29

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. The Place and Time of the Research

The research was carried out at English Education Department of
Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret University which is
located at Ir. Sutami Street 36A Kentingan, Jebres, Surakarta. The writer
conducted the research from January to June 2013 which covers pre-research,
collecting and analyzing the data, and writing the report of the research. The
schedule of the research can be seen in the table below.

Table 3.1. The Schedule of the Research

Months in 2013
Activity
Jan Feb Mar April May Jun July Aug
1. Proposing the title of the research
2. Writing the research proposal
3. Making the blueprints, the
instruments, and the answer keys
4. Consulting the proposal and the
instruments
5. Testing the readability of the test
instruction
6. Conducting the try out
7. Scoring the students try out
8. Testing the validity and the
reliability of the instruments
9. Conducting the test
10. Scoring the students test
11. Analyzing the data
12. Writing the thesis
13. Consulting the thesis
14. Joining the thesis examination

29

30

B. The Method of the Research

The research uses correlation method. Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007)
defines correlational research as the studies in which the purpose is to discover
relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics.
Correlational research designs are used to for two major purposes: (1) to explore
causal relationship between variables and (2) to predict scores on one variable
from research participants scores on other variables (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2007:
337). The reason of choosing correlation method is the writer wants to know how
far the correlation between three variables based on quantitative in correlation
coefficient. A correlation coefficient is a number between -1 and 1 which
measures the degree to which two variables are linearly related (Easton & McColl,
1997).
In this research, there are two kinds of variable, namely dependent
variable and independent variable. The dependent variable is speaking skill (Y)
while the independent variables consists of grammar mastery (X1) and selfconfidence (X2).
The writer examines the correlation between grammar mastery and
speaking skill. After that, the writer examines the correlation between selfconfidence and speaking skill. Finally, the writer examines the correlation
between grammar mastery and self-confidence simultaneously and speaking skill.
The relationship of the variables in this research is figured in the diagram below.

Figure 3.1. Diagram of the relationship of the variables

Grammar mastery
(X1)
Speaking skill
(Y)
Self-confidence
(X2)

31

C. Population, Sample, and Sampling

1.

Population
Population is defined as any group that is subject of research interest
(Goddard & Melville, 2001: 34). According to Gall, Gall, and Borg (2007:
166), population is the larger group that the researchers wish to learn about.
In this research, the writer took all the fourth semester students of English
Education Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas
Maret University in the academic year of 2012/2013. There are three classes:
A, B, and SBI. Class A consists of 37 students; class B consists of 39
students; and class SBI consists of 16 students. The total number of the
students is 92 students.

2.

Sample
Sample is defined as such subset of the population (Goddard &
Melville, 2001: 34). According to Easton and McColl (1997), a sample is a
group of units selected from a larger group (the population). Furthermore,
Johnson (2013) defines sample as a set of elements taken from a larger
population. It is a subset of the population which is the full set of elements or
people or whatever you are sampling. So, sample is a subset of the population
which the researcher uses as the subject of the research to represent the
overall group.
The sample in this research is about 32% of the whole population.
So, the sample consists of 30 students. The students come from class A, B,
and SBI. The total sample from class A is 12 students; class B is 14 students;
and class SBI is 4 students.

3.

Sampling
Sampling is defined as the process of selecting a sample from a
defined population with the intent that the samples accurately represent that
population (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2007: 166). According to Johnson (2013),
sampling refers to drawing a sample (a subset) from a population (the full
set). The usual goal in sampling is to produce a representative sample.

32

In this research, the writer used simple random sampling to take the
sample. Easton and McColl (1997) defines simple random sampling as a
sampling technique where we select a group of subjects (a sample) for study
from a larger group (a population). Each individual is chosen entirely by
chance and each member of the population has a known, but possibly nonequal, chance of being included in the sample. According to Kothari (2004:
15), simple random sampling is also known as chance sampling or probability
sampling where each and every item in the population has an equal chance of
inclusion in the sample and each one of the possible samples, in case of finite
universe, has the same probability of being selected.
Below are the steps of selecting the sample:
a. Typing the name of the students of class A, B, and SBI (92 students).
b. Printing the name on papers and then cutting the papers.
c. Rolling the papers.
d. Putting the rolled papers in a box.
e. Shaking the box.
f. Taking thirty-three rolled papers from the box randomly.
There are 30 students (the sample) from three different classes. The
sample from class A is 12 students; class B is 14 students; and class SBI is 4
students. The list of the sample can be seen in appendix 2 on page 68.

