STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN READING RECOUNT TEXT 3

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

3.1  Design of the Research

This study is a descriptive method, it aims to find out and describe difficulties faced by the second semester Student of Broadcasting and TKJ Classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in reading recount text. Gay (1976) states that descriptive method will be discussed in some detail for two major reasons. First, a high percentage of reported research studies are descriptive in nature. Second, the descriptive method is useful for investigating a variety of education problems.  Sumadi (1983) states that the purpose of descriptive research is to describe facts and characteristics of specific populations sistematically, factualy and accurately. The experts argue that there is no specific meaning of descriptive research, however, it includes types of research excepted history and experimetal reasearches.

3.2    Subject of the Research

The subject of this study was all of the second semester Student at Broadcasting and TKJ Classes of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu in academic year 2011/2012. They would be 65 students.

3.3     Instrument

The data of this research were collected by distributing test of reading recount text. The recount text was taken from: (1) Wordpress. 2010, (2) Englishindo. 2012, and (3) Englishindo. 2012. The reasons of choosing recount text from those sites were : first, students had enough background knowledge about the content of the texts and second, lexical and grammatical sides were suitable to the students.

The recount text was written down in English syllabus on “(Education Unit Degree Curriculum (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP)” curriculum in second semester of SMK N 3 Kota Bengkulu. In the test latticework, this text had two skills, they were writing and reading. Each items of question had specific indicators that reflected competence standard and basic competence of the text (see appendix). The test consists of 50 items which were divided into five test types. They were Finding main and specific ideas test, Comprehending whole texts, Making conclusion , Vocabulary and Grammar test. Each type had 10 questions that would be used as data analysis. The types test could be seen in the table below.

Table. 1 The types of test

No	The test types	Items
1	Finding main and specific ideas	10
2	Comprehending whole text	10
3	Making conclusion	10
4	Vocabulary	10
5	Grammar	10
Total	50 items

3.4    Validity

To measure the validity of the test in this research, it used Construct Validity. According to Fraenkel and Wignell (in Siregar 2010:163) construct validity has larger coverage than others validities because it involves many procedurs, such as content and criteria validities. Validity test used correalation formula of Product moment (r) as following:

Dimana:     r_xy      =    An Item Correlation Coefecient

N       =     Subjects

X       =     Correct score

Y       =     Total correct score (Arikunto, 1993)

The r value was consulted by  r_table (r_critis). If r_xy is higher than r_table , so the item is valid. For clearer, see the following table of Reability Coefficient Categories by Guilford, (1956).

Table 2. Validity Coefficient Categories

0,80<1,00	Highest validity
0,60<0,80	High validity
0,40<00,60	Medium validity
0,20<0,40	Low validity
0,00<0,20	Lowest validity
<0,00	Not validity

3.5  Difficult Factor

It is important to note that three types of informations are critical in understanding the validity of the test. They are :

1.    Whether the items are too difficult or too easy.

2.    Whether the items discriminted between those student who really know the material and those that do not.

3.    Whether the incorrect responses in fact “distract” from the correct response or have no value what so ever

The validity of this research would be analyzed by using the difficulty factor. The difficulty factor of a question is the proportion of respondents selecting the right answer to that question. It is a measure of how difficult the question is answered.

 (Arikunto, 1993)

P       =     Difficulty factor

B       =     Correct answers

JS      =     Number of Subjects

Table 3.  Interpretation of difficulty factor

Difficulty factor (P) levels	Interpretation of (P)
P < 0,30	Difficult
0,30 ≤ P ≤ 0,70	Medium
P> 0,70	Easy

3.6    Reliability

The previously mentioned methods to estimate test score reliability require a statistical procedure called ‘correlation’. Majority of teachers and non-professional test developers, however, are not quite familiar with statistics. Thus, they may have some problems in using statistical formulas and interpreting the outcome of statistical analyses. To overcome these problems, two statisticians named Kuder and Richardson developed a series of formulas to be used in statistics. One of these formulas is used to estimate test score reliability through simple mathematical operations. The formula is called KR-21, in which K and R refer to the first initials of

the two statisticians and 21 refers to the number of the formula in the series.

