CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the method of the study which is related to the
research design. This study was intended to investigate reading strategies which
were employed by the students in comprehending reading materials, the
similarities and differences of reading strategies and the students’ reasons in
employing those reading strategies as stated in chapter I. The discussions in this
chapter are focused on research site, participants, data collection and data
analysis.
3.1Research Design
3.1.1 Research Site
The study was conducted at one Senior High School in Ternate. The
school was chosen as the setting of the study because it was easy to get the access
and communicate with the English teacher involved in this study. Second, the
school is one of the best in Ternate.
3.1.2 Research participants.
The participants of this research were 30 second grade students. The
researcher took them as the participants of the study because they have experience
in doing reading activities. In selecting the participants, the study used purposeful
sampling to gain the important information from research participants (Alwasilah,
The participants were categorized into lower achiever, middle achiever,
and high achiever students. The students’ achiever categorization levels were
based on their last final grade. The students who got the score ≤ 70 were
categorized as lower achiever students, 70-80 were middle achiever students, and
80 ≥ were high achiever students. The aim of students’ achiever categorization is
to know the various strategies which were employed by the students in
comprehending reading materials.
3.1.3 Data Collection
In collecting the data, the researcher used questionnaires and interviews.
3.1.3.1 Questionnaire
A questionnaire is not just a list of questions or a form to be filled out. It
is scientific instrument of measurement and for collection of particular kinds of
data (Oppenheim, 1982:2). The questionnaire in the study was adapted from SILL
(1990) Version 7.00 which includes Memory, Cognitive, Compensation,
Metacognitive, Affective, and Social reading strategies. The Questionnaire was
used to investigate the students’ strategies in comprehending reading materials. It
contains 30 multiple questions. The questions numbers 1,2,3 covered Memory
strategy, questions numbers 4-15 were used to investigate Cognitive strategy
while the questions numbers 16-24 were used to investigate Metacognitive
strategy. The questions numbers 25,26,27 were used to cover Affective strategy,
and the questions numbers 28,29,30 were used to investigate Social strategies.
No Strategy Group Strategy Questions
1 Memory (1)Associating/ Elaborating; (2) Placing new words
into context; (3) Using imagery 1,2,3
2 Cognitive
(1)Repeating ;(2) Recognizing and using formula and pattern; (3) Practice naturalistically; (4) Skimming; (5) Scanning; (6) Using recourses for receiving messages; (7) Analyzing expression; (8) Reasoning deductively; (9) Translating; (10) Taking notes; (11) Summarizing; (12) Highlighting
4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11,12,13,14,15
3 Compensation (1)Using linguistic clues; (2) Using other clues; 16,17
4 Metacognitive
(1)Organizing; (2) Setting goals and objective;(3) Identifying the purpose of a language task; (4) Planning for a language task; (5) Seeking opportunities; (6) Self monitoring; (7) Self-evaluating;
18,19,20,21,21, 22,23,24
5 Affective (1)Using progressive relaxation; (2) Taking risk
wisely; (3) Writing a language learning diary 25,26,27,
6 Social
(1)Asking for clarification of verification; (2) Cooperate with peers; (3) Developing cultural understanding
28,29,30
The steps of data collection from the questionnaire are as follows: (1) the
researcher visited the principals of the school to ask permission to conduct the
research. (2) after getting the permission from the principal, the researcher made
coordination with the English teacher and students about the time to conduct the
research, (3) the researcher explained the items of questions from the
questionnaire to students before the questionnaire were distributed, (4) the
questionnaires were distributed to the students, then, students answered questions
from questionnaire and (5) The students’ answers from the questionnaires were
analyzed to find out the strategies most frequently used in comprehending reading
materials and the similarities and the differences of reading strategies which were
employed by the students in comprehending reading materials. The questionnaire
3.1.3.2Interview
The aim of the interview in this study is to gain the data about students’
reasons in employing reading strategies to comprehend reading materials. It is
also used to get useful information that can not be covered by the questionnaires,
and permit participants to describe detailed personal information, has better
control over type of information “filtered” through the views of interviewer
(Creswell, 2008:226). An interview is an important way for a researcher to check
the accuracy (Frankel & Wallen, 2007). Esterberg (2002) defines interviews as a
meeting of two persons to exchange information and idea through questions and
responses, resulting in communication and joint construction of meaning about a
particular topic (Esterberg, 2002, in Sugiono, 2008:72). This study used individual
interview to gain factual information, or opinions, and attitudes or narrative about
the students’ reasons in employing reading strategies (Flick et al., 1991, in Kvale,
1996:101) and it was based on semi-structured interview.
