CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides the methodology used, divided into four main parts, which consists of research design, research site and participants, data collection procedure, and the data analyses. A brief explanation about the operational definition, regarding this research, is also included.
3.1 Research Problem
This study was intended to identify the effects of types of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) towards their motivation for learning English in 7th and 8th grade students at one of the private secondary schools in Bandung. Moreover, it aimed at analyzing the students’ perception towards the after-school programs or activities they attend, participate, or do on their reasons for learning English. Therefore, this study is guided by the following questions:
1. What type of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) could be students’ primary motivation in English learning which may affect their academic achievement?
2. What are students’ perceptions towards after-school activities and reasons for learning English?
3.2 Research Design
Moreover, a phenomenology research design was applied. Phenomenology as a research design is also known as an educational qualitative research design (Ponce, 2014; Creswell, 2013; Marshall & Rossman, 2010; in Padilla-Díaz, 2015). A phenomenological research is a strategy of inquiry in which researchers identify the essence of human experiences about a phenomenon, as described by participants (Creswell, 2009) and is basically concerned with social aspects and developing explanations of social phenomena, including understanding the world in which people live, besides seeking why things are the way they are (Groenewald, 2004). In line with this, Joubish et.al (2011) emphasized that it deals with phenomena that are difficult or even impossible to quantify mathematically, such as beliefs, meanings, attributes, and symbols.
Based on the aforementioned brief explanation of the qualitative study, the design used in this present study aims at discovering the phenomena of students attending or participating after-school programs or activities and their perceptions towards motivation for learning English.
3.3 Research Site and the Participants
the variety of after-school activities related to learning are insufficient, it was decided that the research site would not be conducted there.
Finally, the researcher was offered to replace an English teacher in this private secondary school in Bandung. Thus, while doing another work to earn a living, she decided to conduct the research there. Moreover, the school was said to be an RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional) or, it could be said that it is a kind of semi-international school so it is expected that it would be open for research and there would be many students who use English.
In conclusion, the research site was a private junior high school in Bandung where English is taught along with a practice of English speaking, provided by English Conversation subject. Besides English subject, several other languages are also taught as compulsory subjects. They are Bahasa Indonesia (as the national language used), Bahasa Sunda (as the determined local language to be learnt), and Bahasa Jepang (Japanese, as another compulsory subject of foreign language). Arabic is also taught as compulsory subject likely for Muslim students. However, the name of the subject is BTAQ (Baca Tulis Al Quran – Reading Writing Al Quran) instead of Arabic. It can be said that three foreign languages are taught as compulsory subjects at the school. However, it can be inferred that English is the main foreign language to be learnt because time allocation provided for English subject is longer than the subject of Japanese and BTAQ.
The participants in this research study were coming from the 7th and 8th grade students. Students from the 9th grade were not allowed to be involved in this research. It was based on the information stated, both directly and indirectly, by the vice principal, other English teachers, and several class teachers that students from the 9th grade are not allowed to be involved in any research activities because, as the researcher was informed, they are supposed to be focus and to prepare themselves to do the UN (Ujian Nasional– national examination). More explanation about the participants is described below.
in the 7th grade and 6 classes for the 8th grade, consisting of a different number of members. Class 7A consisted of 28 students, class 7B consisted of 26 students, class 7C consisted of 29 students, class 7D consisted of 27 students, and class 7E consisted of 28 students. While class 8A consisted of 24 students, class 8B consisted of 25 students, class 8C consisted of 24 students, class 8D consisted of 26 students, class 8E consisted of 25 students, and class 8F consisted of 26 students. Several students were then selected to be interviewed by considering students’ after-school activities and their achievement in the English subject.
The interviews conducted in this research study are focus group and individual interviews (Bell, 2010; Creswell, 2012; Hatch, 2002; Mackey & Gass, 2005). Further explanation about the interviews and other procedures conducted in this research study is described in the sections of research procedure and data collection.
Table 3.1
Profile of the Sample Participants based on Level and Class (N = 288)
Class/Grade 7A 7B 7C 7D 7E 8A 8B 8C 8D 8E 8F
Frequencies 28 26 29 27 28 24 25 24 26 25 26
N = 288
The fieldwork for the research started from September until the first two weeks of December (that was when the school year semester ends), in year 2015, including getting official permission to gather the data required.
3.4 Research Procedure
from Lamb (2007) and Shann (2001), and the original motivational questionnaire developed from Lai (2013) and Lamb (2007), is provided in section 3.6 of Data Collection.