This formula is used to estimate the reliability of a single test given to one group of examinees through a single administration. This method requires only the testers and teachers to be able to calculate two simple statistical parameters. These parameters are (1) the mean and (2) variance.

(1) The Mean

The mean, commonly known as the average, is the most frequently used concept in statistics. It simply refers to a single score that best represents the  scores of a group.               

If each score is symbolized as X, then the mean is represented by    . The mean will be computed by adding up all Xs and dividing the sum by the number of scores (represented by N). To represent the sum of scores, the Greek letter (Σ), read 'sigma' is used in statistics. Thus the statistical formula to compute the mean would be:

__        ∑X

X =      ——

N

(2) The Variance

The variance, represented by the letter V refers to the variation of scores around the mean. Although the formula for computing variance may seem cumbersome, it is not actually difficult. To avoid complexities, the formula will be explained as follows:

       __

Σ(X-X)²

V =      ————

N-1

The formula means to do the following operations:

 __

1. Compute the mean   (X)
2. Compute the deviation scores by subtracting the mean from each single score     

3. Square every deviation score
4. Add up all deviation scores squared

5. Divide the result of step 4 by N-1

Computing the magnitudes of the mean and variance, we are now ready to put these values in the KR-21 formula and get the reliability of the test scores. The formula is as follows:

  __      __

                   K                 X (K-X)

KR-21 = [——— ] [1- ——————]

      K-1                    KV

                           __

In this formula, K refers to the number of items in the test, X represents the mean of test scores, and V is the variance of test scores. KR-21 method is the most practical and commonly used one. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers and administrators use this method. The values of reliability range from 0 to 1. KR-21 method ranges from 0 to 1.00, with values close to 1.00 indicating high consistency. Professionally developed high-stakes standardized tests should have internal consistency coefficients of at least 0.90. Lower-stakes standardized tests should have internal consistencies of at least 0.80 or 0.85. For a classroom exam, it is desirable to have a reliability coefficient of 0.70 or higher.

High reliability coefficients are required for standardized tests because they are administered only once and the score on that one test is used to draw conclusions about each student’s level on the trait of interest. It is acceptable for classroom exams to have lower reliabilities because a student’s score on any one exam does not constitute that student’s entire grade in the course. Usually grades are based on several measures, including multiple tests, homework, papers and projects, labs, presentations, and participation. For clearer, see the following table of Reability Coefficient Categories by Guilford, (1956: 145).

Table 4. Reability Coefficient Categories

0,80<1,00	Highest reability
0,60<0,80	High reability
0,40<00,60	Medium reability
0,20<0,40	Low reability
-1,00<2,00	Not reability

3.7 Analysis of data

The data of this study would be analyzed by using percentage formula as could be seen in the following :

	F S = -----------------x100%                 N

 

S : score of difficulties
F : score of correct answer
N : number of sample/students

Every types of test had 10 questions. The writer calculated the correct and incorrect answer of students. The result of students’ answer would be analyzed and also presented in percetage. They were 32 students of Broadcasting class and 33 students of TKJ class.

3.8 Procedures

To get some data accurately, there wee some steps who done by the researcher. They were:

1.    Calculating incorrect and correct answers of Broadcasting class.

2.    Presenting them in percentage form.

	F S = -----------------x100%                 N

 

Example :

Correct answers

S=25x100%/40 = 62.5 %

Incorrect answers

S=15x100%/40= 37.5 %

Number of items	Essay question
	Frequency
	Correct answer of students	Percentage (%)	Incorrect answer of students	Percetage (%)
1	25	62.5%	15	37.5%
2
.....10
Average correct score

3.    On same way, Calculating incorrect and correct answers of TKJ class and presenting them in percentage form..

4.    Analyzing scores of Broadcasting class.

5.    Analyzing scores of TKJ class.

6.    Making conclusion.