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The Analysis of Accommodations for Dyslexic Young Learner in Taare Zameen Par Film by Aamir Khan
Arief Nugraha Supervised by: Rahmat, S.Pd., M.Hum Agis Andriani, S.Pd., M.Hum Abstract Dyslexia is one of the learning disabilities that makes the persons living with it difficult to learn language especially spelling, reading, and writing. Therefore, a language teacher dealing with dyslexics needs to find ways to fulfil their special needs. One of the efforts is by giving them special treatments or accommodations. A film entitled Taare Zameen Par can inspire the language teacher dealing with the dyslexics as it gives an overview of how accommodations can help the teacher to overcome the learning problem possessed by the dyslexic students. Through observing the film, the data are found in the form of teachers activities. The analysis of the data is based on the theory stated by Schneider, Elke and Margaret Crombie (2003) about kinds of accommodations for dyslexics. It is found that the accommodations occur in the film are Personal Motivation, MultiSensory Technique, Structure, Overlearning, and Metacognition. The principles of each accommodation are conducted through several activities such as writing on the sand, drawing letters, guessing letters while closing eyes, making letters from wax, and making 8 symbol on the graph blackboard. Those accommodations are conducted to overcome several problems possessed by the nine years old dyslexic learner such as the low self-esteem, stress, letter recognition, spelling, reading, and handwriting.

Introduction Dyslexia belongs to learning disabilities occur in the process of person learning language. Learning disability or learning difficulty refers to a condition in which the labelled persons possess several difficulties in learning. Rief and Stern (2010: 4) state that the basic difficulties possessed by dyslexics are reading and spelling skill occurring when they are learning language. Commonly, the problems appear because they are difficult to process the speech sounds within words and to connect the sounds forming a word referring certain meaning. Besides that, Beaton (2005:156) defines dyslexia as learning disorder dealing with the difficulties in receptive and expressive language. In receptive language, dyslexics need more attention from their teacher to read easily because they cannot easily deal with letters connecting a word and words forming a sentence. Whereas in expressive language, they needs more guidance to deal with their spelling and writing because they have not recognize speech sounds very well. Those difficulties come with causes, Nijakowska (2010:34) states that genetic is the most influencing factor. It determines the development of certain language system of the left hemisphere of the brain. Besides that, the environment where the persons learn to read can also be the consideration. The previous research conducted by Kateina evkov (2012) shows that 92% teachers of a language school in Brno use Communicative Approach as the teaching approach to overcome dyslexics problems. Whereas, to be more specific, the steps in accommodating dyslexic young learner are directly

English Department, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Training, Siliwangi University 2014

2 presented in this research based on the teachers activities shown in the film entitled Taare Zameen Par by Aamir Khan. Theoretical Background Since dyslexics have special needs in learning, the teacher dealing with them needs to give special treatments or accommodations to overcome their difficulties. Beech (2011:37) stated that accommodating means changing the way of teaching or test. The students with disabilities needs to get different learning environment that supports their characteristics. According to Schneider and Crombie (2003: 16 18), there are nine accommodations applicable for overcoming dyslexics special needs, they are Muti-sensory techniques, Structure, Explicit learning and Teaching, Overlearning, Metacognition, Slowed Pace of Presentation, Personal Motivation, Diagnostic and Prescriptive Factors, and Short Concentration Span. 1) Multi-Sensory Technique The first applicable accommodation is Multi-Sensory Technique. This accommodation gives the dyslexic learners chance to learn by involving their senses. Schneider and Crombie (2003:16) state that the motto of this accommodation is Hear it, see it, say it, write it, act it out, and make learning as active as possible. It means, the auditory, visual, and kinaesthetictactile sense are involved in this accommodation. Therefore, teachers need to create many interesting activities that can encourage the learner to understand the material more. Kinaesthetic-tactile seems to be the most helpful activities because it can activate dyslexics strong learning channel. Kinaesthetic-tactile is the activities involving body movement and touch. From the example given by Rief and Stern (2010: 47 48), the accommodation is given by providing a picture of animal that has a close shape with the shape of alphabet like providing snake picture for alphabet s, this is one effort to make learners remember longer. Besides that, to make the alphabet s stays longer in learners memory, the teacher may tell how a snake moves and sounds. The learners may use their hand to make a movement like how a snake does, and the movement will form a letter s; therefore, they can feel the shape of the letter. Moreover, learner can also act like a snake by moving their hand and sounding snakes sound like sssssss. By this activity, they learn the letter s by recognizing its shape and sound. 2) Structure Beside giving the instruction by involving the sense of the learner, teacher facing dyslexics needs to rearrange the material to support their level of ability in spelling, reading, and writing. According to Rief and Stern (2010:46), dyslexics need to be taught systematically started from the beginning level to measure their mastery. Gradually, the level can be increased to the more complex material if they can master the easy one. For example, teacher cannot directly give the words before he or she makes sure that the students have already recognise letters and sounds. 3) Explicit Learning and Teaching Dyslexic learners need to be taught explicitly. It means teacher needs to give clear explanation about the lesson. Schneider and Crombie (2003:17) state that teacher cannot let the student to