D. The Technique of Collecting Data

The writer used test and non-test as the technique to collect the data for
the research. The multiple-choice test is used to collect the data of grammar
mastery while the questionnaire is used to obtain the data of self-confidence. The
students speaking skill will be tested through a speaking test.
In this research, the non-test is in the form of questionnaire. Gall, Gall,
and Borg (2007: 228) defines questionnaire as the printed forms that ask the same
questions of all individuals in the sample and for which respondents record their
answers in verbal forms. It is most frequently a very concise, preplanned set of
questions designed to yield specific information to meet a particular need for

33

research information about a pertinent topic (Key, 1997). According to Key

(1997), there are two types of questionnaire as follows:
1. Closed or restricted form
Closed or restricted form of questionnaire calls for a yes or no
answer, short response, or items checking. This type is fairly easy to interpret,
tabulate, and summarize.
2. Open or unrestricted form
Open or restricted form of questionnaire calls for free response from
the respondent. It allows greater depth of response so that this type of
questionnaire is difficult to interpret, tabulate and summarize.
In this research, the writer used closed form of questionnaire to obtain
the data of students self-confidence. The scoring of the questionnaire is based
on Likert scale. Likert scale consists of a series of statements related to a
particular target; the respondents are asked to indicate the extent to which they
agree or disagree with the statements by marking one of the responses ranging
from strongly agree to strongly disagree (Drnyei, 2003: 37).
The writer makes both positive and negative statements. There are
four scales of the answer choices of the statements the writer uses, namely
Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. According to Sarjono
& Julianita (2011: 6), the scoring of each item is as follows:
a. Positive items
The score of option SD (Strongly Disagree) is 1
The score of option D (Disagree) is 2
The score of option A (Agree) is 3
The score of option SA (Strongly Agree) is 4
b. Negative items
The score of option SA (Strongly Agree) is 1
The score of option A (Agree) is 2
The score of option D (Disagree) is 3
The score of option SD (Strongly Disagree) is 4

34

The writer conducted a test in order to collect the data of grammar

mastery and speaking skill. Brown (2002: 401) defines test as an instrument or
procedure designed to elicit performance from learners with the purpose of
measuring their attainment of specified criteria. Brown (2004: 3) also defines a
test as a simple method of measuring a persons ability, knowledge, or
performance in a given domain. Furthermore, in Merriam-Webster Dictionary
(2013), a test is defined as a series of questions or exercises for measuring the
skill, knowledge, intelligence, capacities, or aptitudes of an individual or group.
In this research, the writer used written test to collect the data of grammar
mastery. The test of grammar mastery is in the form of multiple choices. It
consists of 60 items. The writer provides four alternative answers (A, B, C, and
D). The students will get point 1 for each item if they can answer it correctly
while point 0 if they answer it incorrectly. The formula of students grammar
mastery test scoring is as follows:

100

Meanwhile, the test used to obtain the data of students speaking skill is
oral test. The writer conducted a role play to test the students speaking skill. The
writer gave them a situation and then asked them to make the script based on the
situation or context given. When the writer conducted the test, the students in
pairs were asked to perform their play. Then, the writer gave score to their
performance. Below is the scoring rubric used as the guidance in giving score to
students performance:

35

Table 3.2. The Scoring Rubric of Speaking Skill

Grammar
Equivalent to that of an educated native speaker.
Able to use the language accurately on all levels normally pertinent
to professional needs. Errors in grammar are quite rare.
Control of grammar is good. Able to speak the language with
sufficient structural accuracy to participate effectively in most
formal and informal conversation on practical, social, and
professional topics.
Can usually handle elementary constructions quite accurately but
does not have thorough or confident control of the grammar.
Errors in grammar are frequent, but speaker can be understood by a
native speaker used to dealing with foreigners attempting to speak
his language.

Vocabulary
Speech on all levels in fully accepted by educated native speakers in
all its features, including breadth of vocabulary and idioms,
colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references
Can understand and participate in any conversation within the range
of his experience with a degree of precision of vocabulary
Able to speak the language with sufficient vocabulary to participate
effectively in most formal and informal conversational on practical,
social, and professional topics. Vocabulary is broad enough that he
rarely has to grope for a word
Has speaking vocabulary sufficient to express himself simply with
some circumlocution
Speaking vocabulary inadequate to express anything but the most
elementary needs

Score
5
4

2
1

Score
5
4

2
1

Comprehension

Score

Equivalent to that of an educated native speaker

Can understand any conversation within the range of his experience
Comprehension is quite complete at a normal rate of speech
Can get the gist of most conversations of non-technical subjects
Within the scope of his very limited language experience, can
understand simple questions and statements if delivered with
slowed speech, repetition, or paraphrase

5
4
3
2
1

36

Fluency
Has complete fluency in the language such that his speech is fully
accepted by educated native speakers
Able to use the language fluently on all levels normally pertinent to
professional needs. Can participate in any conversation within the
range of his experience with a high degree of fluency
Can discuss particular interests of competence with reasonable ease.
Rarely has to grope for words
Can handle with confidence but not with facility most social
situations, including introductions and casual conversations about
current events, as well as work, family, and autobiographical
information
Very disconnected speech, broken by constant pauses.
Several times dried up completely

