Chapter I

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

A common problem faced by most of EFL teachers in conducting an in- class

activity is dealing with a passive class. A passive class is defined when students are

unresponsive and avoid interacting with the teacher. It happens because the teacher

still dominantly controls the in-class activity. This problem occurs when a teacher

conducts a teacher-class dialog, such as; asking some questions to the class as a whole

or to the students individually. The students tend to be quite or to have a private

conversation with their mates. In other word, this condition can be a frustrating

experience for the teachers in conducting an in-class activity. Yet, it is a big challenge

for the teachers to find out the best solution of this problem. One of the best way is by

conducting an Action Research.

One thing that is very essential in conducting an in-class activity is teacher-

student interaction. A success class activity is considered when there is good

interaction between the teacher and the students. Moreover, teacher-student

interaction is the mutual relationship or action when there is feedback through the

communication activity. It means, there is response from the second person (students)

as the object of communication activity. It is usually influenced by the students’

affection and seriousness. (Snell, 2000)

1
 In order to gain that interaction, the teacher should apply some activities

communicatively. For example, the teacher gives a question to the class as a whole or

to the students individually. The student should try to find the answer by asking

others. This activity is aimed to customize them to be more active and to train them to

pronounce English words accurately and fluently. Since the purposes of this activity

are for both accuracy and fluency or for the combination of the two.

1.2 Problem Statement

As the illustration above, the most common problem faced by the English teachers in EFL classroom is passive class.
This problem also happens in the class which is being observed by the researcher. The students are likely not interested in
English.

As the result, they do not response voluntarily to the teacher, when the teacher

gives them some very simple-drilled question related to daily activities, such as;

‘What time do you wake up?’, ‘What do you do in the morning?’, etc. In the other

side, the students also never ask a single question to the teacher. They are reluctant to

clarify the instructions or questions given by the teacher, even, by using their mother

language or by using simple gestures. At last, there is mostly no responsive action or

good interaction between teacher and students in the classroom. It then, reveals a

question; ‘How can meaningful drill significantly improve teacher-student interaction

in the classroom?’

1.3 Purpose of The Study

The purpose of this study is to find the answer of the problem above in which

the researcher tries to apply drill activities meaningfully (meaningful drill) to improve

class interaction (teacher-student interaction). Moreover, meaningful drill is one kind

of drills which not only considers about the form of the words, phrases or sentences

but also the meaning of them.

Martin (1999) stated that meaningful drill is considered as an instructional

strategy which promotes the acquisition of both form and meaning through repetitive

practices. While practicing this technique, the researcher comes closer to the students

one by one and asks one question, e.g. ‘What do you like?’ or What do you want?’.

Then, the researcher orders them to ask the same question to their mates.

1.4 Assumption

Based on the phenomena above, the researcher finally draws assumption that

the students need or like a new or different situation better than just make a note or

another traditional style of teaching-learning. Furthermore, by giving more attention

to the students and involve them directly to the in-class activities (through drilling

activities), they will be more eagerly to join or participate actively in every in-class

activities. In short, the teacher-student interaction will be improved so that the class

situation will be more enjoyable.

1.5 Significance of The Study

The result of this research project is aimed to improve the English teaching

methods in Elementary School. Thus, it will give good progress to both teachers and

students. It is also expected to give knowledge and information to the researcher and

the readers. It is the fact that there is no certain teaching methods for all class

situation, because, the condition of a certain class may be different from others. Lewis
& Hill, (1981) stated that the relevant method for a certain class situation might be not

relevant for others. It is because each of class has their own characteristics.

In facing this condition, it is also recommended that the teachers must be

creative and innovative in improving their teaching method. It is to avoid bored-

feeling to their students. The researcher also hopes the result of this research will be

useful for the next research project.

1.6 Scope and Limitation

The scope and limitation of this research is focused on conversation or oral

activities in the class room. Because, it is to make the students be able to

communicate using English simply. However, it is just for the introduction to the

Elementary school level as its local content. Therefore, English teaching-learning

stressed on communication aspect (GBPP 2004).

