ABSTRACT

Agustina, Ninda.2014. Teacher Strategies in Teaching English for Autism.English Education

Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Muria Kudus University.

Key words: Autism, qualitative research

Autism is a complex disorder of brain development. The Center for Disease Control
states that 1:88 children are diagnosed with some type of disorder on the autism. People with
autism are special, so they should be treated by special treatment. One of special treatment
for them is SLB(Sekolah Luar Biasa). It is devoted for people with autism. SLB has teachers
who also required having knowledge and special skills because students are also special. The
teachers in SLB teach some subjects, one of them is English. Unfortunately, most of them are
not English teacher. These teachers didnt have more ability to teach English because most of
them are teachers who teach general subjects and non educational background in English,
such as Science, Social, or Mathematics. This creates difficulties both of teachers, and
students. On the one hand, the teacher does not yet have the skills and special abilities in
teaching English. On the other hand, the student is having difficulty in understanding the
material.
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with the symptoms such as the
presence of deficits in social interaction, language and communication (American Psychiatric
Association [APA], 2000). First explained by Kanner(1943), autism is one of the five
pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are characterized by widespread
abnormalities of social interactions and communication, as well as severely restricted
interests and highly repetitive behaviors (World Health Organization, 2007). Meanwhile,
other opinion said that autism spectrum disorders are lifelong developmental disabilities that
can impact how people understand what they see, hear and otherwise sense. This can result in
difficulties with social relationships, communication and behavior. (Alberta Learning:
2003).Even though children with autism have a problem in communication and also display
difficulties in social interaction in behavior. However, it is as same as normal children who
also need to learn language to communicate with their environment and society.
This study investigates how teacher strategies in teaching English for autism through
qualitative descriptive research. The data will be gathered in this study through interview,
test, and direct observation.