Pronunciation
Equivalent to and fully accepted by educated native speakers
Errors in pronunciation are quite rare
Errors never interfere with understanding and rarely disturb the
native speaker. Accent may be obviously foreign
Accent is intelligible though often quite faulty
Errors in pronunciation are frequent, but can be understood by a
native speaker used to dealing with foreigners attempting to speak
his language

Score
5
4
3

Score
5
4
3
2
1

(Source: H. Douglas Brown. 2002. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive

Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd ed,), pp: 406-407. New York: Pearson
Longman. )

E. The Readability of the Test Instruction

Before conducted the speaking test, the writer has tried out the instrument
of speaking in order to know the readability of the test instruction of the speaking
test. The writer distributed the speaking test instruction to the 30 non-sample.
From 30 students, there are 27 students who said that the instruction of the
speaking test is understandable. Meanwhile, 3 students said that the test
instruction is not understandable. It means that the percentage of the readability of
the speaking test instruction is 90%. Therefore, the writer concludes that the test
instruction of the speaking test is readable.

37

F. The Validity of the Instrument

Instruments used in a research must be valid. Validity in testing and
assessment has traditionally been understood to mean discovering whether a test
measures accurately what it is intended to measure (Hughes, 1989: 22 in Fulcher
& Davidson, 2007: 4), or uncovering the appropriateness of a given test or any of
its component parts as a measure of what it is purposed to measure (Henning,
1987: 170 in Fulcher & Davidson, 2007: 4).
According to the 1999 Standards for Educational and Psychological
Testing, validity is the degree to which evidence and theory support the
interpretation of test scores entailed by proposed uses of tests (Gall, Gall & Borg,
2007: 195). Furthermore, Key (1997) defines that validity is as the degree to
which a test measures what it is supposed to measure.
In this research, the writer measures the validity of both grammar
mastery test and self-confidence questionnaire. Validity test is conducted in order
to know whether each item of grammar mastery and self-confidence instrument is
valid. The computation of the validity of grammar mastery items uses the formula
as follows:
=

Where:
: coefficient of validity
: mean score of correct answer
: mean of total score
: standard deviation of total score
: the proportion of correct answer
: the proportion of incorrect answer
The result of measuring the validity is consulted to the -table at the level
significance =0.05 for =30 (0.361). If the value of ro is higher than rt or ro > rt,
it means that the item is valid. On the other hand, if the value of ro is lower than rt
or ro < rt, it means that the item is invalid.

38

Based on the computation of the validity test of grammar mastery items,

from 60 items, 40 items are valid while the rest, 20 items, are invalid. The table of
validity test of grammar mastery items can be seen in appendix 13 on page 120.
Meanwhile, in order to measure the validity of self-confidence
questionnaire, the writer uses the formula as the following:

.
( )(

Where:
: coefficient of validity

: total of items variance

: total variance of item

: total variance

The result of measuring the validity is consulted to the -table at the level
significance =0.05 for =30 (0.361). If the value of ro is higher than rt or ro > rt,
it means that the item is valid. On the other hand, if the value of ro is lower than rt
or ro < rt, it means that the item is invalid.
Based on the computation of the validity test of self-confidence items,
from 40 items, 37 items are valid while the rest, 3 items, are invalid The table of
validity test of self-confidence items can be seen in appendix 14 on page 126.

G. The Reliability of the Instrument

Besides valid, instruments used in a research must be reliable. Reliability
is the consistency of test scores across facets of the test (Fulcher & Davidson,
2007: 15). According to Carmines and Zeller (1979) in Key (1997), the reliability
of a research instrument concerns the extent to which the instrument yields the
same results on repeated trials. Although unreliability is always present to a
certain extent, there will generally be a good deal of consistency in the results of a
quality instrument gathered at different times. Furthermore, Crocker and Algina,
1986: 105 in Fulcher and Davidson, 2007: 104 states:

39

Whenever a test is administered, the test user would like some

assurance that the results could be replicated if the same individuals
were tested again under similar circumstances. This desired
consistency (or reproducibility) of test scores is called reliability.
In this research the writer conducts reliability test in order to know
whether the instrument of grammar mastery is reliable. The grammar mastery
instrument is computed using Kuder Richardson-20 formula or KR-20 formula.
The formula is as follows:

Where:
: coefficient of the reliability
: total of valid items

: sum of all item variance

: total variance

Based on the analysis using KR-20 formula, the reliability test of

grammar mastery instrument shows that the coefficient of reliability ( ) is 0.846.
The value of

