An Autism Student^s Poem Writing Endeavors: A Case Study in one of the Inclusive Schools
1 Marwito Wihadi , 2 Endang Darsih

Universitas Kuningan, Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jl. Cut Nyak Dhien No.36 A, Cijoho, Kec. Kuningan, Kabupaten Kuningan, Jawa Barat
marwito.wihadi[at]uniku.ac.id
endang.darsih[at]uniku.ac.id

Abstract

Having students with autism in inclusive schools is a challenge for any teachers mostly having no prior pedagogic insights concerning about students with special needs. It is the fact that the use of language learning strategies is important to reach their learning goals and give them a fun experience in their learning processes. Thus, this study aimed to see the deployment of language learning strategies as well as difficulty typologies confronted in poem writing by an autism student. This study employed a case study qualitative method for in-depth analysis. The data were collected through observation and interview to get the naturalness of the data. The study was conducted at one of senior high schools in Kuningan, involving one autism student among 34 other regular peers. The results showed that motivation in socio-affective strategy was made use of. It was additionally encountered that vocabularies, tenses and rhyme as his poem writing difficulties were prevalent, yet the ways to overcome them were figured out by using translating strategy in cognitive to get familiar with the learned vocabulary and tenses by using question for clarification strategy in socio-affective. It is concluded that certain learning strategies are prevalently advantageous for autism students to complete poem writing. It^s imperative that divergent writing genres be focused to unveil some insights.

Keywords: Inclusive schools, language learning strategies, autism, writing, poem text

Topic: Education