CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, it explains
about the reason why choose this topic in background of the study, the problems of the
study which are investigated, purposes
of research in objectives of the study, expectation for some target readers in significance of the study, scope and
limitation and operational definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of The Study In this world, all
children are expected to have the same basic abilities/skills (listening, speaking,
reading, and writing) like others. Because of these basic language abilities, they can
understand well what words, numbers, symbols,
and sound mean then can communicate and share feelings with others without facing any obstacles. Those basic
abilities do not only work in social interaction
but also are expected to encourage children to get fabulous achievement in school. Yet, there are some
children who cannot listen, speak and spell,
write, and read correctly because there is no good connection between their left hemisphere and right hemisphere. There is
a weakening function of corpus callosum
to decode the words, numbers, and symbols they seen or sound they heard. It is called dyslexia.
In this case, a dyslexic
experiences language disorder which relates to academic or cognitive skill disorder
(Somantri, 2007: 200). This language disorder
can affect both spoken and written language. The children‟s ability is low in
remembering vocabulary and producing complex sentence. They may have the normal language skill but they need to
understand verbal and written communication
because they have problem in expressing what is in their mind in the form of speech.
Even though some children do not
have completeness but they have to learn
until can read, write, and do instruction or remember something in sequence.
Dyslexia has been already
introduced in the mid-1890s and is originated from Greek. Dyslexia refers to
learning disability which affects reading, writing, and speaking abilities and difficulty to
interpret words, letters, numbers, even sounds.
Dyslexia is not a simple problem because it cannot be diagnosed before the children are in fourth grade or 7-9 years
old. Most of dyslexics do not like reading
loudly in public such as in front of the class. In addition, dyslexics may feel insecure about themselves because of poor
reading, writing, speaking or listening
skills.
This research is about
psycholinguistics focusing on dyslexia because in fact most of parents or teachers thought that
children who suffer reading, speaking,
and writing impairments are lazy. They easily conclude that those impairments are signs of stupidity, for
example Muhammad Ali, one of the most famous
boxers, many of his high school teachers labeled him dumb and he could barely read his textbook. Besides him, there
are other people with dyslexia who have
special competence such as Tom Cruise as an actor, Leonardo da Vinci as a painter, Thomas Alfa Edison as a scientist,
Walt Disney as an entrepreneur and so on.
From the example, we can draw a conclusion that dyslexia is not related to physical handicapped.
Commonly, dyslexia is divided
into three types with its own characteristic.
Those are dyslexia-visual,
dyslexia-auditory, and dyslexia-dysgraphia. Dyslexiavisual is a disorder that
can see a word which consists of some letters but cannot differentiate and make interpretation what
she/he sees, for example there is a sentence
“The cat jump into the moon” then becomes “Ted took that man”.
Dyslexia-auditory is a disorder
that cannot differentiate the similarity and difference between sounds they heard, for
example dyslexics cannot hear similar sounds
in the beginning and end such as boy and big, cat and math, and differentiate some words with the same vocal
such as pin, pan, and pen.
Furthermore, dyslexia-dysgraphia
is a disorder in writing letters and words, grasping word-meanings, integrating the sounds
of letters, and in pronouncing unfamiliar,
and sometimes, even familiar words (Letchumy, 2008).
Lately, most of researchers did
their research about treatment, learning process, etc, using quantitative method. The
result of Boets and De Smedt (2010) research
revealed that children with dyslexia were less accurate and slower in single-digit arithmetic, particularly in
multiplication. Based on Penney, Drover, and Dyck (2008), they discussed how his
phonological processing deficits contributed
to his reading difficulties and used Glass Analysis Method. These studies did not either discuss about the type
of dyslexia (visual, auditory, and dysgraphia)
or use movie as the source of data.
