Place and Time of Research The Subject of the Research Research Methodology

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Place and Time of Research

The research was done in SD Negeri Margorejo 1 No 112, Banjarsari, Surakarta. The school is located at Jl. S. Parman No 135 Surakarta. The research was conducted from 23 rd October to 4 th December 2010. The research was held on Thursday from 09.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. and on Saturday from 08.00 a.m. to 09.00 a.m. Related to the school‟s physical appearance, it has a good building. There are six classrooms, a teacher office, a library, four bathrooms, a canteen and a parking lot. All of the rooms are equipped with fans and ceramic tiles. Overall, they are in good condition and well maintained.

B. The Subject of the Research

The subject of the research was the third grade students of SDN Margorejo 1 No 112, Banjarsari, Surakarta. The third grade consists of 37 students, 18 boys and 19 girls. Their seats are adjusted with their absent number. It is easy for the teacher to recognize her students. Related to the student‟s background, most of them come from the low economy level. Their parents are mostly factory workers and house maid. They also have low educational background. They graduated only from elementary schools. They spend more time at work and less time with their children. It influences students‟ motivation in learning since there is less control from their parents. The reason in choosing the third grade students as the subject of the research is because of commit to user 35 their low vocabulary improvement, whereas in fact they started learning English a year before.

C. Research Methodology

The research was conducted as a classroom action research in collaboration with the English teacher of SD Negeri 1 Margorejo Surakarta in order to improve students‟ vocabulary using games. There are several definitions of action research. Mason and Bramble 1997: 42 write their definition about action research: Research designed to uncover effective ways of dealing with real world problems can be refers to as action research. The action research is not confined to a particular methodology or paradigm. It may utilize qualitative or quantitative methodology or a mixture of both. Meanwhile Ebbut 1985 in Hopkins 1993: 45 defines action research as: add that action research is about the systematic study of attempts to improve educational practice by groups of participants and by means of their own practical actions and by means of own reflection upon the effects of those actions. From the definitions above, an action research is the systematic study of attempts to overcome education problems for betterment done by teacher. The real world problems concern with the problems of students‟ English ability, especially students‟ vocabulary mastery. The new skill or new approach is the technique of running context to overcome students‟ vocabulary mastery or to change the students‟ low vocabulary mastery to be higher than before. commit to user 36 In this research, the action research was conducted in order to improve the students‟ vocabulary by using pictures and games and develop teacher‟s creativity in teaching vocabulary.

D. The Model of Action Research