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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Research Design
This study is classroom action research. According to Burns 2010: 2, action research is related to the ideas of ‘reflective practice’ and ‘the teacher as researcher’.
Further, he also says that action research involves taking a self-reflective, critical, and systematic approach to exploring teaching contexts.
Burns 2010: 6 claims that for a teacher who is reflective, and committed to developing as a thinking professional, action research is an appealing way to look
more closely at puzzling classroom issues or to delve into teaching dilemmas. Action research also encourages teachers “to reach their own solutions and conclusions and
this is far more attractive and has more impact than being presented with ideals which cannot be attained” Burns, 1999, p.7 in Burns, 2010, p. 7. Burns 2010: 7 adds that
doing action research can reinvigorate our teaching, lead to positive change, raise our awareness of the complexities of our work, and show us what drives our personal
approaches to teaching.
Figure 1: Cyclical AR model based on Kemmis and McTaggart 1988 in Burns 2010: 9
The study was conducted to improve speaking skills of grade VIII students of MTs N Ngemplak by using research procedures proposed by Kemmis and
McTaggart; planning, action, observing and reflecting. There were two cycles that were carried out in the study. After the first cycle was conducted, the researcher did
reflection and revision to prepare the next cycle to make better improvement in teaching speaking by applying communicative games.
B. Research Setting
The study was conducted in MTs N Ngemplak. It is located in Kelurahan Wedomartani, Kecamatan Ngemplak, Kabupaten Sleman, DI Yogyakarta. This
school implements two different curricula. Grade VII students use the curriculum of 2013, while grade VIII and IX students use KTSP. The study was conducted in this
school because firstly, based on the observation, it was found that students’ speaking
skills are still low. The next reason is that the researcher did the teaching practice PPL in that school.
The school is divided into some rooms which function differently. There are fifteen classrooms. Each grade has five classrooms starting from class A to class E.
There is one teachers’ room, one headmaster’s room, and one administration room. There is one library in the front part of the school building, one language laboratory
that seems to be used very rarely, one computer laboratory, one biology laboratory, one sport room which functions to store all sport stuffs, and one prayer room
mushola next to the library. There is one counselling room and one UKS room as well.
The focus of this study is to improve the speaking skills of the grade VIII students using communicative games. This study was conducted in the second
semester in the academic year of 20142015. The schedule of conducting the study was suited with the schedule of English subject of the targeted class. Each meeting
lasted 80 minutes. One cycle consisted of three meetings, so the whole section was six meetings.
C. Research Subjects
Subjects of this research were the grade VIII students of MTs N Ngemplak in the academic year of 20142015. The researcher took one class as the sample of the
population, which was VIII B class. The class consists of 34 students.
D. Research Participants
This research involved some participants. The researcher herself acted as the practitioner who conducted the research. The English teacher was the collaborator of
the researcher who gave feedback and comments at the end of the implementation. The students of VIII B class of MTs N Ngemplak were the targets of the research.
E. Data Collection
The researcher collected data through observation, interview and test. The observation was done when teaching-learning process was running. The observation
was conducted to gain information about the class situation, students, media, methods used by the teacher and to know whether the objectives of the teaching-learning were
achieved or not. The researcher also conducted interview with the English teacher and the students. This was to dig further information personally about the English
teaching-learning process. And the last data collection technique was testing. The preliminary activity conducted to know the English speaking skill of the students was
pre-test. It was conducted before the cycle 1 was implemented. And the last was post- test which was aimed to find out whether the method that the researcher proposed
improved the students’ speaking skills or not. At the end, the results of both pre- and
post-test would be compared.
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