CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher
explains background of the study, statements of the problem, objectives of the study, scope
and limitation, and significance of the
study. Then it is followed by significant elements consisting of research design, data sources, data collection data
analysis and definition of key terms.
Hopefully it can help the reader
understanding both the fundamental reasons of conducting this research and the methods used
by the researcher.
1.1 Background of Study A child
with special need is a child with special characteristics that differ from children in general, without always
showing on mental disability, emotional or
physical. The phenomenon of increasing the number of children with special needs in Indonesia which is delayed talking,
learning disorders, behavioral disorders
(hyperactivity and hypoactive), down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and so on, causing deep concern of a number of
medical professionals, psychologists, parents
and students of children. The main difficulty handling improvement of children with special needs is about
information and the difficulty of diagnosing the sufferer.
Garner (2010), in his article
says that disabled students are not students who are incapacitated or unable to learn; rather,
they need differentiated instruction tailored
to their distinctive learning abilities that the teacher has to use appropriate
strategies in guiding disabled students.
Teaching
learning disabled youngsters
will present teachers
with some unique
and distinctive challenges.
Not only will
demand more of
the teacher’s time and patience; so, too, they will require
specialized instructional strategies in a structured
environment that supports
and enhances their
learning potential. The teacher demanded
to know everything
about the illness
owe by the
students, having the ability in
handcrafting, sewing, painting, also deciding the best job for the special need students. The teacher,
besides her position as the teacher, also has responsibility to
their student’s future;
being the therapist,
social worker, counselor, paramedic and administers ( Efendi,
2001: 72).
Encephalitis, the illness of
Helen Keller as the special needs child taught by the major character of this research, based on
the explanation of Dr. Kevin Yip is a
rare disease that occurs in approximately 0.5 per 100,000 individuals — most commonly in children, the elderly, and people
with weakened immune systems. A person
is more likely to experience high fever and any of a number of symptoms that relate to the central nervous system,
including personality changes, problems with
speech or hearing, hallucinations, memory loss, etc.
Based on those above information,
the researcher tries to do the literary study
not the psychology. Basically, literature has its two different genres; the fiction and the nonfiction literature. Nonfiction is informational text that is dealing with an actual, real-life subject,
offers opinions or conjectures on facts and reality, includes biographies, history,
essays, speech, etc. Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is
produced by the imagination that is not necessarily
based on fact. In fiction something is feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story, having three genres are poetry,
novel, and drama.
Poetry is verse and rhythmic
writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from the reader. The art of poetry is
rhythmical in composition, written or
spoken. Novel is a kind of narrative story, having some characters, conflicts, theme, etc in it. Drama as the part of
literature having a different style from those two genres, it has dialogue as the text which
is written to be performs. In this research,
the researcher decided to use the drama written by William Gibson under the title The Miracle Worker.
William Gibson was born in New
York City November 13, 1914; The miracle
worker was produced in London's West End, first at the Royalty Theatre in March 1961. Based on true story, The
Miracle Worker tells about Helen Keller, a young girl who losses her sight and hearing
since nineteenth month because of an
illness diagnosed as acute congestion of stomach and brain or often called as "brain fever.", later, this illness
known as an Encephalitis (a rare and sometimes life-threatening swelling of the brain) and
her teacher Anne Sullivan-the main character
analyzed by the researcher- who spend her life teaching Helen Keller as a special need student in understanding the
world.
Ashman and Elkins, quoted by
Delphie (2006) defines specific learning disability as a disorder in one or more the
basic physiological processed involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen,
think, spell, speak, read, write, or to do mathematical calculation. The term includes
such condition as perceptual handicaps,
brain injury, and minimal brain dysfunction Before Anne’s coming, Helen and her
family struggled fiercely with communication
during those early years after her recovery. Her parents were desperate for a way to help Helen learn and
get along in the world. As Helen Keller
(Keller, 1902: 7) wrote in her autobiographical The Story of My Life, ―The most important day I remember in all my life
is the one on which my teacher, Anne
Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two
lives which it connects. It was the third
of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old‖.
Although Helen was at first
resistant to her teacher’s instruction, Anne and Helen then became inseparable as teacher and
student. For the next 50 years, Anne
Sullivan shared a bright light of learning and friendship with Helen Keller.
Before her death at the age of
87, Helen would become the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college, an outspoken
supporter of women's and workers' rights,
a world traveler, and an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and humanitarian. It was stated in Anne's Letter
to Sophia C. Hopkins, March 11, 1887
which is published in http://www.afb.org/AnneSullivan/teachingHelen.asp ―Helen knows several words now, but has no
idea how to use them, or that everything
has a name. I think, however, she will learn quickly enough by and by.
As I have said before, she is
wonderfully bright and active and as quick as lightning in her movements‖.
The
researcher chooses The Miracle Worker as the object of her study due to several reasons. First, it is one of the
best story inspired the researcher’s life, Helen Keller through the story of her life
written by William Gibson had been a miracle
in the researcher’s dream, mind, and days. The researcher much impressed by the struggle of Anne Sullivan
guiding Helen Keller understanding each
words Helen never knew. It was a great miracle when the blind, deaf, and mute young girl could learn many things since
her life; English history, English literature,
German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin composition, occasional themes, etc.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar