument was single lesson time line record. This instrument
was to collect the data to answer all research questions. Hancock and Settle 1990: 103 as cited by Wallace 1998: 59-60 suggests that the value of this instrument
was on the reflective analysis on why the time-line took the particular changes in direction that it did and what might have been done to keep it in the upper sections
of the grid. In this research, this instrument was used to measure whether or not a certain technique could improve students’ accuracy. Therefore, the instrument was
employed in every meeting to monitor the improvement of the students’ accuracy based on the employment of a certain technique. Figure 3.2 depicts the instrument.
Figure 3.2 Single Lesson Time Line Record Sheet
Finally, interview was also employed as one of the instruments in this research. According to Ary, Jacobs and Razavieh 2002: 562 interview is oral
questioning of a subject. Further, interview is used to gather data on subjects’ PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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opinions, beliefs and feelings about situation in their own words. The interview provided information that could not be obtained through observation or it could be
used to verify the observation. This study used semi-structured interview to answer all research problems. The writer prepared questions to be asked to the
students. Those questions provided underlying guideline during the interview. The rationale of using the semi-structured interview was this instrument enabled the
writer to probe in to the students’ answers so that in-depth data could be gathered and thick description be attained. Further, this interview was conducted in the
students’ native language so that data could be elicited in a natural way where language anxiety was taken away. There were six students who were interviewed
at the end of each cycle. Basically, there were three questions asked to the students. Those questions were 1 Do you enjoy the English class?, 2 What was
the technique which improve your grammar or pronunciation accuracy? and 3 Why do you think that technique improve your grammar accuracy?. Because the
interview was conducted to the elementary school students, the writer utilized the students’ language in a way to elicit their answer. The transcripts of the interview
were attached on the Appendix D.
D. Data Gathering Technique
