CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A.​ ​Research Design

In this study the researcher uses descriptive qualitative approach because of some
characteristics. First, the data of this study is in the form of words and utterances that consist
of the use of politeness principle performed by the teacher and students in EFL classroom
interaction. Second, this study uses human instrument: the researcher herself as the primary
instrument for data collection and data analysis. Third, the purpose of this study are to get
understanding and deep information about politeness strategies used by the teacher and
students in EFL classroom interaction.

The appropriate design of the study is content or document analysis since the data is
studied in the form of utterances uttered by by the teacher and students in EFL classroom
interaction . According to Ary et al (2002:442) content or document analysis is a research
method applied to written or visual materials for the purposes of identifying specified
characteristics of the material. Then, the researcher uses naturalistic observation because this
research takes place in natural setting.

B.​ ​Data and Data Sources

This research uses the primary data from teacher and students’ utterances in EFL
classroom interaction. Primary research is a study based on “original data” when the
researcher collects the data herself (Zacharias, 2012:11). Source of data are taken from
dialogue transcription in EFL classroom interaction. The data of this study are taken from
observation using audio recording of the teacher and students’ utterances in EFL classroom
interaction containing the use of politeness strategies. Then, the secondary data in this study
is the literature, the handbook that are relevant to this study.

C.​ ​Technique of Data Collection

The technique of data collection are documentation, participant observation and

interview. Bogdan and Biklen (1992:2) say that in depth interview and participant
observation are common ways in qualitative research. It is due to qualitative research in
naturalistic, this technique is appropriate for this research because it can result natural data.
This study is conducted through several systematic steps of collecting the data. At first, the
researcher records the teacher and students’ utterances in EFL classroom interaction. The
next step is writing the script into written dialogue that makes it available to be analyzed. To
ensure the accuracy of the transcription, the researcher precisely recheck and compares it
with the actual dialogue in the audio recording. Afterwards, the researchers identifies and
selects the chunks of utterances uttered by the teacher and students which contain of
politeness strategies. Finally, the researcher systematically classifies and arranges the data to
be easily analyzes.

D.​ ​Research Instrument

In qualitative research in the literature study, the main instrument of this study is the
researcher herself. Lincoln and Guba (Bogdan and Biklen: 1982,76) said that only human
instrument that is flexible to capture the complexity of the human experience. The other
equipments used to help her in analyzing the data are the audio recording, the transcription, a
computer, papers, and a pen.

Research instrument is device or facility used by researcher in gathering the data to

make the work easier and the result better, more complete, and systematic, so that, the data is
easier to be processed. There are some kinds of research instrument: test, questionnaires,
interview, observation, rating scale, and documentation.

In this research, the research uses instrument to collect data by observation, interview
and documentation. The documentation method is used to conduct the research that originates
in writings. The data in this research is collected by numbering the utterences. Then, the data
taken from the teacher and students are put on the table analysis and selected for discussion.

E.​ ​Technique of Data Verification

The technique which is applied to establish the trustworthiness of the data is

triangulation. Triangulation is typically perceived to be a strategy for improving the validity
of the data. Denzin (1994) identifies four basic types of triangulation. Firstly, data
triangulation involves time, space, and person. Secondly, investigator triangulation involves
multiple researchers in an investigation. Thirdly, triangulation theory involves using more
than one theoretical scheme in the interpretation of the phenomena. Fourthly, methodological
triangulation involves using more than one method to gather data, such as interview,
observation, questionnaires, and document. This study uses methodological triangulation.
Multiple data gathering were conducted to get the data valid, such as observation, and
interview. This is intended to create overlapping and therefore cross-validating data in the
study.

F.​ ​Data Analysis

Data analysis is a process whereby researcher systematically searches and arranges

the data in order to increase their understanding of the data and to enable them present what
they learned to others (Ary et al, 2002;465). The research uses three steps in analyzing the
data as suggested by Ary et al (2002), those are:

1. Organizing the data

The first step in analyzing qualitative data involved organizing the data. Bogdan and
Biklen as cited by ary (1998) suggested that the researcher could actually begin some data
analysis in the field while collecting the data. In this step, the researcher transcribed recorded
dialogue and typed the data into good order. Then the researcher coded all of the data which
involve in politeness strategies by applying Brown and Levinson’s theory (1987).

2. Summarizing the data

Here, the researcher began to see what is in the data. The researcher examined all the
entries with the same codes and then classified the data that belongs to politeness strategies.
Then, the researcher found the relationships among the categories.

3. Interpreting the data

In interpretation, the researcher goes beyond the descriptive data to extract meaning
and insight from the data. Ary (2002:470) proposed that interpreting qualitative data is
difficult, because there are no set rules to follow. The quality of the interpretation depends on
the background, perspective, knowledge, and theoretical orientation of the researcher, there
are no statistical tests of significance to facilitate interpretation of qualitative data. Here, after
the data are classified into the types of politeness strategies the researcher interpreted the
meaning.

4. Reporting

The last step for qualitative researcher is to write about she saw, heard, and
now understand about the phenomenon that was investigated. Report of qualitative
inquiry of course, vary in form depending on the nature of the publication in which they
appeared.