Data of the Study Procedures for Data Collection

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3.5 Data of the Study

The data of the study were the oral performance of Mr. Sudiyono, the subject of the study who was on duty as a Pranatacara for one wedding reception held on May 4, 2007. The data were taken from a natural setting in which the subject performed his duty as a Pranatacara the way he did. The study did not rely exclusively on one type of data. To gain supplementary data, field notes were employed for the reason that both videotape and cassette recorders may miss the sight, smell, the impression and extra remarks said before and after Bogdan and Biklen 1982:74. In this respect, field notes became central to participant observation. The field notes consisted of written accounts of what I heard, saw, experienced and thought in the course of collecting and reflecting the data. Therefore, the field notes could be described as containing objective, subjective and reflective descriptions. For the sake of expert judgement See 3.7 below, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the subject himself and some other scholars of the subject-matter. In the interview I used both Indonesian and Javanese interchangeably to guarantee clarity and detailed information. 124

3.6 Data Collection

As previously stated, the data for this study consist of three types, namely 1 oral performance of the subject on duty as a Pranatacara, 2 field notes of both objective and reflective descriptions, and 3 cassette recorded semi-structured interviews with the subject and expert judges.

3.6.1 Oral Performance

The oral performance of the subject on duty as Pranatacara took place on May 4, 2007. To record the oral performance, I had to be present in the wedding reception upon permission by both the subject and the people involved. There was no problem since I had been given the schedule of performance by the subject, Mr. Sudiyono. Soon upon completion of the videotaping and cassette recording activities, the recorded data were then transcribed. To replay the cassettes and to have better listening to them, a bigger cassette player, Sony CFS-777S was used. The transcription was stored in a Nexus USB 2.0 Flash-Drive 512 MB and later printed out and attached in Appendix. The transcript was given a label with information of 1 the event, 2 the speaker, 3 the date and 5 the setting. It was about 7 pages length with one and half spaced line. At first, the transcript was designed to be classified into stages of Pranatacara genre. Type A consists of general introductory remarks by Pranatacara. Type B consists of the oral performance during Panggih. Type C consists of the oral performance during Kacar-kucur. Type D consists of the oral performance during Dulangan. Type E consists of the oral performance during Timbangan. And Type F consists of the oral performance during Sungkeman. 125 However, the facts in the field turned otherwise. The stages of Pranatacara genre were different from those stated above because the wedding reception was Tumplak Punjen, namely to mark the marriage of the youngest daughter of Mrs. Veronika Sukerman. The reception of Tumplak Punjen eliminated some stages, namely Panggih, Kacar-kucur, Dulangan, Timbangan and Sungkeman. The last mentioned stage Sungkeman is actually similar to the ritual of Tumplak Punjen. The only difference is that in Tumplak Punjen several married couples perform ‘respects’ to their parents one after another, ending in the newly wedded couple; while Sungkeman is normally performed by the newly married couple.

3.6.2 Passive Participation

A technique of passive participation was employed for the study in order for me, the researcher, to write out field notes consisting of objective and reflective descriptions. The objective descriptions include what was seen, heard, and experienced during the wedding reception. Meanwhile, the reflective descriptions deal with my ideas, impressions, feelings, hunches, comments, etc. which emerged while the activities being observed were on going. For the purpose of data collection, I was present in the wedding reception but of course did not involve in the activities. A video-tape and cassette recorder operator was employed to record the audiovisual activities in the wedding reception. I was particularly involved in field note taking. While the passive participation was conducted, field notes were developed. In accordance with the suggestions by Bogdan and Biklen 1982:85-6, the field notes for 126 this study include 1 portraits of the subject, 2 description of physical setting, 3 accounts of particular behaviours, 4 depiction of activities, and 5 my reflection. The portraits of the subject include the description of the subject in terms of his expertise in Pranatacara genre, oral performance and physical attributes. The physical setting description shows the physical condition of the place where the wedding reception was held, including the arrangement of furniture, and the positions of the people involved during the process of each stage of Pranatacara genre. Accounts of particular behaviours include the behaviours of those who were involved in each stage of Pranatacara genre. The depiction of the activities include the detail of the proceeding, any action done by those involved in the wedding reception. While my reflection focuses on what I saw, heard, felt and experienced during my passive participation. The data in the form of fieldnotes were coded as FN.

3.6.3 Interviews

It is argued that interviews may be employed in conjunction with participant observation, document analysis, or other techniques of data collection Bogdan and Biklen 1983:135. In this study, a preliminary interview with the subject, Mr. sudiyono was done at 05.30- 06.30 p.m., on Tuesday, March 27 2007 in the house of Mr. Sudiyono, at Dadimulyo RT. 03RW 05 Gergunung, Klaten Utara. The interview dealt with the detail of the subject’s personal and professional background, the philosophy of Javanese wedding reception and the minimal requirements for a good Pranatacara. 127 Other interviews with experts of the subject matters were conducted to cross- check the data validation and to get other possible supplementary data in terms of different pragmatic paradigms.

3.7 Procedures for Data Collection

The purposive data collection method was used in the study. The subject on duty was videotaped and tape-recorded on one occasion according to the schedule of the job. In other words, the data were collected at one wedding reception. The steps of data collection include a number of activities, such as: 1 Scheduling In this step, I contacted the subject to note the schedules of activities. Normally, Mr. Sudiyono as a professional Pranatacara has his own schedule of performance during the months of wedding season. 2 Recording videotaping As scheduled, I would be present at the wedding reception, upon approval of the people on duty. I would be ready for the necessary instruments along with the operator to facilitate the process of recording and videotaping. I was also ready to record everything possible in my field notes. 3 Transcribing The recorded data were transcribed by means of Roman alphabets and in accordance with the standard spelling as used in Kamus Basa Jawa Javanese Dictionary by Tim Penyusun Balai Bahasa Yogyakarta 2001 to represent the Javanese text. However, such representation was only used in the data 128 analysis. Javanese texts quoted from other resources throughout the study maintained to adopt the Javanese spelling system as used by the resources. For ease of comprehension, English translation and or transliteration was also provided for non-Javanese readers. At this stage, the data were ready for analysis. 4 Data Verification Upon completion of the transcription process, the data were shown to the subject to convince that the data were correct. In addition, informal and yet in-depth interview was also conducted to supplement the existing data.

3.8 Corpus Enhancement Triangulation