45
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter will provide complete information about research methodology. There will be five major points described in this chapter, namely:
research design, nature of data, research respondents, data gathering techniques, and data analysis techniques.
A. RESEARCH DESIGN
Selecting a suitable research method is not a simple thing. There are considerations in making a decision to select a most suitable research design for a
study. Cohen et al., 2000 highlights that “methods refer to techniques and procedures used in the process of data gathering.” It means that in selecting a
method for their studies researchers have to consider about research questions they have in their studies because the research questions will determine what kind
of data they are going to obtain for their research as well as the techniques and procedures to obtain the required data.
Mentioning the research questions of this study, this study aimed at collecting information to describe and explain the developmental pattern of
grammatical aspects acquisitions in English by Indonesian EFL learners, identifying whether there is a significant development on the grammatical aspects
acquisitions as well as investigating the most problematic grammatical aspects for the EFL learners. In conducting a research, it is necessary to select an appropriate
research design in order to achieve satisfying answers for the research questions.
46 According to Kerlinger 1986 as cited in Wiersma 1991 “ there are two main
purposes of research design: 1 to provide answers to research questions and 2 to control variance”. Hence, the first point implies the importance of choosing the
most appropriate research design to answer the research questions. By choosing a correct and suitable research design then the research questions can be
comprehensively answered. Subsequently, selecting a suitable research design also help the researchers to take control the inconsistency in their study.
Furthermore, research design is also necessary to help the researcher in obtaining the data and interpreting the result of data analysis to answer the research
questions. This study focuses on the developmental pattern of grammatical aspects
acquisitions. In observing the developmental pattern there are two kinds of research designs that can be adopted: the longitudinal design and cross-sectional
design Wiersma, 1991. Each design has its own advantages and disadvantages. As stated by Cohen et al. 2000, in terms of time consumption, the longitudinal
studies require more time compared to a cross-sectional studies as the longitudinal studies obtain data at an extended period of time different with a cross-sectional
study that obtains data in a single period of time. Considering the fact that the whole program of the English Letters
Department takes at least four years or eight semesters then conducting a longitudinal study to investigate the developmental pattern of the acquisitions of
the grammatical aspects by the students is not time efficient, therefore, the writer decides to use a cross-sectional study design. Creswell 2012 adds that in cross-
sectional study design, a researcher is able to collect data at a single point in
47 particular time. The advantage of using this design is that it is able to measure
current attitudes or practice yet the survey and data collection can be administered in short period of time. It means that this cross-sectional study is time efficient.
Borg and Gall 1983 agrees that in a cross-sectional study the data can be gathered in a single point in time and the data gathering can be carried out in a
short period of time. As the population of this study is the students of English Letters Department that requires its students to finish the study in four years or
eight years in average, consequently, conducting a longitudinal study on this subject will need at least four years or eight semesters. Therefore, in order to do
the research efficiently, in the term of time, the researcher decided to use cross- sectional study in order to accommodate the objectives of this study.
B. NATURE OF DATA
The data-gathering instrument of this study is in a form of a written test. The obtained data from the written test result is in a form of test scores. The
scores from the test result are categorized as interval data for its equal difference between each value. Cohen et al. 2000 state that interval data use a ratio scale
that contains absolute zero with equal intervals between each value. The interval data used in this study was obtained from test result scores of 90 students from
three different English proficiency levels, a detailed table of this test score result is presented in Appendix 3. A group of students represented each proficiency
level; in this case, each group of students consisted of 30 students. The scores were divided into two main groups: the score of grammatical aspect usage and the
score of grammatical aspects knowledge. Each group consisted of four groups of scores: score of simple aspect, perfect aspect, progressive aspect and perfect-
Kategori