Ensino superior e pessoas surdas: o bilinguismo em questão no curso de letras libras da UFCG.

Abstract

The educational process of deaf people must be seen in a particular way mainly because it involves a singular linguistic mode (sign language), as a sine qua non-condition of access to knowledge and construction of humanity. Although this language has all the necessary properties for participation in social life in personal and collective terms, oral auditory languages, as the majority languages (in Brazil, the Portuguese language), limit the possibilities for deaf people to develop their bilingual skills. So they have sign language as the first language (L1) and Portuguese, in written form, as a second language (L2). This bilingual formation causes tensions as the practice of languages of different modalities demands strategies that not only consider techniques for the appropriation of linguistic codes but mainly the implication of the formal and cultural aspects of the languages involved. Given this context, the following questions guided this research: How does the Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) undergraduate course approach the aspects concerning the bilingual principles in its PP (Pedagogical Project)? What is the role of sign language in the curricula of the Libras undergraduate course? How do people involved in the educational process (students and professors) perceive the bilingual constitution in the in-action syllabus of deaf students? The study was developed based on documentary research, focusing on the Pedagogical Project (PP) of the Libras undergraduate course at UFCG (Federal University of Campina Grande), on Course Plans for the referred undergraduate course and interviews with seven participants. These were three deaf students, one man and two women; two deaf professors, a man and a woman; a signalling hearing professor and a coordinator of the Libras undergraduate course at UFCG, with the general objective of investigating the bilingual principles of deaf people in this course. The interviews were analyzed under the lens of Cultural Studies, considering the following categories: course profile, objectives, methodology and evaluation. The results give evidence of the strong presence of the Portuguese language as a means of instruction conveyed through support materials for discussions and in the evaluation processes; lack of materials in Libras resulting in the deprivation of Libras as a language for instructions in support materials for deaf people; a conception of bilingualism restricted to expressive linguistic aspects in the analyzed documents and the narratives of the participating people. Thus, it was possible to notice the absence of constitutional facets of deaf people such as culture, identities, language to (re) think the curriculum, to consider the natural differences of human beings, aiming to establish a functional bilingual process for deaf people. The course studied stands out for being the first degree in Paraíba offered in a face-to-face modality. Therefore, it attests its importance for the local deaf community and surrounding regions, the recognition of the struggle of deaf people for equality and linguistic visibility, counting the impressive contribution of legitimization of Sign Language as a scientific language. Given the findings mean that, despite the recent implementation, the course indicates a contribution to think about the education of deaf people from innovative aspects, I believe that the strongest among these is visual literacy and visual productions.