1.7 Definition of Key Terms

There are some key terms which are necessary to define to make this

discussion more obvious;

First, the word interaction is defined as the action to have an effect or response on

each other. It is also supported by Wubbels, (1997), Goh & Wong, ( 1998).

Second, Teacher-student Interaction means the responsive action from both teacher

and students to have a effect or feed back on each other Wubbels, (1997), Goh &

Wong, (1998). In the next time, there was also similar statement by Wubbels,
Brekelmans & Hoomayers (1991). In the previous time, Creton, also stated their

Concept of interaction. Then, it is strengthen by Jonathan Snell at Improving Teacher-

student interaction (2000); responsive feedback.

Third, Audiolingual method is the method in which language learning is determined

by a set of assumptions originated from behavioral psychology. Some of these

assumptions have been expressed mainly by Brooks (1960) and Rivers (1964).

Fourth, Drill deals with the process of training thoroughly by means of regularly

repeated exercise (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). It also means as an

instructional strategy of repetition of particular language in either forms or meanings

(Martin, 1999). Furthermore, Bush (1999), Patten (1993, 1996), and Tice (2002),

stated that drilling is a technique which is dealing with a key feature of audio lingual

and behaviorism approaches to language teaching which placed emphasis on

repeating structural patterns through oral practice.

Fifth, Meaningful Drill is defined as an instructional strategy of repetition of

particular language which promotes the acquisition of language in both forms and

meanings (Martin, 1999), Bush (1999), and Tice (1996).

 6

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

2.1 English Teaching

In most of non-English speaking countries, English is a very important thing.

It is because the influence of globalization era has immediately required the people of

the country to participate actively. In this side, communication takes very important

role. As an international language, English has become more popular especially in

education aspect. Just like in our country, some linguists and English teachers have

had some efforts to improve the English teaching-learning in the classroom.

Moreover, English teaching is the method of teaching English that is designed and
purposed to give knowledge about English language to the students or language

learners. In addition, they can use it in the real communication activities in real

situation (Hill, 1999).

Teaching a foreign language, e.g. English, is not only in terms of transferring

some theories related to the practical activities but also the practice itself. The more

we practice or use it in our daily activities the more we will easily master it. In short,

English teaching should concern about both the theory and the practice of it (Lewis

and Hill, 1999).

2.1.1 Elementary School

Since our government has launched the new concept of our national

curriculum that regulated English as one of local content for Elementary School

curriculum, it then, raised up some problems. As it is stated on GBPP: ”English is the

first foreign language which is very important and must be taught to gain and improve

as well as to develop science, technology, art and culture, and to create good

relationship with other nations.” (GBPP, 1994). Furthermore, it then reveals a

question; ‘Why should it be in Elementary school level?’ As it is known that

Elementary school level is one of school level that consists of six to eleven years old

students whom are taught about some basic knowledge. This level is also considered

as Young Learners level. The reason stating that English teaching is better given in
elementary school level, because, the students of that age get more easily learn about

foreign language as well as English.

The result of this research project is aimed to improve teacher-student

interaction in the classroom and it can, finally, improve their achievement in English

subject. So that the graduates of Elementary school will, at least, be ready to continue

their study in the next level.

Finally, they will be ready to participate actively in the real situation of their

lives, especially, in the global trade commerce. If they have already known or got

familiar with English, then, they will get more easily study about it in the next levels

of education.

2.2. Teacher-student Interaction

A common problem for EFL teachers in conducting an in-class activity is

dealing with a passive class. It happens when students are passive or unresponsive and

avoid interacting with the teacher. It is also because the teacher still dominantly

controls the in-class activity. This problem arises when a teacher conducts a teacher-

class dialogue or short conversation, such as; asking some questions to the class as a

whole or to the students individually. The students tend to be quite or to have a

private conversation with their mates. In short, this condition can be a frustrating

experience for the teachers in conducting the in-class activity. Yet, it is a big

challenge for the teachers to solve this problem by conducting an action research.

