Speech disorder of Cerebral Palsy character in “My Left Foot” movie

ABSTRACT

This study examines the types of difficulties on speech disorder character in my left foot movie. It focuses on analyzing the main character named Christy who gets difficulty in producing words properly by using Carroll (1986) theory. The aim of this study is to describe the types of difficulties of cerebral palsy character on speech disorder in my left foot movie.

In analyzing the data, descriptive qualitative method is used because the data are transcribed and documented from the movie. The techniques of data collection were searching, watching, reading, selecting, and classifying. The data analysis was done by arranging, analyzing, discussing, and concluding.

This study finds several types of difficulties on speech disorder character in my left foot movie used by Christy Brown. There are three types of speech disorder: (1) fluency disorder that means speech disorder in which the normal flow of speech is disrupted. It is divided into two elements, they are a) repetition that occurs when units of speech, such as a sound, syllable, word, or phrase is repeated and b) prolongation that is the unnatural lengthening of continuant sounds. (2) Articulation disorder that means the manner in which a person produces a sound and the placement of the tongue, lips and teeth. It is divided into two elements; they are a) Types of articulation disorder that is divided into four parts, i) Omitting is a type of articulation disorder in which the individual omits or does not pronounce particular sounds, ii) Distorting is a type of articulation disorder in which the individual tries so hard to pronounce a sound correctly that he/she ends up distorting the sound, iii) Substituting occurs when an individual literally substitutes one sound for another, iv) Adding is articulation disorder in which the individual routinely pronounces an extra sound or syllable, b) points of articulatory that is divided into two parts, they are; i) Place of articulation is the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place and ii) Manner of articulation deals with how sounds are articulated. (3) Voice disorder that means an abnormality of one or more of the three characteristics of voice, pitch, intensity (loudness), and quality (resonance). It is divided into three parts, they are; a) Pitch may be described as the relative tone of a person’s voice, how high or low it is, or how it demonstrates repeated inappropriate pitch patterns, b) Loudness describes the volume or intensity of a person’s voice, c) Voice quality is related to how the vocal cords function and how the voice resonates in the oral (mouth), nasal (nose), and pharyngeal (throat) cavities.

The result of this study is useful for the next writers who are in the same area as this study. For the next writers, they are suggested to choose field research in real life, means it is not a movie, in order to compare and contrast the finding of this movie and real life.