Method of Teaching and Learning

3. Method of Teaching and Learning

In the process of teaching and learning English for students with visual impairment, the teacher used traditional learning approach in which the learning process is teacher-centered rather than student-centered. It meant that the learners act as the listeners without doing any other activities as the effort to construct their own knowledge about the materials which delivered by the teacher. This was done In the process of teaching and learning English for students with visual impairment, the teacher used traditional learning approach in which the learning process is teacher-centered rather than student-centered. It meant that the learners act as the listeners without doing any other activities as the effort to construct their own knowledge about the materials which delivered by the teacher. This was done

A big role of teacher, then, influenced the strategy in teaching and learning

process. The class becomes in teacher-centered in which the activity in the class is centered on teacher. The lesson tends to be teacher-centered, as the teacher leads the activity and provides necessary information. For the students with visual impairment, this strategy was really helpful. It is caused the students get difficulties in catching the lessons which most of them were in verbal form. Besides, they were also difficult to use the book and have a limitation in the

ability of touching, hearing, and memorizing. This strategy showed that the

teacher was an effective model of the target language and an important source of information on how the learners are doing.

Furthermore, Teacher SW applies the method of teaching that suggested by Westwood (2008: 49). He allowed much more time for students with impaired vision to complete their work. If the time is out, that assignment becomes homework. Then, he read written instructions to students to reduce the amount of time required to begin a task and to ensure that the work is understood. After that,

he uses very clear descriptions and explanations; verbal explanation has to compensate for what the student cannot easily see. Besides, he speaks to blind students frequently by name during lessons to engage them fully in the group learning processes and valued their contributions. He also has to make sure that any assistive equipment is always at hand and in good order.

Supporting English learning, the teacher used some materials which are taken from some sources, such as: guidance book, electronic book, KangGuru radio, and internet. In term with the guidance book, Teacher SW uses English on Sky (EOS) for Junior High School Students Year IX published by Erlangga. He just takes some material concerning with the task in order to give the assignment for the students. However, he took more material from Erlangga Fokus UN SMP/MTs 2012 which compiled by national examination test from year to year. Almost of daily exercises is obtained from this source. According to him, this book was proper to use because the language was easy to understand and representative the material that should be given to the ninth grade students.

Besides, Teacher SW also took some materials from electronic book entitled English in Focus for Grade IX Junior High School (SMP/MTS) published by Pusat Perbukuan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional especially for the text source used in reading comprehension. Then, for listening skill, the teacher took the source from KangGuru radio included some materials from the conversation or interview. He commented that the speaker of KangGuru was a native; the speech was not to fast; and easy to understand. Therefore, he chose to take listening material from this source in order to make the students accustom with English speaker.

Regarding with Richards (2005: 30), the role of instructional materials includes the following specifications:

1) Material will allow the learner to progress at their own rates of learning.

3) Material will provide opportunities for independent study and use.

4) Material will provide opportunities for self-evaluation and progress in learning. The finding of teaching materials selected by Teacher SW allows the learners to progress at their own rates of learning. Through the daily exercises given by the teacher, the students became accustom in doing the exercise that will help them more in national examination. Teaching materials selected also allow the different styles of learning and provide opportunities in learning progress. However, the material cannot be used to independent study because Teacher SW was seldom printed the material in the Braille form.