59 idioms selected by using the results of the first questionnaire and seven
strategies six strategies from the interview and one strategy is outside those six strategies. The questionnaires were administered to larger samples consisting of
30 students. They were asked to choose one or more strategies which could help them to find the meanings of those 15 English idioms. Moreover, they were also
assigned to write the meanings of the idioms so that the researcher could identify whether the strategies could lead them to the correct meanings or not because they
have relation with the purposes of this investigation.
E. Data Analysis Technique
The collected data in quantitative research are mostly in the form of numbers. Fraenkel and Wallen 2008, p. 187 state that there are two types of
numerical data, quantitative data and categorical data. Since this study wants to investigate the major strategies used to process the intended meanings of English
idioms, the data collected were categorical data – what the researcher was looking
for is the frequency. Therefore, frequency tables will be the technique in summarizing the data. There are two main steps that the researcher used in
analyzing the findings, namely counting the data and interpreting the data. 1.
Counting the data After the researcher got the data, the researcher tried to analyze it by
counting the frequency of the results. The frequency was presented in the form of percentage. Moreover, to encourage the readers, the findings are also presented in
the form of tables and charts. In processing the results of the second questionnaire, the researcher categorized the data in table first. After that, by using the formula
60 in figure 3.9, the researcher counted the frequency. Table 3.3 is the example of
how the researcher put the results of categorizing and counting the findings based on the second questionnaire.
f = x 100
Figure 3.9 Formula 3
f = relative frequency
f
x
= frequency of occurrence of the data f
total
= total number of the occurrence
Table 3.3 Table of Frequency No.
Strategies Frequency
Relative Frequency f
1 Using background knowledge of students’ first
language to find the equality or similarity in their mother tongue
2 Using context
3 Using direct translation
4 Creating some imaginations based on the
words 5
Focusing on certain words in the idioms that can help the students to reveal the meaning
6 Relating each word in the idiom to another
word in the idiom – association
7 Using other strategies
2. Interpreting the data
It was insufficient for the readers to only read those numbers or tables because they mean nothing for them. Therefore, the ability to interpret the results
was needed here. Based on the findings, the researcher tried to describe the
61 meanings of those numbers. In interpreting the results, the researcher also used the
results of the interviews to support the results of the questionnaires. And the last was making generalizations. One of the advantages of having survey as the
research design is it allows the researcher to make some generalizations based on findings. Therefore, the results could be used to say the characteristics of the
population.
F. Research Procedure
