i
THE VARIATION OF HAND SIGNAL USED
IN THE DEAF COMMUNITY IN SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in partial of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
Written by : Dita Asmara Sofyani
392014514
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
v COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in
any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any
university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this contains no material
previously published or written by any other person except where due references
in made in the text.
Copyright @ 2015: Dita Asmara Sofyani and Esriaty S. Kendenan, S.S.,M.Si.,M.Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the
English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ, for giving me love, strength, support, courage,
care, and endless blessing in fulfilling my thesis. Jesus always reminds me with
His Words when I lost my motivation to finish this thesis. My thesis can’t be done
without the support and help of people around me. Especially please allow me to
dedicate my gratitude toward the following significant advisors and contributors:
1. I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep
regards to my supervisor, Ibu Esriaty Kendenan, for her exemplary
guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course
of this thesis.
2. And also a big thanks for my examiner, Ibu Rindang dan Ibu Debora.
Thanks for your helping and hard work to guide me. So i can finish my
revision.
3. Thanks to all of the English Department (Stiba Satya Wacana) lecturers
who are helpful to the students and taught me while learning here. To all
ex-Stiba students, thanks for sharing ‘the story in college’ with me.
These are unforgettable moments during my college years.
4. To my beloved and unforgettable Papa who stays with Jesus in Heaven.
I know that you always watch and pray for me from your best place
there. Thanks for being my motivation to finish it. This is for you Papa. I
vii
5. A big thanks to my mama, my brothers Aditya and Raditya, my sister
Arista, my emak, Mas Yarso and Mbak Nana for their constant encouragement without which this assignment would not be possible. I
love you all and I am glad for being with you all. You are the greatest
gift from God in my life.
6. And I express my thanks to my best friends Deni and Anastasia who
cheered me up and played music when I got frustrated. And also
accompanied me to have ‘chicken-noodle eating ritual’. Thanks for
supporting me to finish it soon. To Oma Villa, Teteh Berta, Mas Tinus
for their support, strength, help and for everything.
7. To Dina Ruth, Kak Ari, Ibu Mandy and my friends in Nusantara
Theological Seminary who shared this burden together. Good luck on all
your thesis!! And also I thank to my family at church. Theo who help
me to understand SPSS statistic program. My Pastor, Pak Karyo who
always supported me and asked about my thesis.
8. And I express my thank and love to Ibu Elaine Yoon and her family.
Thanks for always being my mentor and love me in Jesus Christ. Your
support and prayers strengthens me.
9. Last but not least, I thank with love to Mas Joko for his love, patience
viii ABSTRACT
Language can be learned because there is verbal linguistic input. But this process does not occur in deaf people. This causes them to become mute. So they use hand signals to communicate with others. But different hand signals can convey different meanings. It depends on the location, movement and shape. The same shape of some hand signals with different location or movement can convey different meaning. This make hand signal has several variations.
This research aims to identify the hand signal variations in the deaf community in Salatiga, to find out the factors which influence their hand signal usage and to describe the impact of the variatons within the deaf community.
To find out the variations, the words of Swadesh are used. 40 out of 100 words are chosen. This research observed 15 respondents to find out the hand signal variations, and interviewed them to identify the social background that might have influenced the variations. The social background includes: social class including family background and education, gender and age are identified.
From the data identified there are some variations in hand signal usage. From some words the variations could happen until five variations, but there are some words which have no variations. Beside different location, movement and shape influence the variations, different social background also influence the variations. For an examples different education background influenced the acquisition of hand signal because each school has different way to teach deaf children.
This variation could make missunderstanding among deaf people. But they overcome this problem with learn hand signal together in deaf community. If they
ix TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page... i
Scan Pernyataan Tidak Plagiat ... ii
Scan Pernyataan Persetujuan Akses ... iii
Scan Approval Page ... iv
Copyright Statement ... v
Table of Pictures ... xii
Table of Appendixes ... xiii
Chapter 1 Introduction ... 1
1.1 Background of the Study... 1
1.2 Research Problem ... 2
1.3 Research Objectives ... 2
1.4 Scope of Study ... 3
1.5 Definition of Terms ... 3
1.6 Significance of Study ... 4
x
2.1 Hand Signal ... 6
2.2 Hand Signal in Indonesia ... 7
2.3 Hand Signal Variations ... 7
2.4 The Use of Hand Signal in the Deaf Community... 8
2.5 Social Background ... 9
2.5.1 Social Class ... 10
2.5.2 Gender ... 12
2.5.3 Age ... 12
2.6 The Impact of Variations to the Communication ... 13
2.7 The Vocabulary of Swadesh ... 14
Chapter 3 Research Method ... 15
3.1. Type of Research ... 15
3.2. Participants ... 15
3.3. Technique and Instrument of Data Collection ... 15
3.3.1 Observation ... 16
3.3.2 Video ... 16
3.3.3 Interview ... 16
3.4. Method of Data Analysis ... 17
3.5. Research Procedures ... 17
Chapter 4 Analysis ... 19
4.1 The Variation of Hand Signal ... 19
4.2 Social Background ... 24
xi
- Family Background ... 25
- Education ... 28
4.2.2 Age ... 31
4.2.3 Gender ... 34
4.3 The Impact of the Variations ... 37
Chapter 5 Conclusion and Suggestion ... 39
5.1 Conclusion... 39
5.2 Suggestion ... 41
References ... 42
xii TABLE OF CHARTS
Chart 4.1 The variationd in the level of shape, location and movement ... 20
Chart 4.2 Difference variations occur between middle lower and middle upper class family ... 26
Chart 4.3 Number of variations based on group of age ... 32
Chart 4.4 Difference variations based on gender ... 35
TABLE OF TABLES Table 4.1 Number of Variations from 40 Words... 22
Table 4.2 Number of variations based on respondents school ... 28
Table 4.3 Number of variations based on words without comment ... 36
TABLE OF PICTURES Picture 4.1 Variation-Dry ... 20
Picture 4.2 Variation-When ... 21
Picture 4.3 Variation-Animal ... 21
xiii TABLE OF APPENDIXES
Appendix 1 The Words ... 44
Appendix 2 The Variations among the Respondents ... 47
Appendix 3 The Hand Signal Variations in the Level of Location, Shape, and Movement... 50
Appendix 4 The Hand Signal Variations ... 53
Appendix 5 Sociolinguistic Questionnaires ... 61
