THE ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA’S READING ABILITY (A Case Study at SLB N Budi Utama Kesambi Kota Cirebon) - IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon
THE ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA’S READING ABILITY (A Case Study at SLB N Budi Utama Kesambi Kota Cirebon)
A THESIS
Submitted to English Language Teaching Department, Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty, Syekh Nurjati State Islamic Institute Cirebon in Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements of Undergraduate Degree
By:
LILIK MALIHATIN
Reg. Numb: 14111320111
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING DEPARTMENT
TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING FACULTY
SYEKH NURJATI STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE
ABSTRACK
Lilik Malihatin, 14111320111. The Analysis of Student With Dyslexia in Reading Ability (A
Case Study at SLB Budi Utama Kesambi Cirebon
In Cirebon, the researcher found students with dyslexia at SLB Budi Utama Kesambi his name is Muhammad Adrian. He is one of students with dyslexia, in the speaking he always lost the first word in a sentence and when he read the book or magazine his head always tilt the right and very slowly. His mother said that when he was born is normal and grow same with the other child, but he always get sick and late speak than the other and his mother took the initiative to take him to the doctor to find the disease , and from there to know that his son had dyslexia disease. The doctor suggested that he must get therapy in every week or every month.
In general, this research is aimed at investigating the student with dyslexia learn English. In particularly, this study is intended 1) To know the implementation of English Study for student with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi Utama Kesambi Cirebon City. 2) Know the problem faced by the student with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi Utama Kesambi Cirebon City. 3) Know the solution to improve reading ability for student with dyslexia of SLB Budi Utama Kesambi Cirebon City.
The research design which is used in this study is descriptive qualitative research.Qualitative research focuses on understanding social phenomena and providing rich verbal descriptions of setting, situations, and participants..The researcher will research at SLB N Budi UtamaKesambi. The research observation will do at member of students SLB N Budi UtamaKesambi particularlystudent with dyslexia. Theresearch willstrart from January until March 2016.The data of this research taken from participants of student with dyslexia in SLB N Kesambi his name is Muhammad Adrian.
The result is described during English Learning process at SLB Budi Utama Kesambi Cirebon especially to the students with dyslexia. Learning styles may reflect cultural experiences. Adrian is a student with dyslexia in SLB Budiutama Kesambi makes an interesting point which further indicates that each student with dyslexia should be taught in the way he learns best. He was not good in producing words orally since he was not good in verbal skill.
Teachers recognized the initial ability and characteristic of each student very well either their ability and disability, their speed and retard in absorbing learning material and behaving so that each student especially the disabled will get the equal treatment and attention. Teachers developed learning strategy that stimulates student to be actively involved either physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. Teachers proposed some problems in their surroundings. The disabled especially the dyslexia are trained to find the formula, find the data, analyze and solve the problem according to their ability.
Keywords: Reading Ability, Psycholinguistics, Dyslexia
THE TABLE OF CONTENT Contents Page
TITLE ................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii LETTER OF AUTHENCITY ............................................................................... iii APPROVAL ......................................................................................................... iv OFFICIAL NOTE ................................................................................................. v CURRICULUM VITATE .................................................................................... vi MOTTO ................................................................................................................ vii DEDICATION ...................................................................................................... viii PREFACE ............................................................................................................. ix TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................ x
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1 A. The Background of the Problem.................................................................. 1 B. Focus of The Study ...................................................................................... 5 C. Research Question ....................................................................................... 6 D. The Aims of The research ........................................................................... 7 E. The Significance of the Research ................................................................ 7 F. Previous Study ............................................................................................. 8 G. Frame of Thought ........................................................................................ 9 1. Student with Dyslexia ............................................................................. 9 2. Reading Ability ....................................................................................... 23 a. Definition of Reading......................................................................... 23 b. Priciples of Reading ........................................................................... 25 c. Types of Reading ............................................................................... 25 d. Reading Ability .................................................................................. 27 H. Conceptual Framework ............................................................................. 30 I. Research Method ...................................................................................... 33 1. The Research Setting .......................................................................... 33
2. Research Design.................................................................................. 33 3.
Research System ................................................................................. 34 J. Technique and Instrument of Collecting Data .......................................... 35 1.
