RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Research Setting

1. The Place of the Research

This classroom action research was carried out in SD Negeri Tangkil 1. This elementary school is located in Tangkil village, Sragen. The location of the class is in a quiet settlement environment so it is conducive enough to study since it is not so crowded. It is also a strategic place and easy to be reached since it is near the highway.

SD Negeri Tangkil 1 has six grades of class. Each class consists of 36 up to 40 students. Beside the classrooms, there are many buildings in SD Negeri Tangkil 1. They are teacher office, administration office, library, hall, and cafeterias.

SD Negeri Tangkil 1 uses KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) as the basis of teaching and learning processes. Instructional processes are done in six days from Monday up to Saturday. The students start to learn from 07.00 AM and they finish the lesson at 12.00 AM on Monday to Thursday and on Saturday. While on Friday, they finish it at 11.00.a.m. SD

Negeri Tangkil 1 has a good predicate because it always makes success in

graduating all of the sixth grade students every year. Besides, it gets score “A” for the accreditation and uses a good management system in managing that school.

The research was carried out from February 2010 – February 2011. This research was conducted from the time the researcher did pre-research, did the research, and up to the time when he wrote the thesis.

The complete schedule of the research is provided in the table below: No.

Activity

Time of Research

Preparation of the research Pre research Observation Data collection Report writing Preparation of examination

February-March 2010 April 2010 Nov-Dec 2010 January 2011 February 2011

B. The Subject of the Research

The subject of the research was the third grade students of SD Negeri Tangkil 1 Sragen. This class consists of 36 students: 16 boys and 20 girls. The students of the third grade come from different social and economic backgrounds. Most of their parents work as the official government and farmer. The students of the third grade were cheerful. Yet, there were some students who were shy to actively participate in teaching and learning process.

The researcher chooses the third grade as the subject of the research based on the fact that there were still very passive in teaching learning process. Besides, there was evidence from the pre-test that their achievement in vocabulary was not good enough. The researcher conducted the study through teaching and The researcher chooses the third grade as the subject of the research based on the fact that there were still very passive in teaching learning process. Besides, there was evidence from the pre-test that their achievement in vocabulary was not good enough. The researcher conducted the study through teaching and

C. The Method Of The Research

The research method used in this study is Action Research (AR). Mills (2000: 5) defines action research as systematic inquiry done by the teachers or other individuals in teaching or learning environment to gather information about and subsequently improve the ways their particular school operates, how they teach, and how well the students learn.

The definition of Action Research above can take out a number of common features which can be considered the characteristics of Action Research. Burns (1999: 30) propose the features to characterize Action Research as follows:

a. Action Research is contextual, small-scale and localized – it identifies and investigates problems within a specific situation.

b. It is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change and improvement in practice.

c. It is participatory as it provides for collaborative investigation by teams colleagues, practitioners and researchers.

d. Changes in practice are based on the collection of information or data which provides the impetus for change.

In this research, action research was undertaken in order to solve the problems that appear in teaching English vocabulary. The purpose of the research is to know whether songs improve students’ vocabulary mastery and find out the

1 Sragen. This class Action Research is carried out by the real teacher as observer and researcher as the teacher.

D. Procedure of Action Research

Kemmis and McTaggart in Burns (1999: 32) state that the procedure of each step in this research can be explained as follows:

1. Identify a Problem Area

In this research, the problems will be identified by using three techniques:

a. Pre observation

b. Interview the teacher and the students

c. Pre- Test

2. Planning the Actions After knowing the problems and the cause of it, the next step is planning the action. It is stated as follows:

a. Deciding the topic or the material.

b. Making lesson plan and designing the steps in doing the action

c. Preparing sheets for classroom observation

d. Preparing teaching-aids

e. Preparing camera (to take the pictures of the teaching and learning process)

f. Preparing post-test

The real implementations were conducted as follows:

a. The researcher prepared materials containing some exercises and practices taken and adapted from the books source.

b. The researcher distributed copied material according to the number of the students.

c. The researcher gave short explanation and guided the students to understand, practice and do the exercise of interview technique.

d. The researcher and the students practiced the technique of song to improve students’ vocabulary mastery

4. Observing/ Monitoring the Action The classroom action research was carried out by the researcher and the teacher of the class as the collaborator of the research. The researcher used test, observation, and interviews to the students as the consideration to make a decision dealing with the next steps.

5. Reflecting the Result of the Observation

In this step, the researcher as the classroom teacher made an evaluation and investigation towards the process of teaching and learning.

6. Revising the Plan

Based on the weaknesses of the activities that have been carried out, the researcher revised the plan for the next cycle.

In this research, the researcher collected the data using qualitative and quantitative method. The quantitative data was collected from the students’ vocabulary scores, while qualitative data was collected from observations, interviews, and document analysis.

F. Technique of Analyzing Data

As stated above, there are two kinds of data. They are qualitative data and quantitative data. The qualitative data was analyzed by using descriptive analysis, while the quantitative data was analyzed by comparing the results of the tests.

In analyzing the data in the form of qualitative data, the researcher used descriptive analysis. The function of descriptive analysis is to provide an overview of the data which had been obtained. This general picture can be a reference to look at the characteristics of the data the researcher obtained. The researcher used model of analysis involving collecting the data, reducing the data, presenting the data and drawing conclusion.

The quantitative data was collected in the form of mean score. Then, the data were analyzed by comparing the mean of pre-test and post-test. The mean of the pre-test and the post-test can be yielded with the formulas as follows:

in which: x = means of pre-test scores y = means of post-test scores