2) The survey and the questionnaire were then translated into Indonesian, attached in the appendices section, and were administered to all students, class by class following the school time-table of the subject of English language after the middle test week was over. In addition, students were told that it was for a personal purpose, hoped to be useful to know about their learning situation especially in English subject. Thus, they were convinced that it may not affect any of tests or their academic grades at school.
3) The students’ grades and scores in English subject were collected, and then a number of students were selected purposively, by comparing the survey of their after-school activities and the questionnaire of their motivational status, including verifying comparison with their academic achievement.
4) As an addition, a semi-structured observation to observe after-school activities set at schools, such as extracurricular activities and private tutoring was also conducted, including doing a semi-structured interview to several teachers responsible for extracurricular activities and a few private tutoring.
5) A number of selected students were then interviewed. There were two types of interview conducted, namely the focus group and the individual interview. The aims of these two types of interview are explained below.
- Focus Group interview
to the use of focus group interviews as described by Hatch (2002), that they are often used to supplement other qualitative data besides to be the basic data collection strategy of a qualitative study.
- Individual interview
The purpose of conducting individual interviews was, as Hatch (2002) described, to uncover the meaning structures that the interviewees use to organize their experiences and make sense of their worlds especially when they the phenomenon being studied by the researcher for granted because, as argued by Bogdan and Biklen (1992) that, albeit interviewing is similar to conversation so the process is familiar but the information gathered are used by qualitative researcher to provide descriptive explanation based on the interviewees’ perspectives.
6) The data from the survey, questionnaire, and interview were then analyzed qualitatively. However, the data from the semi-structured observation and interview as aforementioned were used to validate the types of after-school activities set at school, that are the extracurricular programmed by the school and the private tutoring provided by the teacher at the school.
7) The analyzed data were then concluded as findings and are discussed in the next chapter that is chapter four.
3.5 Operational Definition
An operational definition is a way that scientists and researchers state to avoid making vague statements, by defining their concepts in precise and objective terms (Mitchell & Jolley, 2010). It is a specification of how the variable in the research will be defined and measured (Creswell, 2012). By having an appropriate one, researchers are allowed to operate or to work with the variables (Mackey & Gass, 2005).
rather difficult concept to operationalize when it comes to systematically investigating the effect of psychological aspects, such as motivation, on language learning (Bot, Lowie, & Vespoor, 2005). Moreover, Creswell (2012) explained that in some situations, it is also possible for researchers to get difficulties in determining a clear and applied definition required or suitable for finding a measure, or it is possibly because the definition is just simply not available. Thus, it is suggested that researchers design their definition of the operationalization (Creswell, 2012).
However, the operational definition was used to explain the scale of the motivational questionnaire developed. Because this research was intended to identify the frequencies of the motivational status as listed in the questionnaire form administered, hence the operationalization to work with the variables was limited to yes-no scale rather than Likert-scale.
3.6 Data Collection
Data used in this research is related to identifying students’ after-school activities and motivational status and investigating their perception and were obtained from survey list, motivational questionnaire, and interview. In addition, a semi-structured observation was also conducted to observe the after-school activities set in school areas such as extracurricular activities and private tutoring by school teachers and a semi-structured interview from the teachers responsible for the extracurricular activity and providing private tutoring of school subject was also conducted. The data from the semi-structured observation and interview as aforementioned were used as additional data that informed the types of after-school activities set at after-school. They are the extracurricular programmed by the school and the private tutoring provided by the teacher at the school. The types of data collection are elaborated below.
The aim of this technique was to identify types of after-school activity that the students attend, participate, or do. The data collected from the survey administered to the students were then grouped based on specific level, or required categories (Creswell, 2012).
Table 3.2
Sample of Survey
1. Name:
______________________________ (your name will be kept secret) 2. Class: ( ) 7th Grade ( ) 8th Grade 3. After-school Activities:
a. An English course out-of-school ( ) Yes ( ) No Mention ___________________________________________________ b. Cram Schools ( ) Yes ( ) No Mention ___________________________________________________ c. Private Tutoring ( ) Yes ( ) No Mention ___________________________________________________ d. Extracurricular at School ( ) Yes ( ) No Mention ___________________________________________________ e. Other After-school Activities ( ) Yes ( ) No 4. For option 3e, what do you prefer to do? I prefer:
( ) drawing by myself ( ) playing game on computer
( ) reading at home ( ) playing game on my cellular-phone ( ) watching TV at home
Mention ___________________________________________________ 5. For options 3a - 3d what is your reason?