English Department, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Training, Siliwangi University 2014

3 find the answer by their own, they need guidance to discover the answer. Therefore, the principle of this accommodation is that teacher cannot leave the student in hesitate. 4) Overlearning Since dyslexics have memory difficulty, it is necessary to teach them slowly by repeating the same material to ease their information recalling towards the material when it is needed. In line with it, Reid (2011:52) states that the short- and long- term memory difficulties experienced by dyslexic children mean that considerable reinforcement and repetition is necessary. Nevertheless, Schneider and Crombie (2003: 56) say that the repetition should be various to avoid a boring teaching learning. The teacher may provide interesting tasks or activity that involve students movements and senses such as singing, dancing, or drawing to optimize learning. Therefore, overlearning does not mean repeating the really same material or activity. The thing that needs to be the consideration in overlearning is the achievement of goal. If the first meeting does not meet the goal, the second meeting should have the same goal with the different mechanism of activities. 5) Metacognition This accommodation provides dyslexic young learners to learn how to learn. However, the teacher can help them in their learning, in the future they have to be able to think about their learning themselves. In the other words, metacognition is the accommodation that accommodates them with several strategies that help them solve their own learning problem. Schneider and Crombie (2003:17) state that metacognition makes the students independent in learning. Dyslexics cannot survive if they do not get the solution for their own learning. Therefore, teacher needs to tell them several learning strategies to help them learn when they are not in the guidance of teacher. The use of mnemonics can be helpful for the students as the strategy to memorize numbers of words. 6) Slowed Pace of Presentation Schneider and Crombie (2003:17) state that the material being presenting by the teacher needs to be delivered slowly. It is an effort to make sure that learners can follow and understand the information. Besides that, when it is a long information that teacher tries to tell, the teacher needs to cut it into chunks to make them easier in comprehending what it is about. 7) Personal Motivation It is important to note that the teacher must be sensitive towards emotional aspects of the learners. Reid (2007: 80) states that emotion or feeling of learners is important to their learning. The most important feeling is the feeling towards themselves. To make their learning work out, they have to believe that their learning difficulties will be solved, there will be improvement as soon as possible. Therefore, the teacher has to give motivation as much as possible. The motivation can be given by giving, for example, achievement and feedback after the teaching learning activity is conducted.

English Department, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Training, Siliwangi University 2014