This study also used open-ended questions to investigate students’
reasons in employing those reading strategies. Open-ended question permits the
persons being interviewed to respond in their own terms (Patton, 1987:122).
The interviewers in this study were 15 second year students which were
categorized into low, middle, and high achiever students. The researcher used tape
recorder to record the data from interviews because a tape recorder is a part of the
indispensable equipment of evaluators using qualitative method (Patton,
during the interview, notes will consist of primarily of key phrases, list of major
points made by the respondents, and the key terms or words shown quotation
marks that capture the interviewee’s own language (Patton, 1987:138). The
questions in the interview also consist of 30 questions.
The questions numbers 1,2,3 from the interview covered the students’
reasons in using memory strategy, questions numbers 4-15 were used to
investigate the students’ reasons in employing cognitive strategy while the
questions numbers 16-24 were used to find the students’ reasons in using
metacognitive strategy. The questions numbers 25,26,27 in this questionnaire
were used to cover students’ reasons in employing affective strategy, and the last
questions numbers 28,29,30 were used to find the students reasons in using social
strategy. All questions and strategies can be seen from the table below while the
interview protocol can be seen in appendix (2).
3.1.4 Data analysis
The data from questionnaire were analyzed by using Likert scale. Fraenkel
and Wallen (2007:127) named this scale as attitude scale. In addition, the basic
assumption that underlines all attitude scale is that it is possible to discover
attitudes by asking individual to respond to a series of statement. This scale also
can be used to measure a subject’s attitude toward a particular concept. Beside
attitude as stated by Fraenkel and Wallen (2007), the use of Likert scale is also
supported by Sugiyono (2008:134) who states that Likert scale is used to measure
attitude, opinion, and perception.
In this scale, the students were asked to answer each items of the
questionnaire based on five possible options provided: always, frequently/usually,
sometime, rarely and never. Each answer has its own score starting from 5 point
to 1 point. One point means that participants never used that kind of reading
strategy in comprehending reading text. Two points mean the participants rarely
used such strategy. Three points mean the participants sometime used, four points
mean the strategy is frequently/usually used and five points is for always used.
The scale of questionnaire and profile result can be seen from the table below.
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The data from students’ mean in their reading strategies were converted into
frequency scale. In this study, the scale was categorized into three scales as
follows: High, Medium, and Low. The students would be categorized into High
scale in employing reading strategies if they got the average of mean in 4.5 to 5.0.
The students who got the average of mean in 3.5 to 4.5 were categorized into
Medium while the students who got the average of mean in 1.5 to 2.4 and 1.0 to
1.4 were categorized into Low scale. The data about frequency, scale point and
categorization (SILL profile result) can be seen from table below.
SILL Profile of Result
This study used five main approaches to analyze the data from interview
(Kvale, 1996:187), namely: categorization of meaning, condensation, structuring,
interpreting of meaning through narratives, interpretation of meaning and ad hoc
methods for generating meaning. The analysis was based on the research question
number 3 as stated in chapter I which is related to the student’s reasons to employ
reading strategies in comprehending reading materials. The data analysis process
from interview in this study include: (a) the interview data from recording were
transcribed, (b) in transcribing the interview data, the name of respondents were
coded to protect them confidently, (c) in order to avoid the misinterpretation
between the participants’ responses and the researcher when conducting
suggested by Alwasilah (2009:178), (d) the interview data were interpreted to
answer research questions and compared to the theory underpinning the study and
(e) the data from interview were used to gain indepth information concerning to
the research questions.
3.1.5 Chapter Summary
This chapter has discussed the research design. In collecting the data, the
study used a qualitative method such as questionnaire and interview. The data
from questionnaire were analyzed by using Likert scale while the data from
interview were analyzed by using categorization of meaning, condensation,