The word interaction has the meaning of feedback or response or participation

(Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary). Moreover, teacher-student interaction or

rapport is the actions of the teacher that influence the students to give response or

feedback in both oral and gestures or actions during the in-class activity (Wubbels,

Fishers, Rickards, Faser & Goh & Wong, 1997, 1998). Furthermore, the word

interaction is dealing with; participation patterns, teacher-student interaction patterns

(Faersch & Kasper, 1983; Pica 1987), turn taking patterns (Pica & Doughty, 1987),

and communicative strategies (Tahore, 1981), to mention a few.

The current trend of second or foreign language teaching emphasizes the

development of communicative aspect rather than the acquisition or mastery of

discreet linguistic elements.

For this reason, many researchers as Bachman, 1990; Breen and Candlin, 1980;

Brown and Yule, 1983; Brumfit, 1980; Canale and Swain, 1979, 1980; Candlin, 1976;

Rivers, 1981, 1987; Savignon, 1972; Walkins, 1972; put their theories based on their

ideas on the work of such sociolinguistics pioneers as Hymes (1972, 1992) had

concentrated on how ESL or EFL students develop their Communication ability.

These researchers emphasized their opinion that foreign language students are

required to practice in order to develop their communicative abilities, so that they can

express themselves appropriately in the real situation. It is also stated by Haris, (1963)

that the ability to communicate with others by means of verbal symbol is the most

human characteristics.

Furthermore, interpersonal interaction (teacher-student or student-student) is

regarded as a fundamental requirement of Second Language Acquisition (SLA).

Many researchers have claimed that language instruction requires the development of

interactional competence, and interaction is the key to language teaching for

communication (Kramsch, 1986) this theory is also stated by Rivers, 1987 and Ellis,
1988). Kramsch (1986) also claims that language interaction requires the development

of interactional competence, and suggests a three-step approach to improve natural

discourse and to build interactional competence in the classroom. The first step is to

work on teacher-student oriented interaction, during which the students practice the

target language, English, with their teacher as a model and partner of conversation.

10

The second step is partner centered interaction, during which students learn to

negotiate meaning with partners in the classroom as well as how to generate meaning.

And the third step is students practice ways to interact without violating social and

cultural constraints that learners meet in natural conversation.

The interactionist perspectives in SLA have placed considerable attention on

the role of interaction in general, and meaning negotiation in particular, with respect

to the conditions considered theoretically important for SLA. In particular, Pica

(1994) claims that meaning negotiation, as a particular way of modifying interaction,

can accomplish a great deal for SLA by helping learners make input comprehensible

or meaningful and modify their own output, and by providing opportunities for them

to access second language (L2) or Foreign language, form and meaning. Therefore, it

is considered very important for EFL teachers to construct an interactive learning

environment in which learner can associate with each other in the target language and

negotiate meaning through interaction.

Participation pattern or teacher-student interaction as well as rapport patterns

is, therefore, highly descriptive in nature, meaning that it describes in a non-biased

way that draw conclusion about the consequences of particular types of interactions
on language acquisition (Faersch and Kasper, 1983;pica 1987). The diagram below

summarizes Long’s interaction hypothesis, and shows its relationship with Krashen’s

input hypothesis.

11

Long’s model of relationship between type of conversational task (through

drilling process) and language acquisition (1983b);

Diagram 1

(A)
Meaningful or
Comprehensible input

+--------------------------+ +--------------------------+ +--------------------------+

| B || C || D |
| verbal communication || opportunity for the || negotiated modification|
| task involving a two- || students to provide || of the conversation |
| way exchange of || feedback on his or her || |
| information || comprehension || |
| || || |
| || || |
+--------------------------+ +--------------------------+ +---------------------------+

(E) Response or feedback

(F) Comprehensible out put

(through teacher-student or student-student interaction)

Below are some indicators of the diagram above;

In A, the teacher gives meaningful or comprehensible input (through drilling

process), it could be in terms of words, phrases, sentences, or short dialogs.

Meaningful or comprehensible input here means materials given or transferred by the

teacher to the students which are considered simple and understandable through

teaching-learning activity.

