CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter contains theory which supports the data analysis. Below are some explanations

about visually impaired, vocabulary, narrative text, and screen reader and some studies regarding

this topic.

A. Theoretical Framework

1. Blindness or Visually impaired

Even until today, there are not many researches that focus on teaching people with visually

impaired. There are few experts that give us definition about it, latest research still uses the

definition from CDC. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

blindness is a “severe vision impairment, not correctable by standard glasses, contact lenses,

medicine, or surgery.” Davis (2003) defines children with visually impaired as “children who are

classed as blind or as having low vision.” In the same books, he explained that definition of

blindness from World Health Organization (WHO) is now the most widely accepted. WHO

defines visual impairment based on visual acuity scores. “These scores are based on the sight

perception of people with ‘perfect’ vision and are written as a fraction. For example, a person

with a score of 6/18 implies that he can see when 6 meters from an object what a person with

perfect sight would see at 18 meters. Alternatively, a score of 3/60 means that an object at a

distance of 3 meters appears in its detail as it would to a person with perfect sight if it were 60

meters away.” Meanwhile, according to conception from the World Health organization, a
person scoring between 6/18 and 3/60 is classed as having low vision, and a person scoring less

than 3/60 is classed as being blind.

On the other hand, Pullan (2014:392) gave a definition of blindness from educational

purposes as “individuals who are blind are so severely impaired they must learn to read braille …

Alternatively, they use aural methods (audiotapes and records).” However, those definitions,

Legal and educational, are flawed because both definitions are focused on limitation rather than

skills. Castellano (2005) proposed different perspective. She said that blindness and visual

impairment is simply using alternative approach and means as replacement or addition to

eyesight in order to do gain information or perform task. (Castellano, 2005)

In conclusion, there are three perspectives to view a person with visually impaired. Those

using legal definition use visual acuity score, those using educational definition use method of

reading or learning, and those who use skill’s definition of blindness which focus on what skills

or methods do visually impaired people use to be the same with others.

2. Teaching Visually impaired students

Araluce (2005) in Coşkun (2013) argued that the lack of visual doesn't hinder blind and

visually impaired learning foreign language, their strong memory and aurel sensitivity will

give them advantage instead, on condition the right methodology and pedagogical condition

is created.. Meanwhile, Agesa (2014) in Arslantaş (2017) stated that people with visually

impaired will have difficulty in learning foreign language since human vision serves as major

stimulus in learning a language.. Without vision, the students rely on the remaining senses of

hearing and motor-kinesthetic feedback in learning. So, it can be concluded that a right

methodology and pedagogical should be applied when teaching foreign language to people

with visually impaired.

3. Vocabulary

a. Definition and foundation

Vocabulary teaching has been one of the most intensively studied areas in foreign language (FL)

teaching research (Atay and Kurt, 2006; Bagheri, 2015; Barani et al., 2010; Chou, 2014;

Demircioğlu, 2010; Papathanasiou, 2009; Sonbul and Schmitt, 2009; Sun and Dong, 2004).

Researcher emphasizes the importance of teaching vocabulary in the process of FL teaching to

help learners perform successful communication in the target language (Carter and McCarthy,

2013). In the last two decades, it has been acknowledged that ‘”making students aware of the

new words they encounter and motivating students to learn and use the new words” are of

considerable value in FL teaching setting (Grabe, 2009:279).

According to statements above, it can be concluded that vocabulary in a language is very

important in order to create an effective communication, and making students aware to use

vocabulary they have learned is of considerable value in FL teaching setting.

b. Types of Vocabulary

According to information from Judy’s book: The Bridge of Vocabulary: Evidence Based

Activities for Academic Success (NCS Pearson Inc, 2007), there are four types of vocabulary.

Speaking vocabulary, listening vocabulary, writing vocabulary, and reading vocabulary.

Listening vocabulary is the words we hear and understand since we were in the womb. Speaking

vocabulary is the words we use when we speak. reading vocabulary is the word we understand

when we read something, and writing vocabulary is the words we use to express ourselves

through writing. As for this research, the author intended to explore reading vocabulary, because

making students aware and understand the word they read will lead to ability to acquire new
knowledge, whether for their language skills or any general and specific knowledge they want to

learn in the future.