In this discussion, dyslexia is
as the subject of the study because many people still cannot diagnose and understand
what dyslexia is, especially parents as the
closest people for them. This case is found from movie Like Stars on Earth, which is the source of the data. It shows that
a dyslexic character, namely Ishaan Awasthi,
cannot write or spell any word appropriately. He is really depressed while his parents forced him to achieve the
best rank as his brother in his class.
Whereas, whatever words or
numbers that he sees, those are inverted, mirror imaging, or spread out. That is why he cannot
read then understand the words and numbers
like normal people. Parents thought that their son is stupid, lack of effort, and does not want to study hard then send
Ishaan to boarding school. During teaching
process, Mr. Nikum, the art teacher, who was a dyslexic, perceives that there is something wrong with Ishaan. He tries
to get the answer of his question by
looking for information from Ishaan‟s exercise
books. His prediction is accurate
that Ishaan suffers dyslexia. Then Mr. Nikum explains to his (dyslexic child) family that Ishaan cannot read and
write words even numbers in proper like others
because Ishaan suffers dyslexia.
In short, nobody in this world is
as perfect as God. People have to learn how
to read and write in order to learn other knowledge. Yet, reading, writing, doing something according to direction, and
speaking are not as easy as others because
language disorder is caused by no good quality connection between his right and left hemispheres and usually can be
diagnosed while the children are fourth
grade or 7-9 years old. The phenomenon of dyslexia is interesting to uncover especially the one shown by the
character of Like Stars on Earth, a new movie
from Amir Khan Production and Walt Disney. Therefore, the research is to find out the types of difficulties on language
learning and the methods that are applied
to overcome the difficulties.
1.2 The Problems of the Study Based on the
description of background of the study above, the researcher will investigate the following problems; 1. What are the types of difficulties on
language learning of dyslexic character
in the movie Like Stars on Earth? 2.
What are the methods applied to overcome the difficulties above in the movie Like Stars on Earth? 1.3
Objectives of the Study The main objectives of the study makes the
readers get more understanding about
Dyslexia on “Like Stars on Earth” movie which is inspired from the real life of a child in India. The
objectives of the study are; 1. to
describe the types of difficulties of dyslexic character on language learning disability in the movie Like Stars on
Earth.
2. to describe the methods those are applied to
overcome the difficulties above in the
movie Like Stars on Earth.
1.4 Significances of the Study The significances
of the study are to give contributions both theoretically and practically in psycholinguistics
especially dyslexia. Theoretically, the findings of the research are expected to be one of
references and alternative information in the next dyslexia research. This research
could enrich the theoretical framework for
psycholinguistic study, especially dyslexia from different phenomenon and object.
Practically, this research is
supposed to give deeper description about dyslexia for psycholinguistic students and
next dyslexia researcher as the first reader.
Besides, it can stimulate psycholinguistic lecturers to explain and give examples about dyslexia broadly in class. This
research is not only useful for psycholinguistic
students and lecturers but also for teachers who are teaching dyslexic pupil. The teachers who are teaching
dyslexic pupil can understand well what
dyslexia is then can make a better decision on teaching method for dyslexic pupil. The last expectation is to reveal
parents who have dyslexic children then they
can know how to guide studying and treat their children in home.
1.5 Scope and Limitation This research topic is
in psycholinguistics which focuses on the types of difficulties on language learning of dyslexic
character and the methods that are applied
to overcome the difficulties in the movie Like Stars on Earth. To get more understanding about this phenomenon, this
research uses Gillingham and Stillman,
Levinson and Lerner‟s theories. In addition, this does not
involve a discussion about a
treatment for sufferer.
This research is limited on the
movie Like Stars on Earth by Amir Khan Production
and Walt Disney which is released in 2007. The data source is not natural but it is reliable because the movie
is inspired from real life. Then, the data are limitedly taken from the main character
(dyslexic) only, namely Ishaan Awasthi.
1.6 Operational Definition of the Key Terms Language
disorder is one of language studies which takes psycholinguistic case.
In this research, it involves
both language production and language comprehension.
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