8) Diagnostic and Prescriptive Factors Based on the statement stated by Schneider and Crombie (2003:17), there are two activities that teacher needs to conduct. The first activity is diagnosing whether another difficulty appears in giving an assessment. Besides that, the assessment can also be used to find the impact of teaching process on the students. It can result whether the he learner meets any improvement. When the teacher can find another difficulty appears, the second activity he can do is teaching them by using prepared prescription or accommodation that supports learners special needs. Therefore, it is important to conduct during teaching learning process as the effort to support their learning. It is also important to teach them in direct and explicit ways because such ways will support their slow language processing. 9) Short Concentration Span In teaching dyslexic young learner, the teacher needs to cope with their concentration that can lose quickly. Schneider and Crombie (2003:17) stated that young learner with dyslexia cannot concentrate in learning long enough. Tasks and activities as well as multi-sensory technique stated in the previous explanation will be effective to engage them in learning. Thus, the teacher should be creative in setting classroom environment whether by providing tasks and classroom activities or theme-based teaching learning. Research Question How do the accommodations for dyslexic young learner occur in Taare Zameen Par film? Research Methodology To answer the question, the descriptive qualitative method is used in this research. The data are collected through observing the teachers activities shown in the two selected scene of Taare Zameen Par film. The data are analysed by considering the theory stated by Schneider and Crombie (2003) about kinds of accommodations for dyslexics. Research Result The activities of teacher shown in the two selected scenes of the film indicate five kinds of accommodations. They are Personal Motivation, Multi-Sensory Technique, Structure, Overlearning, and Metacognition. The answer to the question of how the accommodations occur lays on the accommodating process given through the activities. They are telling stories, writing on the sand, drawing letters, guessing letters while closing eyes, making letters from wax, creating 8 symbol on the graph blackboard, and giving type recording. The accommodations given through the activities are given to overcome the learners problem regarding to self-esteem, stress, letter recognition, reading, handwriting, and eyes focus. Discussion By telling the stories, Nikumbh, the teacher in the film, attempts to show that dyslexia does not have something to do with talents. He wants to tell Ishaan (the dyslexic) that his special needs in learning do not mean that he cannot think something useful for himselves and for the others. He needs to tell the stories about great people with dyslexia because he has to increase Ishaans selfesteem.
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5 Besides that, in order to decrease the pressure and to increase the sense of security of Ishaan, Nikumbh stops the lesson and starts to have fun through turning the colored wax into several unique characters like elephant, dog, penguin, dinosaur, etc. By this activity, he can forget for a while about the letters and words that make him stressful. It makes him feel secure because the pressure is decreased which means he knows that he is not forced by his teacher to be able to recognize words in the fast time. When Nikumbh stops the lesson because he looks that Ishaan is little bit stressed, he gives Ishaan a reflection (Reid, 2007:84). The implementation of Multi-Sensory Technique occurs in the activity of Writing on the Sand. It can increase the dyslexics letter recognition because it provides them to have a chance to feel the shape of the letters since they write them by their own fingertip. Therefore, they will know how it looks and how to move their hand to create it. Besides that, if gives the learner chance to use their stronger modality which is touch. The sense of touch is one of the stronger modality of the student. The teaching learning activity involving touch and movement is called as Kinaesthetic, which still belongs to the Multi-Sensory Technique (Obaid, Majeda Al Sayyed, 2013:75). It is similar to the activity of Guessing letters.It involves kinaesthetic and tactile sensor. In the other words, teacher will also work on students sense of touch while learning the letters. This activity is one of the effort to train the students to deeply know the shape of the letters and how to pronounce them. It can be interesting because the activity feels like a game to the students. It is also simple since it does not require any kinds of tools. Then, Creating the Letters from Wax also gives the change for the student to practice by moving and touching. In this activity, students will know clearly the shape of the letters because they will have a chance to create them by using the wax. Besides that, the various colors of the wax will increase the memory work of the students. Different letter is supposed to be different in color, therefore a color will represent a letter so it is easier to recognize. To conduct this activity, the teacher needs to prepare the wax with the various colors, and the model of the plasticine letters can also be involved. Besides the sense of touch, the teacher in the film also involves the sense of visual by involving various colors since colors can increase learners memory work (Spence, et al. 2006:1). The colors involvement can be seen in the activities of drawing letter. By drawing the letter, the learner writes the letters by using the tools they usually use in their drawing class. The tools that teacher needs to prepare are two wide white papers with the size approximately 40 cm to 40 cm, painters brush, watercolors, and plasticine letters. The plasticine letters are put around the other tools to make the students eyes usual with the shape of the letters. To overcome the spelling problem possessed by the dyslexic in the film, the teacher uses structure and as the accommodation. The teacher teaches the dyslexic short words like hat (/ht/), top (/tp/), and mat (/mt/) at first by instructing his student to pronounce the words written on the blackboard. Those words are one-syllable words containing short vowel // and //. In the second step, the words like hate (/heit/), tope (/tp/), and mate (/meit/) arte taught. Those words still belong to one-syllable words that have two sounds of different vowel combined in each word like // and /ei/. The words are more complex to pronounce. He needs to understand how the sound /i/ can appear before /t/ while the letters t comes first before e in the word hate. Moreover, the problem related to eyes focus and handwriting are fixed using Structure and Overlearning as the accommodations. It is realised though the activity of creating 8 symbol on the graph blackboard. The activity is the modification of Lazy Eight activity. The main activity in Lazy Eight is to train eyes movement. By this training, the learner will be able to keep his eyes