In B part, teacher strengthens the material given by giving instructions or

questions to the students. It is hoped that the students will, first, understand the A part

(input), and next, able to give response to the teacher’s instructions or questions using

verbal communication.

12

This process is called a two way exchange of information or a two way

communication. On C, teacher gives great chance or opportunity to the students to

prepare the feedback from their own comprehension. In this process, the teacher may

help them by using such simple gestures or any other media just to make the students

get easy comprehension to the instructions or questions.

Moreover, the teacher does such modification to the conversation process as;

asks the students to practice the same activity (a two way communication) as the

teacher did before, in couples or groups of three, four, and so on. The response or

feedback on E, explains that the teacher repeats the same activity with giving such

changes to the type of the instructions or questions. The last, if the E part works quite

well, meaning that the students are able to give response or feedback to the teacher’s

instructions or questions, it can be concluded that the interaction between teacher and

students is in progress.

Notes; the circle on diagram 1 above, signs or indicates interaction through teaching-

learning process. While the arrow ( ) indicates the process of interaction in each

part of activities.
 Furthermore, Long and Sato (1983) propose a taxonomy of question types

which provide a systematic way of investigating the nature of interaction which

occurs in a particular situation;

1. Comprehension check : “ Alright?”

“ Okay?”
“ Does everyone understand the word “…..?”

13
2. Clarification request : “ What do you mean?”
“ I don’t understand”
“ What?”

3. Confirmation check : S: “ Carefully”

T: “ Carefully?”
“ Did you say “…..”

4. Referential questions : “ Why didn’t you do your homework?”

5. Display : “ What’s the opposite of “…..” in English?”

6. Expressive : “ It is interesting the difference of pronunciation

we have, isn’t it?”

7. Rhetorical (asked for

effect only, no answer
expected from listeners,: “ Why did I do that? Because I….”.
answered by the
speaker)

Long calls question types 1 to 3 in the taxonomy echoic i.e. they are prompted
by the previous utterance, and thus are central to the negotiation of meaning.
Types 4 to 7 are called epistemic, meaning that they are designed to elicit
information. The interactionists hypothesis predict that the more the learner
engages in negotiation of meaning (with the teacher or with other learners) the
more productive this will be in terms of acquisition.

In conclusion, the students will be able to give response or feedback to the

teacher’s instructions if they understand the meaning or what the teacher said. And,
the class situation will be more interactive. It is because there will be a two way

communication.

14

2.3 Audio lingual Method

For the audiolingualists, language is regarded as a system whose primary

purpose is communication. Furthermore, language learning is determined by a set of

assumptions originated from behavioral psychology.

Some of these assumptions which have been expressed mainly by Brooks

(1960) and Rivers (1964) are: (1) Foreign language learning is a process whose final

outcome is the formation of habits; (2) The learning of language skills is more

effective when the oral aspects are presented before the written ones; (3) If language

learning is to be effective, more importance should be given to analogy than analysis;

(4) The meanings of the words of a foreign language can be learned only in their

corresponding linguistic and cultural context.

Since language is considered as verbal behavior, it is assumed that learning is

also the result of giving possibility to the students to answer the questions correctly,

and that positive reinforcement from the teacher greatly enhances learning by the

students. This method is based on the principles of behavior psychology. It adapted

many of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a reaction to

the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach (Mora, 1960).

 15

2.3.1 Meaningful Drill

Drilling is not a new or fashionable classroom technique, but, it is used

appropriately in the classroom, it can be such a great value to our learners. The word

drill refers to the process of training thoroughly by means of regularly repeated

exercises. Moreover, at its simplest meaning, drilling means listening to a model,

provided by the teacher, or a tape or another student, and repeating what is heard.

It also means as an instructional strategy of repetition of particular language in

either forms or meanings (Martin, 1999). Bush (1999), along with Van Patten (1993,

1996), and Tice (1997) stated that drilling is a technique which is dealing with a key

feature of audio lingual and behaviorism approaches to language teaching which

emphasized on repeating structural patterns through oral practice. Furthermore, drill

provides intensive oral practice of selected sentences (Scrievener, 1994:118).

The philosophy behind drills is based on behaviorist belief that through

repetition or restricted response drills they can be trained into automatic responses to

stimuli: if we get our students to answer the same question with the same answer ten

times in classroom, for example, then there is a fair chance that they will do the same

outside the classroom. The language used in drills is, therefore, usually very tightly

restricted, though some variations do offer limited creative opportunities (Scrievener,

1994).
 16

Moreover, meaningful drill is an instructional strategy of repetition of

particular language which promotes the acquisition of language in either forms or

meanings or both of them (Martin, 1999), (Bush 1999), this theory is also stated by

Cheers, Vance Stevens, Tice 1997).

Meaningful-drill is applied in order to give the students knowledge not only

about the sentence patterns (forms) but also, at least, to make them understand about

the meaning of the utterances they said. Lyster & Ranta, 1997 stated that in particular,

language learners are rarely pushed through negotiation of meaning. Kramsch (1986),

suggests that communication must include the ability to express, interpret and

negotiate meanings.

Furthermore, to response or to answer some questions drilled in short and

simple forms, it is better to apply meaningful drill activities in the classroom. With

meaningful drill, the students are not only supplied with the response but also give

them the information with which to create the new one. In the practice of repetition or

substitution drill, students only can make response without really understanding the

meaning of the sentences or how to response it based on their own perception. With

meaningful drill, the students need to know what is being said. For example;

T : ‘Where are you going?’

S : ‘I’m going to the zoo’.

T : ‘Why’

S : ‘ Because I want to see animals.’

Adapted from Doff, 1988:75, 1 March 2002

17
 Doff (1988) had his statement; A drill can be made communicative

(meaningful) if the teacher asks questions to the students to which they do not know

the answer easily. Meaning that, the drill is not communicative (meaningful) if the

teacher just asks, for example, ‘What color is your dress?’, because they can directly

see their dress and know the color of it.

It will be different if the teacher asks them; ‘What do you like to eat/drink?’ or

‘What do you usually do in the morning?’ or ‘What did you go last week?’ these

questions make the students think more seriously and try to dig or explore their

memory to find the answer. Those kinds of questions may also distinguish the answer

from one to other students.

An activity which bridges the info-gap in free conversation is a dialog drill. In

addition, dialogs are natural extensions of drills. It is not too difficult to practice the

drill in a dialog, because usually, the dialog for elementary level is made in short form

with simple pattern of sentences. Once a dialog has been memorized by the students,

it offers possibilities for creativity as long as they understand the meaning. Thus,

using meaningful drill will help the students not only to memorize and practice the

dialog but also understand the meaning in it (Doff, 1988; 76).

Based on the concept above, we may conclude that, the more we drill the

students meaningfully, the more chance it improves their attention to the teachers’

instructions, so that it can improve the interaction between teacher and students.

Below is the concept of drilling in teaching-learning process;

18

The teacher gives drilling materials (it could be in terms of pictures or written form of

words, phrases, sentences or short dialogs) for example;

1. By picture

T: Ok students, what’s this? Or What picture is it? (the teacher shows a picture;

e.g. doctor, injection, and patient).

S: A doctor

T: That’s good, ‘doctor’. Once again, please!

S: doctor.

T: Very good.

T: Now, What’s this? (The teacher shows a picture of injection)

S: …..

T: injection. What…

S: injection

T: once again, please! very good.

T: Next, what about this? (The teacher shows a picture of a patient)

S: patient

T: Ok, once again, please!

S: patient. Very good.

T: Now, repeat after me! (while combining all pictures)

A doctor- -injects- -a patient. Come on!

S: A doctor- -injects- -a picture

T: great. Once again!

19

T-S: A doctor-injects-a doctor.

T: perfect. Now, let’s try another picture!

2. By written form
(The materials are the same as in A, but, in this part, they are performed in written

form). The teacher writes those words one by one on the black board and drill

them in turns.

T: Ok students, repeat after me! (while appointing the words on the black

board). ‘a doctor’.

S: doctor.

T: A doctor.

S: A doctor

T: Good. Next, ‘injects’.

S: inject

T: injects

S: injects

T: good. Next, ‘a patient’.

S: patient

T: A patient

S: a patient

T: very good. Let’s say them all!

‘A doctor- - injects- -a patient’. Come on!

S: a doctor- -injects- -a patient

20

T: Once again, please!

S: a doctor-injects-a patient.

T: very nice. Ok, now, I want to ask you. What does a doctor do?

(while appointing the words which have been drilled).

 S: …..

T: A doctor…..

S: A doctor-injects-a patient.

T: very good. A doctor injects a patient. Why?

S: …..

T: because……

S: …..

T: because he is…

S: ‘sakit’

T: ok, what is ‘sakit’ in English?

S: …

T: sick. Ok, all of you!

S: sick

T: ok, now, Why does a doctor injects the patient? Because…..

S: because he is sick.

T: very good.

21

These two styles (A&B) can be combined or applied in a time. During the

drilling process, the students possibly do not know the meaning of a certain word or

phrase. In this case, the teacher may tell them the meaning, but, only once (it could be

in the beginning or the end of the drilling process). However, it is done after giving
such gestures, pictures, etc., but still do not bring sicnificant changes to their

understanding.

22
 Chapter III

Methodology

3.1. Research Design

The design of this research project is an Action Research, a qualitative action

research. Typically, action research is undertaken in a school setting. It is a reflective

process that allows for inquiry and discussion as components of the “research.” Often,

action research is a collaborative activity among colleagues searching for solutions to

everyday, real problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve

instruction and increase student achievement (Ferrance, 2004).

Furthermore, Qualitative Action Research is defined as one type of action

research designs dealing with an effort to improve one specific point in a teacher’s

technique in a particular classroom using empirical measurement (Richards, Platt &

Platt, 1992). It may also be defined an action research as teacher-initiated classroom

research which tries to increase the teacher’s understanding of classroom and

learning, and to bring about improvements in classroom practices. This kind of

research project typically involves a small-scale investigation projects in the teacher’s

own classroom. In short, action research is called for when the research literature does

not provide the teacher or administrator with sufficient basis for making an important

educational decision (Borg, 1981).

23

3.1.1 Three Characteristics of Action Research

 There are three characteristics of action research; First, the problem

which is being researched is the real problem. Second, this kind of research is

conducted to investigate the local problem occurs in the local setting. Third, it

has purpose to improve one specific point in a teacher’s technique to improve

the teaching-learning process.

3.1.2. Cyclical-step in conducting Action Research

The diagram below (diagram 2) describes circle-step of action research.

Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle n…
Step 1 Step 1

New Step Step 2 Step 2

New step

Step 3

Step 5 Step 3

Step 5 Step 4

Step 4

There are at least five steps that are usually covered in conducting an Action

Research as which are described on the diagram 2 above;

24

Step 1, determining the problem or Problem Identification. To begin the

action research process, first of all, the researcher needs to identify the focus
(problem), determine the area of teaching and learning that is intended to

explore. The focus should be on an area of which the researcher has some

control and wants to change or improved. The researcher should describe the

situation he wants to change or improve. Then, the researcher should identify

the questions that need to be answered. In this research project, for example, the

researcher is trying to improve teacher-student interaction in day-to-day activity

in the classroom. The researcher identifies that the major factor causing

students’ passiveness is because they don’t know about the meaning of every

single word of English.

Step 2 is planning for action. In this step, the researcher should draw or

determine what strategy that will be applied to answer the question. In this case,

the researcher applies meaningful-drill through the audio lingual method. The

researcher assumes that by applying meaningful-drill the students will not only

able to say English words, phrases, or sentences but also understand about their

meaning. Next, the students will understand about the teacher’s instructions and

answer the questions. Finally, the interaction among the teacher and the students

will be improved. Step 3 is, collecting data. This step describes about what,

when, where, why and how the researcher collects the data to support the

analysis.

