Um olhar no ensino da Língua Gestual Portuguesa nos Açores

: estudo de caso sobre a interação no desenvolvimento linguístico

Abstract

Language acquisition requires that the signer/speaker is linguistic immersed in such way that experience of linguistic input exposure results in proficient knowledge and domain of the acquired language. The bimodal bilingual education of the Portuguese deaf community allows that Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) becomes a vehicle of communication not only used in domestic and community contexts, but also a linguistic system to be taught and praticed within the school environment. Therefore, for the acquisition and development of LGP, children should not only be formally exposed to the language, but also informally exposed through interaction with signed pairs of different age groups and social strata. However, in a small country as Portugal, where deaf children are often geographically isolated from other deaf children, this informal exposure is not real. Knowing the crucial role of interaction in linguistic development of a signer/ speaker, this study explores the influence of conversational interaction in language development of a geographically and linguistically isolated student in Pico Island with two students from São Miguel Island, who are active deaf students in school and in deaf community. For this, it was created a conversation protocol between schools of both students groups to provide conversational sessions in LGP among students in order to verify language benefits that may result from this conversational interaction. In this study case, it is possible to highlight the acquisition of new signs and therefore the increase of vocabulary, the acquisition of proper elements of sign modality such as role shift, the knowledge of deaf culture and the deaf identification.

Date of Award	27 Jul 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Mineiro (Supervisor) & Mara Moita (Co-Supervisor)