Observation ........................................................................................ 35 2. Interview ............................................................................................ 36 3. Documentation ................................................................................... 37 K. Research Timeline .................................................................................... 37 L. Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 38 M.
The Condition of SLB Budi Utama .......................................................... 39
CHAPTER II THE PROCESS OF ENGLISH STUDY IN THE CLASSROOM FOR STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA IN READING ABILITY OF SLB N BUDI UTAMA KESAMBI CIREBON .......................................................................................... 41 A. English Study for Student with Dyslexia .................................................... 41 B. The Process Study in the Classroom for Student Dyslexia ......................... 45 CHAPTER III THE PROBLEM FACED BY THE STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA IN READING ABILITY OF SLB N BUDI UTAMA KESAMBI ............................ 52 CHAPTER IV THE SOLUTION TO IMPROVE READING ABILITY FOR STUDENT WITH DYSLEXIA OF SLB N BUDI UTAMA KESAMBI ............ 58 A. The Phonic Method ................................................................................... 59 B. The Look and Say Method and Using Flashcards .................................... 60 C. The Real Book Method ............................................................................. 62 D. Region Pronunciation................................................................................ 63 E. Short and Long Vowels ........................................................................... 63 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 65 A. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 65 B. Suggestion ................................................................................................ 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 68 APPENDIXES
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Problem Ronald Wardhaugh (1977: 07) said that language is used for
communication. So mastering language is to have the ability to use that language for communicating purpose both. Spoken and written. The ability to understand spoken English language is very important because it is language spoken an over world.
In English, the students can reading well is very important because by reading is arranged to teach the goal and the function of teaching English, namely and the real function, that is the function of communication.
Reading is that it is process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written the key words here is understands, reading aloud without understanding does not count as reading. According to Knneth Goodman (1967:126) that reading as psycholinguistic guessing game.
The phenomenon is more ironic when experienced by children with special needs who have learning difficulties, children with disorders such as dyslexia, which according to Gillis (Beacham, 2006) based on the results of his research found that 50-100 % of dyslexia is not only difficult to read but also has a mathematical difficulties.
Incidence of dyslexia in the world range 5-17 % in school. Dyslexia is a disorder that most often occurs in learning problems. Among the countries that have difficulty reading, Indonesia is one country that has problems of difficulty learning to read. Nationally based on data from the Department of Education reading skills of elementary school students in Indonesia is still low (Kompass, 2008).
Various studies show that most children who have dyslexia experiencing weakness on the skills of phonological (Marshall, 2001) weakness named quickly (Wolf, 2000 and Snowling, 2004) have memory very short very least once, causing difficult to remember what was said (Wadlington, 2000). Language mastery for dyslexic children need to be developed and this is one of the most important thing in children's language development dyslexia. It required more intensive training and guidance for students who have difficulty reading.
Handling of reading difficulties are expected, because the activity of learning in children ranging from how people read, and the process of reading the book will be in the most important for a child 's future life. Research on special treatment techniques for dyslexic still lacking and there is no one method that is suitable for all dyslexic children (Carl &Uhry, 1995; Putnam, 1996: Spafford& Grosser, 1996, in Wadlington, 2000). Because it is the first step to understand who actually dyslexic children, as well as language skills possessed by various approach dyslexic children. Including how to apply the For example dyslexic children can be helped by the addition of pre-school lesson hours (Hindson, 2000). Recognizing the importance of language skills possessed including dyslexic children it is important to do the research capability of reading for dyslexics.
There is the sequence of the pedagogy is informed by this model of language-in-context, ordering the complex task of reading and writing in manageable steps, from patterns in the context, to the text, to its sentences and words, enabling all learners to succeed with each component in turn (Martin & Rose, 2007a, 2008).
The first step prepares learner for following a text as it is read aloud, the second is using spoken, the third visual and manual modalities to explore the text’s field, depending on the nature of the text and the needs of students. The manual practiced of manipulating and marking wordings powerfully reinforces the movement between aural and visual modalities, leading to reading with understanding and fluency. These activities materialize the semiotic relations between meaning and wording, and between spoken and written expression.
According to Vygotsky, the child is an active learner in a world full of other people. Those people play important roles in helping children to learn, bringing objects and ideas to their attention, talking while playing and about playing, reading stories, asking question. In a whole range of ways, adults mediate the world for children and make it accessible to them. The ability to intelligence. With the help of adults, children can do and understand much more than they can on their own (Cameron, 2001: 5).
Vygotsky used the idea of the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) to give a new meaning to intelligence. Rather than measuring intelligence by what a child can do alone, Vygotsky suggested that intelligence was better measured by what a child can do with skilled help. Different children at the same point in development will make different uses of the same help from an adult. Learning to do things and learning to think are both helped by interacting with an adult. Vygotsky saw the child as first doing things in a social context, with other people and language helping in various ways, and gradually shifting away from reliance on others to independent action and thinking (Cameroon, 2001: 6).
Many study of dyslexia on the other nation and the writters about how the student with dyslexia and disabilities get the educational higher but there are the problems with the working memory on their study particularly in writing. And beside that developmental dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in phonological processing, so the teacher should receive adequate training to be in position to identify the student in need. On the other hand motivation and support also should follow in order to assist the students and improve their skills.
In Cirebon, the researcher found students with dyslexia at SLB Budi UtamaKesambi his name is Muhammad Adrian. He is one of students with he read the book or magazine his head always tilt the right and very slowly. His mother said that when he was born is normal and grow same with the other child, but he always get sick and late speak than the other and his mother took the initiative to take him to the doctor to find the disease , and from there to know that his son had dyslexia disease. The doctor suggest that he must get therapy in every week or every month.
According to the explanations, the writer would to take about the development of student with dyslexia in the English learning to improve their reading ability B.
Focus of the Study
The writers focus on developmental student with dyslexia, which are defined disability in the reading ability, motivation and exact level of education necessary to read and speaking successfully. Student with dyslexia is not lazy or unintelligent, but his brain simply work when it comes processing information. So, the writer will identify reading ability student with dyslexia.
It is stated that students of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi especially for students dyslexia may have certain difficulties in English Reading, and it is clear that students need serious attention in learning. How to implementation teaching reading by approaching and need intensive educational help.
Ekual and Shanker (1988) state a student’s ability or inability to read
1. Physical factors: the eyes and seeing, auditory problem, laterality mixed dominance, directional confusion, and neurological problem.
2. Psychological factors: emotional problems, intelligence, and self-concept.
3. Socio Economic, ethnic background and its social relationship, presence of father in the home, economic level, dialect, presence of books or sibling relationship.
4. Educational factor, teacher personality, method of teaching reading school policy or promotion, materials available, and class size.
C. Research Questions 1.
How the implementation of English Study for students with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City?
2. What the problems faced by the students with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City?
3. What is the solutions to improve reading ability for students with dyslexia of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City?
D. The Aims of the Research
In general, this research is aimed at investigating the student with dyslexia learn English. In particularly, this study is intended to:
1. To know the implementation of English Study for student with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City.
2. To know the problem faced by the student with dyslexia in reading ability of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City.
3. To know the solution to improve reading ability for student with dyslexia of SLB Budi UtamaKesambi Cirebon City.
E. The Significance of the Research
The significance of this research is expected to give theoretical and practical significance of research.
1. Theoretical Theoretically, this research is expected to give information what student problems in learning English and difficulties teacher in the learning process, the problems that the student have so they can improve their knowledge in learning English.
2. Practical Practically, the writer expects that this research would provide further information for English Teacher and the parent’s in developing the quality of teaching and learning process. While for the students, it can be used as basis to improve their ability in reading comprehension.
F. Theoretical Foundation
This study is framed among some theoretical, the first is Student with dyslexia, and the last is reading ability. This theoretical set out more fully in
1. Student With Dyslexia
Historically, Sir Henry Broadbent was the first scientist who mentioned the term dyslexia in 1872 when he described patients who had lost the ability to read following brain injury (Beaton in Christo, Davis, and Brock, 2009, p. 4). However, the most well-known researcher on dyslexia in this early age was James Hinshelwood who published a series of papers describing cases of what was called “word and letter blindness.” Then, Morgan’s work on dyslexia rose as the most prevalent work. In 1928, Orton introduced the concept of strephosymbolia, the problems of reversing letters and words. In this early age of the development of dyslexia, he had proposed that there was a relationship between cerebral dominance and reading. After that, a lot of work on dyslexia research emerged.
The term dyslexia itself comes from the Greek dys which means “impaired” and lexis which means “word”, and refers to impairment of reading and spelling that is not due to low intelligence or lack of educational opportunity (Brunswick 2009, p. 1). Berlin (1887) in Beaton (2004, p. 3) argues that the term dyslexia refers to reading difficulties caused by cerebral disease or injury. In other words, people are unable to read because their brain is damaged. Gavin Reid (2005, p. 6) argues that dyslexic children have problems with their left hemisphere. As the result, they will find it more difficult and exhausting when they have a task which
Basically, dyslexic children may have a collection of reading, spelling, naming, and memory impairments caused by problems of perceiving and manipulating the sounds of language, and with associating written letters with their spoken representations. It may occur in people with average or above average intelligence.
Many scientists argue that having a parent with dyslexia may be a significant risk for reading disability (Christo, Davis, and Brock, 2009, p.
29). In other words, this illness can be heritable. A longitudinal study conducted in England by Snowling reported that 66% of students are identified delaying in reading at the age of eight due to having a parent with dyslexia. However, much more boys than girls are identified as having reading disabilities.
Dyslexia may be either acquired or developed. Field (2004, p. 98) defines acquired dyslexia as the loss of reading ability as the result of illness, accident, or brain surgery. In other words, it is a reading impairment resulting from brain injury. Meanwhile, developed dyslexia is delayed acquisition of reading skills and/or the deviated reading processes which is generally observed in children (Field, 2004, p. 99).
Thus, it is impairment in the developmentof reading and spelling skills. Developed dyslexia is divided into two subtypes which are distinguished by problems with reading different kinds of words. Brunswick (2009, p. 13) notes those two subtypes of acquired dyslexia: by a difficulty in changing written letters into their corresponding sounds and reading unfamiliar real words. It is also characterized by making up nonsense words (e.g. glomp). Meanwhile, surface dyslexia is characterized by difficulty in recognizing words visually as whole units and in reading irregular words (e.g. aisle or chord).
Brunswick (2009, p. 110-111) illustrates the complex process of reading as follow. At the first time seeing a written text, the light from the page enters to the eyes and is converted into electrical signals. These signals are transmitted to the optic disk at the back of the eye. From the optic disk, visual information is sent via the optic nerve to a structure deep inside the brain, called the thalamus. The thalamus receives sensory information and passes it to the part of the brain to be analyzed. Visual information is sent to the visual cortex, auditory information, and soon.
The visual cortex analyzes the visual features of the letters on the page. This process occurs in angular gyrus. The angular gyrus is where visual and auditory information is combined, in this case is where information from printed text is converted into its spoken form.
