The Method of Research

1. Pre-test The writer held the pre-test at the first meeting. Before the students learnt reading descriptive text through collaborative learning, she gave them a pre-test measuring the dependent variable. 2. Post-test The writer gave the post-test after the treatment had been given by collaborative learning towards students’ ability in reading descriptive text. This test for measuring the dependent variable again. Before administering the test, the writer tried the pre-test instrument to another class. She wanted to analyze the validity and the reliability of pre-test instrument in order to check whether it had been good or not to be used. She used software ANATEST to calculate both validity and reliability of the pre-test instrument. The pre-test instrument consisted of 30 questions of multiple choices. The writer just took 20 questions were valid and reliable. Based on the results of validity and reliability at the seventh grade students of SMP Pelita Harapan which used software ANATEST, there were 26 questions were valid and reliable from 30 questions. The questions were valid and reliable: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, and 30. Meanwhile, the questions were not valid and reliable: 3, 13, 23, and 27. For the details of ANATEST’s calculation, it can be seen in appendix 10.

F. The Technique of Data Analysis

The data was obtained from the tests used to know how effective collaborative learning towards students’ ability in reading descriptive text. It was gained from the students’ pre-test and post-test scores. To find out the effectiveness of using collaborative learning towards students’ ability in reading descriptive text, the writer used t-test formula which was adapted from Anas Sudijono. Before using t-test formula, the writer had to seek some formulas below. 4 4 Anas Sudijono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada, 2008, p. 305-307.