Invited editor's note
Ronice Müller de Quadros
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
This volume is a collection of studies on Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) in the field of Applied Linguistics. Libras is a national language, legitimated by Brazilian Law 10.436/2002, which resulted from the achievements of Deaf social movements in Brazil, allied with scientific literature related to Libras. This volume presents a range of studies that back linguistic policies that impact the acts of giving value to and the documenting of this language in Brazil. Among these actions, bilingual education has been a crucial tool for deaf Brazilians. To a certain extent, the arrangement of this volume reflects upon issues that have a direct impact on proposals concerning bilingual education for the Deaf in Brazil.
Before we can think about a bilingual education, it is essential that we ensure an acquisition process towards a healthy language, from both the linguistic and social points of view. In this light, this volume begins with a discussion by Bernardino on the value of interaction in the acquisition of sign languages. This author analyzed deaf children of hearing parents who had contact with Libras. Next, Quadros, Lillo-Martin and Chen-Pichler present their investigations conducted with bimodal bilingual children, focusing on the overlapping of language, a production influenced by the presence of deaf and hearing interlocutors. Considering neurological aspects, Valadão, Isaac, Rosset, Araujo, and Santos present an analysis of neurological reactions through functional magnetic resonance of bilingual deaf subjects while performing tasks in both Libras and Portuguese. The authors concluded that the brain activity is more stimulated with Libras tasks, indicating that these bilingual deaf subjects present a more elaborate linguistic performance when using Libras. This illustrates the fundamental role of Libras in bilingual education, given that the deaf subjects favor visual channels when performing linguistic tasks. In an attempt to construct a deaf subjectivity, Ribeiro analyzes epigraphs of deaf researchers and concludes that a hybrid arrangement is in fact established, crisscrossed by an image of a deaf activist.
Following these three articles, which place special attention on the child and the deaf subject, the volume then moves on to a group of articles directly related to language teaching. The act of reading precedes the act of writing is how Silva introduces us to a study on the teaching-learning process of reading for deaf students. The author analyzes the development of reading mediated by Libras and identifies strategies for the comprehension of reading in Portuguese through the alternation of languages. Piconi, applying a critical discursive analysis, analyzes the materials produced by the Brazilian Ministry of Education to identify the practice of language learning for the Deaf. Finau delves into the acquisition of Portuguese writing by deaf students, focusing on aspectual categories and observes the construction of an interlanguage influenced by Libras. The author concludes that the acquisition of the writing of signs can be useful for the acquisition of Portuguese writing skills. Streiechen and Krause-Lemke also analyze the written productions of deaf subjects. These authors seek to identify learning strategies through the interaction between the structure of Libras and the Portuguese Language. Pires analyzes interactions in sign language in the classroom context and concludes that the effective interaction in a sign language is of utmost importance in aiding the written production in Portuguese.
Regarding the teaching of foreign languages, Sousa analyzes the teaching practice of an English teacher for deaf students. The author reports on the relevance of the use of Brazilian Sign Language to mediate the teaching of language for the Deaf, since, by using this language, the students are able to construct meanings that can be transcribed into written English. Tavares and Oliveira also deal with the teaching of English to deaf students in the classroom. These authors identify the presence of Libras, Portuguese, and English in the contexts of English language teaching for the Deaf, the mediation of Libras interpreters, the presence of the teacher, and the use of technological tools that make English language teaching more feasible in the classroom context.
Another two articles treat pedagogical questions related to the teaching of Libras as a second language. Lebedeff and Santos assess the use of short videos as objects of language teaching in the learning of Libras and defend that these videos make real social language practices possible for the students. Rodrigues and Baalbaki present an analysis of the social practices between the contact languages, Libras and Portuguese, focused on the use of linguistic loans by Libras users. These practices are present in the daily routines of deaf people, as they are immersed within a society that uses Portuguese in a broad sense.
In the next set of articles, the focus switches to the interpretation and/ or translation of Libras/Portuguese, which is also an integral part of social practices in the different contexts in which these two languages are mediated. Bilingual education for the Deaf implies the production of materials in Libras through texts that are originally written in Portuguese. In addition, the interpretation of and for Libras is an integral part of the daily life of deaf people in educational and other social spaces. Nascimento investigates the activity of interpretation in the university context. This author analyzes the interfaces and discursive choices made by the interpreters as enunciators and mediators of the relations between the Deaf and the Hearing. Albres analyzes the possible criteria for the procedures of the translation of children's literary texts from the Portuguese language to Libras. The author observes that the translations go beyond the literary content, as they include information from the book's illustrations, the discursive genre, and the consideration of the target public, which will most likely be questioned by the material. Finally, Lemos presents the interpretation strategies used by sign language interpreters when faced with phraseological units in Portuguese.
This volume also contains one book review: LIBRAS? Que língua é essa?: crenças e preconceitos em torno da língua de sinais e da realidade surda, written by Audrei Gesser and reviewed by Silva and Severo.
Considering the collection of studies published in this volume, the Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada (Brazilian Applied Linguistics Journal) seeks to contribute to the dissemination of studies on Libras in Brazil and hopes to inspire future work in this field of research. We invite all readers to delight in these results.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
24 Oct 2014 -
Date of issue
Dec 2014