From the angular gyrus, the sound of the spoken word passes to Wernicke’s area where it is recognized and given meaning. Thus, readers understand what have been read. If the word is to be pronounced, the in formation passes again to Broca’s area which contains memories of the muscle movements that readers need to pronounce words. If the word is to
”say” the word, sub-vocally, to themselves. If the word is to be read aloud, the information passes to the motor cortex which controls the muscles of the lips, jaws, and tongue. Finally readers speak what is read. Basically, the route of reading process is illustrated as follow.
Brunswick (2009, p. 116) states that the majority of dyslexic brains (about 70%) contain regions of the temporal lobe which are found to be symmetrical. Parts of the parietal and occipital lobes are also larger in the right than left hemisphere. These abnormal patterns of symmetry/asymmetry have been associated with poorer language skills including poor phonological processing. The more symmetrical the cerebellum is, the poorer their ability to read non-words is. That the regions in the right hemisphere are larger may be the result of insufficient “pruning” of cells in the right hemisphere. The brain regions involved in the processing of language are usually larger in the left hemisphere than in the right. Thus, symmetry or reversed asymmetry of these regions may disturb normal language development and increase the risk of developmental language disorders.
Despite having phonological impairment, children with dyslexia also have a problem with visual ability. According to Christo, Davis, and Brock (2009, p. 16), reading ability influences eye movement. When readers see a printing text, the eyes attempt to extract the meaning or the text. While reading, the eye stops for 200
- –250 ms (millisecond or
- –40 ms from the next stimuli to the subsequent ones but the eye does not take in the information. This process is called saccades. Therefore, it is believed that readers with eye movement problem may have risk in reading.
Christo, Davis, and Brock (2009, p. 17) point out that many scientists also believe that inefficient temporal processing is the central of the etiology (a scientific study of the cause of diseases) of dyslexia. This happens as the brain has inability in performing tasks which need a brief stimuli process in rapid temporal or sequential succession. Moreover, many researchers argue that phonological deficits as the core deficits of dyslexia.
Actually, signs of dyslexi a vary and depend on the person’s age, sex, family background, educational experience, level of intelligence, and whether they also have other developmental problems. There are some characteristics of dyslexia: 1. having difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition; 2. having poor spelling and decoding abilities; 3. having problem with rapid naming, working memory, and processing speed;
4. having problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge;
5. having poor pronunciation of long words; 6. facing difficulty of writing in a structure manner, whether it is slow and messy handwriting;
7. facing difficulty with counting, performing mental arithmetic, understanding and applying mathematical concepts; and
8. having movement disturbance which makes them difficult to organize strategies for learning coordination and tasks such as tying shoelaces.
However, it is sometimes unclear at the first time to diagnose that a child is suffering from dyslexia. This leads to debate among psychologists about the factor of poor reading, whether it is the result of low intelligence, brain injury, lack of motivation, emotional immaturity, or adverse educational conditions. Nicolson and Fawcett (1992) in Beaton (2004, p. 149) state that a child is validly diagnosed as having dyslexia if he/she has failed to learn to read for two years. There are no blood tests, DNA tests, or x-rays and MRI scans to diagnose dyslexia. It can only be diagnosed based on s omeone’s reading performance on a range of standardized tests of cognitive ability.
Dealing with dyslexia, three problems emerge. The first problem is related to types of linguistic errors of dyslexia, the second is related to environmental factors of dyslexia which can determine the best teaching approaches used, and the last problem is related to kinds of teaching approaches that are used to recover a person from dyslexia. Given here is a.
Miscue Analysis There are so many strategies proposed by scientists to identify types of errors in dyslexia. One of them is miscue analysis. Goodman
(1976) in Reid (2005, p. 12- 15) proposes a strategy called miscue analysis during oral reading which clearly shows types of linguistic errors in dyslexia. These kinds of miscues will give the clues about how familiar or unfamiliar the reader finds the content of the text and how easy or difficult they find the text to read. Goodman tends to use the term miscue, unexpected response, which indicates either strength or weakness on the reader's part.
The strategy known as miscue analysis is based on the “top- down
” approach for reading. In this strategy readers have to make prediction of what the text likely means. This approach emphasizes the importance of learning to read for meaning by using a real book. This prediction is derived from their background knowledge of the graphic, syntactic, and semantic information in the text.
Goodman believes that using “top-down” approach for reading is beneficial because even poor readers can extract the meaning of the text by using contextual and other cues. The reader starts from the whole then moves to the parts of the text. Moreover, this analysis is able to deduce readers
’ understanding of the text. This analysis is also able to inform how the reader sees the text and how errors may exist. If a child misreads, it means that he/she uses the wrong cues and fails to understand the meaning of the text.
Basically, miscues arise from graphophonic, syntactic, or semantic errors. However, Reid (2005, p. 12) simplifies that miscues arose from symbolic, syntactic, or semantic errors. Thus, he does not include phonic errors. In symbolic errors a reader has misread the actual letter(s) as a result of a visual difficulty. Meanwhile, syntactic errors happen when the reader reads the word
“of” instead of “for”as the result of having no grammatical structures of sentences. The last type of errors is semantic errors which indicate that the reader is relying heavily on context. An example of semantic error is reading the word
“bus” instead of “car”. There are seven types of linguistic errors based on miscue analysis.
a) Non-Response (Refusal) It occurs when a dyslexic neither pronounces the word nor attempts to do so. Thus, he/she does not recognize the word. For example, when he/ she reads “the other was called”, in fact, the actual text is “the other was called Lassie”.
b) Omission This may occur when the dyslexic is reading for meaning rather than the actual print. Moreover, he/she may omit a letter or small words that do not add anything significant to the meaning of the passage. For example, when he/she re ads “they ran round the animals”, in fact, the actual text is “they ran round and round the animals”. c) Addition This may reflect superficial reading with perhaps an over- dependence on context clues. In other words, the dyslexic tends to add a new letter or word when reading. For example when he/she reads
“to a field where they sniffed ”, in fact the actual text is “to a field they sniffed
”..
d) Substitution This can be visual or semantic substitutions and they may reflect an over- dependence on context clues. The dyslexic may substitute the letter or word which has almost similar shapes or phones.
T he example is reading “on” for “once” e)
Repetition A dyslexic often repeats a word in reading. Repetition may indicate poor directional attack, especially if he/she reads the same line again. These may also indicate she/he perhaps is unable to read the next word in the line. The example is “runs on their their own” for “runs for their own”.
f) Reversal This may reflect the lack of left–right orientation. Reversal may also indicate some visual difficulty and perhaps a lack of reading for meaning. The example is “they did so” instead of “so they did”.
g) Hesitation This can occur when the dyslexic feels unsure of the text and perhaps lacking in confidence in reading. It may also occur as anticipating a difficult word later in the sentence as he/she is doubtful.
h) Self-corrections These occur when the reader becomes more aware of meaning and less dependent on simple word recognition. It is important to recognize the extent of self-corrections because this can indicate that the dyslexic has an understanding for the passage.
b.
Environmental Factors It seems that dyslexia is a quite complicated illness. However, it is not impossible to recover from dyslexia. Dealing with dyslexia is not only about the acknowledgement and recognition of childrens difficulties but also some important factors that support the success of treatment.
Reid (2005, p. 23) argues that there must be an observation of both the students characteristics and the learning environment to determine a successful therapy. This is called environmental factors. The environmental factors are clearly seen by observing how the child performs in different settings with different types of motivation. Such an observational assessment can be a diagnosis to determine the approach applied because it is flexible and adaptable so that it can be used in natural settings with interactive activities. There are five types of environmental factors which are advantageous to determine the successful approaches to recover from dyslexia (Reid, 2005, p. 24-26). 1)
Emotional motivation Emotional motivation explores more on childrens interesting topics, tasks, and activities. Moreover, it explores more on what is needed to increase the childs motivation. 2)
Social interaction and communication This factor is used to analyze alone, with another, or in a small group. When interacting and communicating with others, it is also observed if the child asks for approval or needs to have his/her work checked frequently and if he/she interrupts others when they are talking.
