Influência da estrutura sintática gestual portuguesa na aquisição da estrutura SVO língua portuguesa oral em crianças com surdez e utilizadoras de implante coclear

Abstract

The objectives of the current study are related with the research of possible influence of the syntactic structure of Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) with the acquisition of Portuguese Oral Language. In this sense, it was analyzed oral spontaneous productions of four children with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss. Two of these children presented bilateral cochlear implants, superior hearing age and earlier access to LGP, and the remaining children, with unilateral cochlear implants, inferior hearing age, and later access to sign language. Regarding the syntactic structure, the Portuguese oral language presents a basic subject-verb-object structure, which is not shared with the LGP, where the verb seems to be placed in the last position. It was found that the productions of the children, with later access to LGP and with minor hearing age, had a higher percentage of ungrammatical productions, and within these, the production of utterances with the verb in last position. However, only one similar utterance was found, produced by one of the children with access to earlier cochlear implant. Also only one of the children with inferior hearing age, the inversion of the direct object was observed. The structure of sign languages seems to have influence on the acquisition of syntax in oral language. However, it was emphasized that this apparent transfer should be seen as a normal aspect within the framework of the observed phenomena in bilingual individuals. Not neglecting that children should have access to good language models, in order to master the oral language rules.

Date of Award	3 Aug 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Mineiro (Supervisor) & João Paço (Co-Supervisor)