English Department, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Training, Siliwangi University 2014

6 focus not only in reading but also in handwriting (Pollock, et al., 2004:108). Besides that, to fix the handwriting, the teacher instructs the students to write one the paper and blackboard started from the easies words until sentences. In this activity, the teacher uses dictation since it focuses on focus on examining the spelling and punctuation problems. Besides that, it is suitable for all range of levels and ages (Davis and Rinvolucri (2002) as quoted by Ezenwosu, Ngozi E., 2011:20 - 21). Those activities are conducted repeatedly to care about the memory problem possessed by the learner. The last but not least, the teacher gives a tape recorder as the implementation of Metacognition. This can be the first strategy to make the learner able to solve his reading problem independently because by reading a book and listening to tearhers voice containing the same material lied in the book being read, he can evaluate himself whether he reads the same as how he listens to the recording. Summarise Dyslexic young learners are the language learners who have special needs to be able to recognize letters, to spell, to read, and to write. To fulfil the needs, teacher needs to give certain special treatments or accommodations. The overview of accommodating dyslexic young learner can be seen from the film entitled Taare Zameen Par by Aamir Khan. It the film, there are five accommodations used by the teacher to help his dyslexic learner. They are Personal Motivation, Multi-Sensory Technique, Structure, Overlearning, and Metacognition. In applying the accommodations, there are several unique activities conducted. They are telling a story about some successful dyslexic figures, writing the letters on the sand, drawing the letters by various colors of the watercolor, guessing the letters written on the arm while closing eyes, creating the letters from the colored wax, and writing the 8 symbol on the graph blackboard. The activities show that teacher facing dyslexics needs to be able to gain learners self-esteem. Besides that, the teacher needs to provide the teaching learning activities involving all senses of the learners such as visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and tactile. Since dyslexic young learners need to be taught started from the easiest material to the most complex mtaterial, teacher needs to arrange the material based on the level of the learner. Besides that, repeating the material until the learners understand is important to accommodate their slow memory work. Moreover, language teacher facing dyslexic needs to teach them how to learn so in the future they can solve their learning problem independently. However, teaching dyslexic young learners will be easier if the teacher can choose and apply the accommodations in the appropriate way. References Beaton, Alan A. (2005). Dyslexia, Reading, and the Brain. USA and Canada: Psychology Press. Ezenwosu, Ngozi E. (2011). Dictation as a Veritable Tool for Language Proficiency on Project Educational Reform in Nigeria. An International Multidisciplinary Journal 6, Vol. 5, pp. 18 25.

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7 Nijakowska, Joanna. (2010). Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Great Britain: Short Run Press Ltd. Obaid, Majeda Al Sayyed. (2013). The Impact of Using Multi-Sensory Approach for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities. Journal of International Education Research 1, Vol. 9, pp. 75 82. Pollock, Joy, et al. (2004). Day-to-Day Dyslexia in the Classroom: Second Edition. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Reid, Gavin. (2007). Motivating Learners in the Classroom: Ideas and Strategies. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Reid, Gavin. (2011). Dyslexia: Third Edition. London: Continuum. Rief, Sandra F. and Judith M. Stern. (2010). The Dyslexia Checklist. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Schneider, Elke and Margaret Crombie. (2003). Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. Spence, Ian, et al. (2006). How Color Enhances Visual Memory for Natural Scenes. Psychological Science 1, Vol. 17, pp. 1 6.

English Department, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers Training, Siliwangi University 2014