3) Cognitive modality preference The type of instructions a child most easily understands, whether it is written, oral, or visual is observed. It is also observed whether the child responds quickly, easily, and spontaneously about the text heard or read.
4) Childrens behavior Childrens behavior is related to the consideration of how the child behaves daily. The examples are consideration of whether the child snacks or chews on a pencil when studying and how he/she behaves when studying, calmly or not.
5) Physical environment It deals with preference of the situation and condition that are suitable for the child, including the preference of furniture design, temperature of the room, the light, and reflection sound.
c.
Teaching Approaches Since dyslexia is a complex disturbance, approaches used for recovering a person from dyslexia must be utilized over learning and various in range of materials and strategies. They may be related to visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile elements. Moreover, teaching dyslexic children can be done under control of any psychologists,
Reid (2005, p. 6) argues that in fact there are no universal approaches to deal with dyslexia. This statement shows that dyslexia can be solved by any approach which suits to dyslexics. Thus, in treating a dyslexic child, the most suitable approach used is based on the child‟ s own learning preferences. There are, however, some specific approaches used to deal with dyslexia.
Reid (2005, p. 37-47) states several approaches such as:
a) Phonological approach.
Children with decoding problem automatically have problem in reading because they have problems in correlating words with symbols. They also have problems in learning and applying phonological rules in reading. Phonological approach is useful for recognizing and using phonemes, segmentation, and letter sequences to recognize letters and words. This approach emphasizes on the importance of learning sounds or phonemes that will make the child aware of sound letter correspondence.
b) Language experience.
Language exp erience is related to “top-down” approaches. This is beneficial because it enriches childrens vocabulary. It can be done through discussion or paired reading. Language experience is crucial because even if the dyslexic student is unable to access the print content of books, he/she still can discuss the language, motivated that literacy is more than just the ability to read. It has a great cognitive component and can help the child to develop thinking skills.
c) Creative writing.
It is beneficial to make dyslexic students write in structure since they have difficulties with structure, sequencing the story, putting their points, grammar, syntax, and punctuation. In creative writing, a sequence is significant because it enables the written work to flow and finally their writing makes sense to the readers. Grammar is also important because it helps the child to write as well as read grammatically.
d) Teacher modeling.
It is useful in developing reading and writing skills. This approach involves shared reading as well as shared writing. In shared reading, the teacher demonstrates to students the monitoring strategies used while reading. The teacher should model mental processes (what they think as they read or write) rather than procedures (what they do). As the result, children will learn strategies that can be applied across a range of situation. Meanwhile, shared writing is also beneficial. Spelling and handwriting tasks enable them to focus on how composition works.
In addition, they can make links between reading and writing.
Finally, teacher modeling is beneficial to promote students metacognition.
e) Self-questioning.
Self-questioning is crucial because it promotes a high awareness of the learning process and can be used to identify inconsistencies and errors in texts. Children who are taught this approach are able to identify inconsistencies and errors they make in a text. Thus, it can be a monitor for their comprehension. This approach means that while reading, children ask themselves some questions like “Is there anything wrong with the story?”.
f) Critical literacy.
Critical literacy is very important because it makes dyslexic children independent and critical. This approach enables reader to comprehend the message of the text whether it is explicitly stated by the writer or not. Moreover, it can develop the stimulation and experience which is needed to develop language learning skill. While reading, the child may have some questions to be answered. For examples, What themes are in the text?,What is the topic of the
text?,What is the purpose of the text? , and For whom is the author . writing?
g) Engaging parents
It is believed that parents are childrens first educators. Parents have closest persons to children. Therefore, engaging parents is very significant to support all the approaches.
2. Reading Ability a.
Definition of Reading Reading is one of the basic skills of language learning. It can not be separated from other skills of language learning besides writing, speaking and listening. Those skills must be learned all by English language learners. Reading skill can help improve other language skills. Generally, the skill of reading is developed in societies with literary taste, because it can lead to develop comprehension, enrich vocabulary. Reading as with other skill is more enjoy able to do. Based on Patel and Jain (2008, p. 113
- – 114) states as follows:
“Reading is an important activity in life with which one can update his/her knowledge. Reading skill is an important tool for academic success. Reading is the most important activity in any language class. Reading is not only a source of information and a pleasurable activity but also as a means of consolidating and extending one’s knowledge of the language. Reading is very necessary to widen the mind, again and understanding of the foreign culture”.
According to Harmer (2007, p. 99) reading is useful for what they read, the more they read, the better they get at it. Based on Grellet (2004, p. 7) reading is a constant process of guessing, and what one brings to the next is often more important than what one finds in it. In reading, the students should be taught to use what they know to understand unknown elements, whether these are ideas or simple words.
According to Day and Bamford (1998, p. 12) reading is the construction of meaning from a printed or written message. It means the construction of meaning involves the reader connecting information from the written message with previous knowledge to arrive at meaning and understanding.
b.
Principles of Reading According to Harmer (2007, p. 201-202) the principles of reading: (1) teachers encourage students to read as often and as much as possible, (2) students need to be engaged with what they are reading, (3) teachers encourage students to respond to the content of a text and explore their feelings about it, not just concentrate on its construction, (4) prediction is a major factor in reading, (5) teacher has to match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts, (6) good teacher exploit reading texts to the full.
c.
Types of Reading According to Patel and Jain (2008, p. 117-123) the types of
1) Intensive Reading.
Intensive reading is related to further in language learning under the teacher’s guidance. Intensive reading will provide a basic for explaining difficulties of structure and for extending knowledge of vocabulary and idioms. Intensive reading material will be the basis for classroom activity. It will not only be read but will be discussed in detail in the target language, sometimes analyzed and used as a basis for writing exercises. Intensive reading is text reading or passage reading.
In this reading the learner read the text to get knowledge or analysis. The goal of this reading is to read shorted text. This reading is done to carry out to get specific information. 2) Extensive Reading.
Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and includes reading longer texts for pleasure. The reader wants to know about something. The reader doesn’t care about specific or important information after reading. Usually people read for to keep them update. 3) Aloud Reading.
Aloud reading is basic form of classroom organization and disciplines. In reading aloud, the students are confronted with written sentences which haven’t spoken before. The aim of reading thepronunciation of the students. According to Elizabeth (2004, p. 286-288) aloud reading means reading a book by producing sounds audible to other. Reading aloud by the teacher can help the students in the improvement of their listening ability. Reading aloud is useful at specific moment alone. Reading aloud prevents the students from learning to understand the meaning of a sentence even when he may not know one word in the sentence.
4) Silent Reading.
Silent reading is a very important skill in teaching of English. This reading should be employed to increase reading ability among learners. Silent reading is done to acquire a lot of information. Silent reading must be based on student’s selected text. Silent reading enables the students to read completely silently without making sounds and moving his lips. It helps him read with speed, ease and fluency. It aids comprehension and expands the student’s vocabulary. According to Elizabeth (2004, p. 287-288) silent reading means reading something without producing sounds audible to other. In silent reading the students can more easily work at their own material pace or speed.
d.
Reading Ability 1)
Definition of Reading Ability Ability defined as the capacity of the individuals to perform have the potential to do something. Ability is the skill or power to do something in other words talent. Reading is a process of understanding written language (Rumelhart,1985).
Reading is a process, it starts from viewing the linguistics surface representation and ends with certain ideas or meaning about messages intended by the writer. Thus, reading is the combination of perceptual process and cognitive process. Reading ability is skill of communication between the reader and the writer to get knowledge and information.