English Language Studies ELS

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, I attempt to give a further explanation on how to conduct the study. There are seven points to be discussed. The first, research method, it discusses the method used in this study. The second is research design which includes the explanation of the research design in this study. The third, instrument, it explains the data gathering instrument for this research. The fourth is text gathering which includes the discussion of how to gather the data. The fifth, text processing, it explains how to describe and interpret the data used in this study. The last is trustworthiness which discusses the trustworthiness of the instruments and findings.

A. Research Method

Referring to the aim of this study – describing and interpreting the lived experience, this study belongs to one of the types of phenomenological study that is hermeneutic phenomenology. In this study, I aimed at describing and interpreting the ELS students’ lived experience of project-based learning. It focuses on the students’ lived experience on the implementation of project-based learning. Van Manen 1990, p.180 stated that hermeneutic phenomenology is trying to be attentive to both terms of its methodology: it is a descriptive phenomenological methodology since it attempts to be attentive to how the things appear, it also attempts to let things speak for themselves; it is interpretive hermeneutic methodology since it validates that there are no such things as uninterpreted phenomena. Furthermore, the lived experience is inevitably an interpretive process. 45 A phenomenology research is to accommodate this research, since its aim is to gather a better understanding of the nature and quality of phenomena as they present themselves Willig, 2008, p.56. Phenomenology research focuses on lived experience which looks at the individual’s or person’s experiences of phenomena. Phenomenology, as one of the research methods of interpretive research, intends to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of meaning of our everyday experiences Van Manen, 1990. It describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or phenomena.

B. Research Design

In this research, I attempted to design the study as a means to tell and reveal problem of human life. There were four aspects covered in this research design; specified goal, context, process, and components as shown in figure below. Figure 3.1. Research Design Research Identity Title: ELS Students’ Lived Experience of Project-Based Learning Specified goal Describing and interpreting the ELS Students’ Lived experience of Project-Based Learning Context 1. Setting: The Graduate Program of English Language Studies ELS, Sanata Dharma