Da coesão invisível à referenciação explícita nas interlínguas de aprendizes surdos

Abstract

The texts of Brazilian deaf people writing in Portuguese are considered, according to the literature, difficult to understand, mainly due to the lack of cohesive elements. The understanding that this results from intermediate and transitory interlanguages between their first language (L1), Libras, and the target language (L2), Portuguese, motivated our investigation into the characteristics of the linguistic knowledge that governs them. In this work, we investigate the lack of cohesive elements in the analyzed written productions and how these elements emerge through a teaching and learning methodology based on second language (L2) teaching practices. Considering the developments of studies in L2 acquisition and the evolution of the teaching of those languages in the area of Applied Linguistics, we carried out an action focused on direct speech. We created teaching materials in which we used comic strips as textual basis, since they favor the transposition of dialogs into a written text with linear language, which requires explicit references to the interlocutors as well as the use of one dicendi verb — cohesive and speech sequencing elements absent from the initial texts of the learners. The results of the action research led us to two insights: the first one, based on Textual Linguistics, focuses on the nature of the lack of functional words in the learning of an L2, especially those that have direct correspondence in the two languages involved, such as coreferential personal pronouns; and the second one deals with the methodological issue related to providing abundant comprehensive input vs. focus-on-form in the teaching of an L2.