( ) asked by friends ( ) asked by parents ( ) to get new friends
Adapted from, Lamb, M. (2007). The Motivation of Junior High School Pupils to Learn English in
Provincial Indonesia. (Dissertation, University of Leeds – School of Education, 2007). Retrieved
from: core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43936.pdf and Shann, M. H. (2001). Students’ Use of Time
Outside of School: A Case for After-school Programs for Urban Middle School Youth. The Urban
Review, 33(4), pp. 339-356. DOI: 10.1023/A:1012248414119.
3.6.2 Motivational Questionnaire
The aim was to identify students’ motivational status (Creswell, 2012; Dörnyei & Taguchi, 2010), while the one open-ended question included was aimed to allow respondents to express their own thoughts and ideas in their own manner (Mackey & Gass, 2005). Moreover, the open-ended question included was used to provide written inquiries which were verified one another with the interview results, as open-ended question is categorized as a kind of written interview (Creswell, 2012; Dörnyei & Taguchi, 2010).
Table 3.3
Sample of Questionnaire
No. Motivational Items Yes No
1. I enjoy learning English.
2. I feel happy while I speak English. 3. I think English is an interesting subject.
4. Studying English will enable me to broaden my view. 5. I think I will be excited to chat with foreigners in English. 6. I learn English because of exams.
10. I would feel ashamed if I got bad grades in English subject.
Adapted from, Lai, H-Y. T. (2013). The Motivation of Learners of English as a Foreign Language
Revisited. International Education Studies, 6(10), pp. 90-101. DOI: 10.5539/ies.v6n10p90 and
Lamb, M. (2007). The Motivation of Junior High School Pupils to Learn English in Provincial
Indonesia. (Dissertation, University of Leeds – School of Education, 2007). Retrieved from:
core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43936.pdf
Sample of the Open-ended Question:
What are the difficult things you experience in learning English?
3.6.3 Interview
The interview was conducted after selected several students based on several categories considered required. The categories, which were from after-school activities that students attended or participated or done, their motivational status, and their test scores, were used to determine selected students.
Albeit the interview was conducted in English language at first, the rest of the interview activities were in bilingual especially for students who answer the first question in Indonesian language, in order to ease the students facing difficult selection to express their perceptions easily.
It is important to notice that researcher is not allowed to affect the interviewee’s responses because interview is a technique that allows participants to express their interpretation without any forces from the researcher’s perspective and their expression are the answer for the interview questions addressed (Creswell, 2009). Moreover, two types of interview were conducted in this research. They were focus group interview and individual interview (Mackey & Gass, 2005; Creswell, 2012) for gathering in-depth data required to answer the research questions by providing a descriptive text rather than a descriptive statistic (Creswell, 2012).
main idea from the interviewees’ responses and keep on with the questions while maintaining the flow of the interview. The question-guideline for interview session is presented in the appendices.
3.7 Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using various ways but most of them were elaborated descriptively since the characteristic of a qualitative study is that the phenomenon being studied has to be described comprehensively. The data from the survey and questionnaire provided in tables were calculated manually to show results from students’ answer. More data analysis techniques are described as follows.
3.7.1 The Analysis of Survey and Questionnaire
In this research, close-ended survey items and questionnaire lists in form of yes-no scale were used along with a space labeled ‘mention’ to give alternative answer, such as in the mention-part, and an open-ended question given after the motivation questionnaire in the questionnaire form. The responses were categorized into the ten motivational items, the nine types of activities (both four types of program and five types of activity), and the five kinds of reasons for choosing the activities offered. The options, labeled ‘mention’, were included to provide space for students to answer as they like.
Percentile formula to analyze the data obtained from the survey and the questionnaire was used. They were then interpreted based on the frequency of students’ response. The percentile formula, as explained by Hatch and Lazaraton (1991), is as given below.
P = Percentage
F = Frequency of Students’ response
N = Number of Total Population
3.7.2 The Analysis of Interview
The data from the interview session were transcribed to help the process of the data required. The transcribed data were then categorized based on interview questions guide list to be used for answering the research questions. These data, from the interview session attached in the sections for answering the research questions in this thesis, are kept confidential so the identity information of interviewees are given in codes as part of research ethical code. Thus, the interview results were given in parts, which are considered related and necessary, to answer the research questions.
As to emphasize this, Creswell (2012) and Mackey and Gass (2005) explained that transcribing and coding techniques conducted to analyze the interview data were intended to provide information and other findings related to the focus of the research (Creswell, 2012; McKey & Gass, 2005).
3.8 Concluding Remarks