(0.894) is consulted to r-table at the significance level =0.05 for

n=30 (0.361). Because

(0.894) is higher than (0.361) or

(0.894) >

(0.361),

it can be concluded that the instrument of grammar mastery is reliable. The whole
computation of reliability test of grammar mastery can be seen in appendix 15 on
page 130.
Meanwhile, in order to know the reliability of the questionnaire of selfconfidence, the writer used Alpha Cronbach formula as follows:

40

Where:
: coefficient of reliability
: total of valid items
: total variance of all items
: total variance
Based on the analysis using Alpha Cronbach formula, the reliability test
of self-confidence instrument shows that the coefficient of reliability ( ) is 0.847.
The value of

(0.847) is consulted to r-table at the significance level =0.05 for

n=30 is 0.361. Because

(0.847) is higher than

(0.361) or (0.847) >

(0.361), it can be concluded that the instrument of self-confidence is reliable.

The whole computation of reliability test of self-confidence can be seen in
appendix 16 on page 131.

H. The Pre-requirement Test

Before analyzing the data of grammar mastery, self-confidence, and
speaking skill, there is a pre-requirement test which covers normality test,
linearity of regression test, and significance of regression test.
The aim of conducting normality test is that knowing whether the data
are in normal distribution. Below are the formulas used in normality test.
=

( )

( )
1
= 0.5 +/ table value
If the data value of

( )

is positive, the computation is the data value of

plus (+) the L-table (Lilliefors table) value. Meanwhile, if the data value of

is negative, the computation is the data value of

(Lilliefors table) value.

( ) minus

(-) the L-table

41

( )

( )

( )

The highest value of

( )

( )

or

is consulted to L-table (Lilliefors

table) at the level significance =0.05 for n=30 (0.161). If the highest value of
( )

( )

or

is lower than

(0.161) or

<

, it can be concluded that the

data are in normal distribution.

After conducting normality test, the writer conducted linearity and
significance of regression test. The linearity of regression test is conducted in
order to identify whether the regression of the data is linear. Meanwhile, the
significance of regression test is conducted in order to identify whether the
regression of the data is significant.
The formulas used in the linearity of regression test are as follows:

( )( ) ( )(

( )

()

( )

( )( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( / )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )( )

( )

( / )

SS(
df(
SS (
df(

MS(

MS(

)
)

)
)

( )

42

In this research, in deciding whether the regression is linear, the value of

is consulted to the value of the F-table ( ). If the value of
<

value of the F-table (

is lower than the

) for =0.05 and degree of freedom (d.f.) for 12:16

(2.42) and for 10:18 (2.41), it can be concluded that the regression is linear.
Meanwhile, in deciding whether the regression is significant, the value of
is consulted to the value of the F-table ( ). If the value of
>

value of the F-table (

is higher than the

) for =0.05 and degree of freedom (d.f.) for 1:28

(4.20), it can be concluded that the regression is significant.

I.

The Technique of Analyzing Data

After conducting pre-requirement test, the next step is testing the

hypotheses. Below are the statistical hypotheses of the correlation between three
variables: grammar mastery (X1), self-confidence (X2), and speaking skill (Y).
a. First Hypothesis
:

=0

>0

b. Second Hypothesis
:

=0

>0

c. Third Hypothesis

=0

>0

Where:
: null hypothesis
: alternative hypothesis
: the value of test
: the value of

test

43

To test the hypotheses above, the writer uses some techniques of

analyzing the data as the following:
1. To test the first and second hypothesis which says whether there is positive
correlation between grammar mastery (X1) and speaking skill (Y) (first
hypothesis) and whether there is positive correlation between self-confidence
(X2) and speaking skill (Y) (second hypothesis), the writer conducted the
simple correlation test using Product Moment Formula as the following:

( )( )

( ) }{

( ) }

Where:
: the coefficient of correlation between X and Y
: the number of sample
: the independent variable
: the dependent variable
2. To test the third hypothesis which says whether there is a positive correlation
between grammar mastery (X1) and self-confidence (X2) simultaneously and
speaking skill (Y), the writer used Multiple Linear Regression formula as
follows:

Where:
: the coefficient of correlation between X , X and Y
: a X Y + a X Y
: the coefficient of predicator X
: the coefficient of predicator X

: the sum of the product moment between X and Y

: the sum of the product moment between X and Y

44

3. To find out whether the coefficient of multiple correlation (R) is significant, the
writer conducted Regression Line Analysis. The formula is as follows:

Where:
: the value of regression line
: the coefficient of the correlation between X , X , and Y
: the number of the independent variable
: the number of the sample

After conducting Regression Line Analysis, the value of

is consulted

to -table at the significance level =0.05 and the degree of freedom (d.f.). If the
result shows that

is higher than

>

), it can be concluded that the

coefficient of multiple correlation (R) is significant.