The English Language has a very large vocabulary, estimated to between 450,000 and

750,000 words (Stahl, 1999; Tompkins, 2005). English has evolved from contact with

AngloSaxon English, Spanish, French, Greek and Latin to name a few.

4. Narrative text

Narrative text is the most common thing you’ll find in any language, whether it’s written or

spoken, so it’s very important. According to Wati, Bharati, & Hartono (2014) stated that a way to

develop the academic potential communication can be through recount, narrative, procedure,

descriptive and report.

A. Definition.

According to Rebecca (2003) in Defrioka (2014), a narrative text is a text, which relates a series

of logically, and chronologically related events that are caused or experienced by factors.

As for Yunhadi (2016), narative is "stories that are created in a constructive format (written,

spoken, poetry, prose, images, song, theater or dance) that describes a sequence of fictional or

non fictional events." Meanwhile, Dhillon, Herman, & Syafryadin, (2020) stated that Narrative is

description of events especially in a novel, fables or legend, etc, or a process of skill of feeling a

story. Thus narrative tells about the event which happened in the past time."

B. The Purpose of Narrative Text

The purpose of narrativetext are to entertain, introduce moral value, and introduce culture value,

intertain means to entertain the people who will read it. Besides it, it also uses to introduce moral
 value means to introduce moral value the author intends to deliver to their readers, and introduce

culture value means to introduce cultural value the author has built in the story, or cultural value

on the place the story takes place.

C. Generic Structures of Narrative Text

According to Sulistyo (2013), generic structure of narrative text is divided into five elements,

they are:1). Orientation (introduction of the story), b). Sequence of events (complication that

appends within the story), c). Resolution (the resolution of the story after the conflict), 4). Re-

orientation (It tells what the story has told or tells again the character and contains the message

of moral value to the readers), 5). Evaluation (what do we get from the story).

Gerot and Wignell (1995) in Ismail (2010) almost stated the same thing. They said that

generic structure of narrative text consists of four main elements, namely orientation,

complication, resolution and evaluation. On the other hand, Purba (2018) stated that "The

generic structure of narrative text involves the character with define personalities/identifies, and

creates images in reader’s mind and enhances the story. It also focusses a text on a series of

action."

D. Language features

There are several key features of narrative text, namely: a). Using past tense and action verbs, b).

The use of adverb of time to make the story clearer, c). Time conjunction to let the reader know

the time the story takes place, d). Featuring specific characters, means the story features several

specific characters as the main characters and the side characters, and e). Using direct speech to

make the story more lively

5.Screen reader

A. Definition
According to McCarthy, Pal, and Cutrell (2013), a screen reader takes the standard output from a

computing or mobile device and presents it to a user in either an audio or tactile output such as a

braille display. Screen readers are typically a critical Assistive Technology (AT) for basic

computing functions for people with vision impairments, and can either be desktop-based or

cloud applications".

Meanwhile, Thatcher (2006), stated that technically, a screen reader is a Software that

identifies and interprets what is being displayed on the screen (or, more accurately, sent it to a

standard output device whether a video monitor is present or not). This interpretation is then re-

presented to the user with voice synthesizer, text-to-speech, sound icons, or a Braille output

device (as refreshable Braille display). Meanwhile, Göransson (2019) stated that screen reader is

an assistive technology, primarily used by people with vision impairments. It converts text,

buttons, images and other screen elements into speech or braille. From those definitions above, it

can be concluded that screen reader is an assistive technology (AT) that helps people with

visually impaired to know the content on the screen by converting them into an audio output.

B. Advantage and disadvantage of using screen reader in teaching

a. The advantage

1. Student can read a lot faster when they read with screen reader compare to the time to read a

braille text.

