The relationship of the hearing with LIBRAS pedagogical material: the teaching-learning process of hand movement and non-manual expressions

• Grant number: 14/12549-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2014
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Sueli Salles Fidalgo
• Grantee: Janaína Araújo Ogawa
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In studies about deafness, Vygotsky (1997) conceives it as a sociocultural difference which means that the human body undergoes a process of overcompensation. Neuroscience also studies the process of adapting the physical to the social environment and situates the deaf as an individual with a degree of perceptual broadness from the visual point of view - if compared to those who can hear (Rodrigues, 1993). Bearing these concepts in mind, the teaching of a language which exists in a different mode from oral languages is the starting point of this research. The interest if to investigate how hearing adults can apprehend linguistic parameters of Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS), which are related to visual aspects as cited above. In Brazil, a Federal law, number 10436/2002, recognizes LIBRAS as the natural language of the deaf community; and the Federal Decree, number 5626/2005, asserts the deaf's right to education, as well as care in public and private services - all in their natural language. Due to these legal resolutions, teaching and speech therapy programs have added the course of LIBRAS in their curriculum. This has led the general hearing public to seek to attend other LIBRAS courses. Bearing this in mind, as well as the lack of research about the teaching of LIBRAS as a second language to the hearing, I investigate the teaching-learning of the grammar aspects of LIBRAS (GESSER, 2006; FERREIRA, 2010; QUADROS & KARNOPP, 2004), by looking into the parameters of hand movement and non-manual expressions. I will analyze the pedagogical material offered to the target audience, and will interview them so as to understand the difficulty they might have.