Research Design RESEARCH METHODS

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CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter presents the methods used for conducting the research. It covers research design, research area, research participants, data collection method, and data analysis method.

3.1 Research Design

In general, this research has objectives of describing the generic structure and language features of descriptive text written by junior high school students. As the generic structure of descriptive text consists of identification and description, this research analyzed the identification and description parts of junior high school students’ writings in order to describe the extent to which students develop the contents of both parts. Identification has function to identify person, place or thing to be described, while description has function to describe parts, qualities, and characteristics. With respect to the importance of „simple present tense’ as a language feature of descriptive text, this research analyzed sentences containing simple present tense found in the students’ pieces of writing. In this case, the findings described the extent to which students are able to produce simple present tense correctly. Technically, the findings in this research described the generic structure and the language feature of descriptive text qualitatively. Due to this, this research applied the descriptive qualitative research design. As stated by the Association of Educational Communication and Technology 2001, “descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative”. Descriptive studies are primarily concerned with finding out “what is”, so the research questions of “what and how” are commonly investigated. As a qualitative research, this research examined samples of writing written by junior high school students categorized as high achiever students. The procedures applied in conducting the descriptive qualitative research followed the general procedures of conducting educational research developed by Ary, et al. 2002:428. It consists of : 1 Selecting the research problem; 2 Reviewing the literature on the problem; 3 Designing the research; 4 Collecting data. In this research, the descriptive texts written by junior high school students as the source of the data collected from high achieving students via writing test; 5 Analyzing data. Qualitative analysis was applied in order to find the patterns of generic structure and the language feature of the descriptive text written by junior high school students; 6 Interpreting the findings; 7 Reporting the research findings. The researcher did the seven steps of the research chronologically.

3.2 Research Area