Ensino de língua portuguesa para discentes surdos: uma discussão com base no multiletramento e na produção de sentidos

Abstract

In the social practices of language, most deaf people are inserted in a society where oral and written languages are the main means to communicate. Thus, the way school builds the social dimension of language and develops skills of reading and writing, strongly influences individuals’ understanding, appropriation of knowledge, and relationships. It also directly interferes with how they classify, name, and categorize reality. This research focuses on the teaching of the Portuguese Language to deaf students, based on multilingualism and the production of meaning. Underpinned on a qualitative approach, the purpose of the study is to analyze teaching practices of the Portuguese Language and the use of multiliteracies in deaf education. The methodology is based on bibliographic research and on interviews conducted with the director and the Portuguese Language teachers of the Professor Telasco Pereira Filho Municipal School of Bilingual Education for the Deaf, which is located in the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão, Brazil. The research anchors on the following studies and authors: Marcuschi (2010), Quadros and Schmiedt (2006), Müller (2016), Souza (2016), Rojo and Moura (2009, 2012), Fraga (2017), Bakhtin (1997 [1952-1953/1979]), among others. One of the research’s outputs was the creation of a booklet (e-book format) with multiliteracies pedagogical guidelines for teachers who work with deaf students. This booklet was based on the studies of Dolz, Noverraz and Schnewly (2004 [2001]), Bakhtin (2003 [1952 1953/1979]), and other authors such as Rojo (2012, 2013). Major results demonstrated: (i) the school should be a favorable environment for the acquisition of the two languages, Libras and Portuguese, considering they can be taught, experienced, and occupy a relevant space in the educational context and can also contribute to building students’ identity; (ii) the pedagogical process must offer the student possibilities of sense construction and transform the multi literacies into meanings, both in reading and writing. Furthermore, final results pointed out impasses and challenges, mainly socioeconomic (family participation, school investments, and use of specific materials for teaching the deaf), linguistic-cultural (use and status of languages in teaching and learning), and political-pedagogical (teacher training, and innovative policies for teaching the deaf).