The speech rate of text to speech engine or speech synthesizer that can be customized

according to student’s need make them able to read and comprehend materials faster. This

statement is supported by Brauner (2019), which specifically noted that “Students who are

efficient using a screen reader are significantly faster readers than students who read

visually.”
2. Student and teachers can access more resources to be use as teaching materials

As we know, almost all of the books are available in E-book format. And with the right assistive

technology, such as screen reading software and OCR software, visually impaired students will

be able to access them. This statement is aligned with Burgstahler (1992), in which he stated that

“Scanners with optical character recognition can read printed material and store it electronically

on computers, where it can be read using speech synthesis or printed using Braille translation

software and Braille printers. Such systems provide independent access to journals, syllabi, and

homework assignments for students who are blind. Electronic versions of documentation can

support computer users who are blind if it is delivered in an accessible format.”

b. The disadvantage of using screen reader in teaching

1. It requires technical skill to operate

Not every visually impaired student, especially in rural areas are able to use screen reader

fluently. Thus, the teachers need to have the skill requires to operate it in teaching setting and

so they can teach the students to use it. Similarly, this problem is indirectly mentioned by

Brauner, 2019, which specifically noted that Students who are efficient using a screen reader

are significantly faster readers than students who read visually, so it requires the users to be

able to operate screen reader efficiently, by then, they will be able to read faster than their

sighted counterpart.

2. It should be delivered in accessible format

In order to be readable, the e-book or website should follow accessibility guidelines.

Furthermore, current development of assistive technology unable to read graphic and diagrams

commonly use to presenting data and make people easier to understand. This statement is

indirectly supported by Burgstahler (1992), in which he stated that the electronic documents

should be deliver in accessible format in order to be readable by screen reader.

5. Previous Studies

Despite the importance and crucial English teaching, especially English as a foreign language for

the visually impaired is, there were only few studies regarding this topic. The author was able to

reach a few studies regarding this, one of them was study in Turki by Kocyigita and Artara

(2015) in their studies, they explained “The challenges both the students and teachers faced in

their learning and/or teaching processes, their ways in overcoming these challenges and specific

needs of the learners were discussed with respect to the teaching techniques and methods used,

course materials provided and opportunities intended to enable them make the most of their

learning and/or teaching”, Kocyigita and Artara (2015). They concluded that personality traits of

the visually-impaired learners had a particular determination on the learning/teaching process,

even if they had a common impairment, they did have different habits/strategies for learning, on

behalf of the teachers, trial-error experiences had better be replaced with in-service trainings,

and inclusion of other actors (administrators, curriculum planners, classmates, families seem to

be crucial for a holistic policy for the visually-impaired learners.

An other study the author found was a study done by Christidou (2016) in the Region of Central

Macedonia, Greece. She explained the general cause of visually impairment and some tips about
teaching foreign language to a visually impaired learners in classroom setting. In her research,

she intended to trace the condition and problems which VILs faced while learning foreign

languages. The answer to her questionnaire result in some of the participants regarded foreign

language learning as something extremely difficult, however as the age of participant decreases,

the ease of learning foreign language steadily increase. She concluded that the difficulty of

learning foreign language for these students were mainly because of the stage of language

teaching development in the area, infrastructure, facilities, and lack of proper materials given to

them.

From the two studies above, it can be concluded that Visually impaired learners have particular

determination to study foreign language. Meanwhile, the challenge they faced were mainly about

the lack of materials, infrastructures, and teaching technique in order to maximal their potential

in foreign language learning

This conclusion is further proof by a study done by Susanto (2018), about an ethnographic case

study of teaching and learning English for visually impaired students in Bandar lampung,

Indonesia. His study revealed that “the students received inadequate modifications of instruction

in foreign language learning” Susanto (2018). However, he also found that the students can

overcome the issue by using variety of tools and assistive technology such as screen readers. His

finding suggests that VILs have a unique ways to learning a foreign language if supported by

assistive technology such as screen readers, and he further suggest that “These abilities should be

acknowledged to obtain the perspectives of students who receive disability specific education”.

Susanto (2018).

Hence, we can further conclude that:

1. VILs have particular

 2.

3. determination to study foreign language, and will study foreign languages using variety

of means they have at their disposal.

4. More studies are needed in order to provide more elaborate and useful teaching strategies

of language teaching for VILs.

5. Screen readers are one of the main assistive technology use by VILs in order to helped

them to learn foreign languages

From the conclusion above, the author will explore the use of screen reading software in

teaching English in order to provide more method to teach visually impaired students in the hope

of giving viable strategy of teaching visually impaired students.