How is Picture Mnemonic Implemented in Teaching English Vocabulary to Students with Intellectual Disability?

Abstract

It is challenging for most teachers to teach English to students with intellectual disability. One of the reasons is because English is considered as a difficult subject especially for foreign language students, including students with intellectual disability. Furthermore, it is because students with intellectual disability have special characteristics which may become obstacles during teaching learning process. Intellectually disabled students tend to have a lack of motivation, low memory ability, to be passive, be easily distracted, and have problems in language development as well. Therefore, an appropriate strategy or device which can improve attention and increase students' ability to remember should be implemented. One of the strategy is the use of picture mnemonic. This research aims to describe how the picture mnemonic is implemented in teaching English vocabulary to the eighth grade secondary students with intellectual disability. The method used in this research was descriptive qualitative. The participants were the English teacher and 12 eighth grade secondary students with intellectual disability at State Special School (SLB N) Purwosari Kudus Indonesia. The observation sheet was used to get the data related to the implementation of picture mnemonics focusing on two aspects: teaching presentation and students' behavior. The results of this research showed that in general, the implementation of picture mnemonics for teaching English vocabulary was in very good criteria with the average score was 3.69. Related to the teaching presentation aspect, the principles of picture mnemonics implementation had been successfully fulfilled by the teacher, such as presentation, association and retrieval. It was also found that there was improvement on students' vocabulary retention. Moreover, dealing with students' behavior aspect, during the implementation of the picture mnemonics the students were active, involved and enjoyed the teaching learning process. Considering the benefits of using picture mnemonics, it is suggested to use these picture mnemonics especially when teaching students with disability.

Effectiveness of Teaching English Introductory Phrases with Digital Dialogue Cards to Students with Intellectual Disabilities

“…This finding is consistent with other studies in the literature showing that technology-assisted implementations and implementing computerbased technology to help students learn vocabulary/phrases, spelling or writing skills in a foreign language are beneficial. (Flores et al, 2012;Kurniati et al, 2019;Rodrigues Carreon & Serrato Salavar, 2017;Seok et al, 2015;Van der Meer et al, 2012;Vedora & Stromer, 2007). In addition, the opinions of the participants of this study have a similarity to other studies in the literature on liking the activities which are done on the computer and not being bored which is beneficial for reflecting positively on their learning processes.…”

Pictures as a Learning Media in Teaching Vocabulary

“…In its application, this picture is used as a medium for teaching vocabulary to students, where the picture is a pictures about animals, things around the school, part of the body, and also combined with several things related to the type in part of speech. This makes students interested in the pictures that have been provided, in line with (Ristyani & Nurhayati, 2020), (Liando et al, 2021), (Mozes & Liando, 2020), (Agama & Singaraja, 2020), (Kurniati et al, 2020) and (Nurdini, 2018). From this data, it can be clearly seen that there is an increase from the students' pre-test to post-test.…”

“…Knowledge of vocabulary is basic and very important for students to master to communicate (Kurniati et al, 2020). The more vocabulary a student has, the more likely it is that the student is skilled in language or communication.…”

“…To optimize children's exploration power, using picture media can present detailed images. For example, (Kurniati, Rukmini, Saleh, & Bharati, 2020) suggest in observing leaves, students at a glance will only see the leaves based on the shape, color, and vertebrae in the leaf. However, by using pictures students can see the leaf fibers clearly thanks to the help of a microscope the results are printed in the form of images.…”

Backward Chaining Model for Identifying Learning Difficulties Experienced by Special Needs Children

“…The results showed that students' English learning achievement was better after being taught using the picture mnemonic strategy than before they were taught using the picture mnemonic strategy. It can be concluded that picture mnemonics effectively teach basic English for students with intellectual disabilities [12]. Furthermore, the authors also investigated the intellectually disabled behavior during English learning using mnemonics [13].…”