Indonesian Language Characteristics of Deaf Children and Implications for Literacy Skills

Abstract

This research aimed to reveal the characteristics of the Indonesian language in deaf children and the implications for their literacy skills. A qualitative approach was used on the subjects determined through purposive sampling. Data were collected by recording student performance portfolios, interviewing teachers, and observing video recordings. The data were analyzed descriptively and explanatively. The results showed that the Indonesian language for deaf children is limited, as seen through four ways. First, the vocabulary of deaf children is dominated by general words (hypernyms) and concrete references. Second, they do not use figures of speech or idioms, compound words, and terms. Third, their ability to form derivative words is still low. Fourth, they generally produce core and single sentences, and only a small part uses compound sentences. The main and single sentences have an inversion pattern, where the verb precedes the subject. Moreover, they fail to use linking between sentences, and the resulting discourse is a collection of separate sentences. The linguistic barriers resulted in a low effective reading speed of 33.04 – 68, 30 words per minute. This has implications for low literacy skills. Therefore, an intervention program is needed to improve the language skills of deaf children.