Alfabetização e letramento: o aprendizado da língua portuguesa por sujeitos surdos

Abstract

How is the process of written literacy and initial reading instruction of the deaf in Portuguese language (PL)? By analyzing data achieved through a test given to graduating primary school deaf students from a public school of Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, we tried to answer this question, by comparing the data obtained in this research with the results reported by Góes (1999), related to the 1990s. In addition, this paper presents suggestions for teaching PL as L2 for deaf students in order to assist the work of teachers involved in this teaching and learning process. The results show that, in spite of all the legal and social achievements of the Brazilian deaf community, its performance in PL is still similar to that identified by Góes (1999), characterized by deficient use of indicators of syntactic and semantic character or lexical range, showing a tendency to restrict a text to a kind simplified report, as well as limited vocabulary; improper the use of prepositions and adverbs; inappropriate use of verbs; deficient knowledge of structures of coordination, and subordination and limited resources to catch nuances of registers of speech on and use them accurately. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new teaching practices that aim at transforming the educational field, especifically in initial reading instruction and literacy of deaf subjects, indicated in this work.