various methods of linguistic research

Method of Research

According to Oxford Dictionary, method is way of doing something. It could be said that method is a particular form of procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one. Then, there is a set of method or a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity which is called methodology. There are many kinds of method in Linguistic research method, such as descriptive, comparative, structural, etc.

This research uses qualitative method. According to Moleong (1989: 4-8) , the characteristics of qualitative method are natural setting in an entity context; the instrument is human; analysis of the data using inductive analysis; the research has descriptive character; theory developing is grounded theory (bottom-up); process is more important than result; the design is temporary; and result of the research is discussed and agreed together. So that, a qualitative method is a research method to a certain problem which is not designed using statistics procedures.
In the research, the researcher uses comparative analysis to analyze and describe the data because the data are gathered in word and phoneme forms, so that, the researcher compares two languages based on the kind of sounds of each languages.
1. Object of the Study
The object of this study is Mandarin phonological system and English phonological system. Both languages are compared in term of segmental and some suprasegmental phonemes. The data are taken from books, dictionary, and also oral speaking. The researcher takes some of Jackie Chan’s movies, such as Shanghai Noon; Shanghai Knights; and Rush Hour 3. The comparison is done in term of the similarities and differences between those two languages.

2. Data Collecting Technique
To collect the data, the researcher uses Metode Simak (Observation Method). According to Mahsun, metode simak is a method which is used to find the data by observing the use of the language (2005: 90). The observing here is not only for oral source, but also written source, such as articles, manuscript, dictionary, etc. This method has a basic technique in the form of tapping technique (teknik sadap). In collecting the data, the researcher taps the use of the informant language (Mahsun, 2005: 90). According to Mahsun, the follow-up of this method are Teknik Simak Libat Cakap (Involved Conversation Observation Technique) and Teknik Simak Bebas Libat Cakap (Uninvolved Conversation Observation Technique). “Teknik Simak Libat Cakap” means that the researcher is a participant in the conversation, and observes the conversation. In this case, the researcher is involved directly in the conversation. “Teknik Simak Bebas Libat Cakap” means that the researcher is just an observer of the informant’s language and the researcher is not involved directly in conversation (2005: 91). In this research, the researcher is involved in both techniques.
Those techniques are combined with Teknik Catat (Writing Technique). “Teknik Catat” is the continuation technique which applies the observation method. This technique is done by writing some relevant data from the source or informant (2005: 91-92).

3.Source of the Data
The data source which is taken is in a written and also oral form. The data are taken from some books which are related to the lesson of Mandarin and English language. The data contains words and phrases which would be analyzed one by one. Some of written form data are taken from internet too.
The oral forms are taken from Jackie Chan’s movies Shanghai Noon; Shanghai Knights; and Rush Hour 3. The researcher chooses the movies because those movies contain native speaker Mandarin, American English and British English. Beside that, the researcher takes some data from some lessons in Mandarin course where the researcher joins.

4.Data Analyzing Technique
The researcher uses comparative analysis to analyze the data by comparing the source data of those two languages. So, the way to do this research is comparing the elements of the language.

According to Mahsun, a research which is done by comparing and connecting the elements of data sources is called Metode Padan (Comparing Method) (2005: 112). There are two kinds of Metode Padan, Metode Padan Intralingual (Intralingua Comparing Method) and Metode Padan Ekstralingual (Extralingua Comparing Method) (2005: 112). In this research, the researcher uses Metode Padan Intralingual which is an analysis method by comparing two lingual elements, either in a same language or different language (2005: 112). After the data have been collected, those data are analyzed by using Teknik Hubung Banding Menyamakan (Connecting and Comparing Technique). The last object of the analysis is to find a similar base between the data which are compared (2005: 113).

This research also looks similar to Soepomo’s Penelitian Komparatif (Comparative research) because the most important way to do this research is to compare the data (Soepomo, unpublished: 35). For example this research will analyze English and Mandarin, the researcher analyzes the consonant, vowel, and suprasegmental phoneme (tone) objects of those two languages by observing the similarities between them.

Next Item : G. Presentation

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A. Background for Choosing the Study
B. Problem Formulation
C. Objectives of the Study
D. Scope of the Study
E. Review on Related Studies