43 those whose understanding of prepositions at, in, and on is high would obtain high
score in the test. c
Test the hypothesis Finally, the hypothesis made by the researcher was tested by administering
the test to the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program. It was expected that the test could really measure what it was supposed
to measure, as it is mentioned in content validity. Thus, the test in this study has construct validity.
3. The face validity
A test is said to have face validity if the test looks as if it measures what it is supposed to measure Hughes, 1989: 27. Face validity is the extent to which
students view the assessment as fair, relevant, and useful for improving learning Gronlund, 1998:120. If the test items look right to the other persons, then it can
be described as having face validity Heaton, 1975: 156. Before the researcher conducted the test to the research participants, she consulted the test to her thesis
sponsor and some of her friends who have already become teachers in schools and English courses. By seeing the items included in the test, they agreed that this test
seemed to measure what it was intended to measure.
b. Reliability of the Test
According to Fraenkel and Wallen 1993: 147, reliability is the extent to which a measuring device is consistent in measuring whatever it measures. For
further information about the reliability of a test, Heaton 1975: 155 states that
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
44 reliability is the characteristic of a good test. For it to be valid at all, a test must be
reliable as a measuring instrument. It refers to the stability of the test result. A test is considered to be reliable when the scores, which were gained in the test, are
similar to those which will be gained if the test is administered to the same students at a different time.
Concerning the reliability of the test used in this research, the researcher employed one of the reliability types, namely Kuder-Richardson 20 formula. To
measure the reliability of the test, the researcher administered a pilot test to the students of Translation I class B of the English Language Education Study
Program. Then, the result of the pilot test was analyzed through Kuder-Richardson 20 formula Ebel, 1979: 279. The formula is:
k ∑ pq
r = 1 -
k – 1 σ²
where r
: reliability of the test k
: number of items in the test ∑ pq : the mean of the sample
σ² : the variance of the sample
Ary et al. 1979: 210, as cited in their book entitled Introduction to Research in Education, said that the coefficient of the reliability can range from 1,
when there is no error in the measurement, to 0, when the measurement of all items in the test is error. If the reliability coefficient is near to 1, the instrument
has high reliability. On the contrary, if the reliability coefficient is near to 0, the instrument has low reliability.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
45 Then, in order to determine the level of reliability of the test, the researcher
used the classification proposed by John W. Best 1977: 257. The classification is presented in Table 3.3.
Table 3.3 Best’s Reliability Classification
The level of reliability Criteria
0.00 – 0.20 Negliable
0.20 - 0.40 Low
0.40 – 0.60 Moderate
0.60 – 0.80 Substantial
0.80 – 1.00 High to Very High
The results of pilot test, which were administered to the students of Translation I class B, had shown that the reliability coefficient of the test was
0,97. Based on the classification above, this result indicates that the test had very high reliability. As the first problem formulation of this research is referred to the
students’ mastery of prepositions at, in, and on, the descriptive statistics are also employed in this research. It was done by finding out the Mean and Standard
Deviation to know the average score of the fifth semester students and to obtain the most stable measure of variability. To calculate the Mean and Standard
Deviation, Brown 1988: 66 gives the following formula:
Mean X = ΣX
N where
N = the total number of subjects ΣX = the sum of the students’ scores on the test
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
46 _________
SD = √ Σ X-M²
N where
SD = the Standard Deviation
X = the values
M = the mean of the values
N = the total number of subjects
2. Questionnaire