25

The data must be real. In this research project, the researcher uses diary

journal and a teacher partner to analyze and give such suggestion or critics to

control the treatment process.

 Step 4 is analyzing the data. After collecting the data, the next step is

analyzing them whether they are the real and valid ones, whether the strategy

applied has worked or given such progress to answer the question or problem. It

is also important to explain about what kind of pattern used to analyze the data.

Step 5 is planning for future action. The next step is, planning the next

action which is considered necessary to be applied based on the findings. It may

be done by involving some questions as follows:

- What have you learned?

- How do you feel about it?

- How do your conclusions differ from what you thought

which you would learn?

- Do the conclusions seem believable?

- What actions might you take based on your conclusions?

- What new questions emerge for you from the data?

- Who else might be interested in these conclusions?

- What are strategies to share your conclusions with others?

Those five steps are applied as many as they are needed until there is significant

changes occur.

26

Because of limited time, cost and also facility belongs to the school where this

research project is conducted, the researcher only applies those five steps twice

to minimize the difficulty level when conducting this research.

3.2 Population and Sample

 The population and sample of this research are the ten students at the 5th grade

of State Elementary School (SDN) of Kemangi, Bungah-Gresik consisting of five

male students and five female students. Those number are the total of the students’

number in that class. It means that those are the total of the population of this research

project.

3.2.1 Sampling Technique

It is the fact that because the number of this research samples are absolutely

the same as the population, it can be considered that the population of this research is

Sampling Population. Furthermore, when the number of the sample is the same as the

population, it can be considered as Sampling Population (Borg, 1981).

3.3. Instrument

The instruments used by the researcher in this research project to collect some

data which are necessary to support this research are interview, diary journal and

teacher-partner or assistant (Gaies, 1983).

27

It is also suggested that Action Research or Class-centered Research should be

conducted by the principal method of direct classroom observation as well as the

introspective method, which includes interviews, questionnaires, and diary studies or

assistant. (Allwright & Bailey, 1991).

3.4. Data Collection

 The main goal of this research project is to observe how opportunities in

gaining communicative ability are enhanced or reduced inside an EFL classroom

through the categorization of activity types and the analysis of patterns of interaction.

In achieving this goal, the researcher employs primary data collection methods

including qualitative interview involving the teacher and the students (Devault, 1990;

Holstein & Gubrium, 1995), and field notes on direct observation that permitted an

insiders’ view (Agar, 1980). In order to collect the data, the researcher applies several

steps which are considered as follows; First, the researcher gives questionnaire to the

students to analyze their needs.

Second, based on the result of the questionnaire, the researcher finds that the

passiveness is because they do not know the meaning of English words. So, the

researcher applies meaningful drill to help them to understand the lesson. Third, when

applying meaningful drill, the researcher records all activities into a diary journal or

study. Fourth, the researcher also involves a teacher partner or assistant to help him

giving contribution to his data collection.

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Fifth, as the continuation, the researcher conducts a short interview using

similar materials to the drilled ones, but in terms of oral. The last step is, discuss with

the partner or assistance to get some suggested ideas. Because of limited facility in

that school and expensive cost, it is impossible to use such a video taping, audio

taping to record all the activities. However, it does not significantly influence the

validity of the data. In addition, it is also because the researcher involves a teacher-

partner to control the data collection process.

3.5. Data Analysis

In order to support the researcher in drawing the conclusion of the research

and to get valid conclusion, data analysis is necessarily needed. Data analysis is aimed

to compare the condition before being given treatment with the condition after being

given treatment. So that, it will finally, get obvious and significant impacts or

differences before and after this research project is conducted.

In this section, the researcher describes interaction patterns based on some

indicators adapted from Long’s interaction theory. The data are based on observation,

recording, interview, diary journal, and partner’s notes. With this data, the researcher

notes the opportunities that provide or hinder students’ opportunities for learning

English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It is because the design of this research is

Qualitative Action Research which is defined as one type of action research designs

dealing with an effort to improve one specific point in a teacher’s technique in a

particular classroom using empirical measurement (Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992).

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