PERCEPTIONS OF DEAF YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This article is an excerpt from a master's research that investigated how the teaching of Libras is being developed in bilingual schools and how much knowledge deaf people have about it. In this study, the results will be presented regarding the axis that reflected on the perceptions of young people and deaf adults about the condition of being bilingual and bilingual education. It is based on conceptions of language/language acquisition and development through human social relations. We also follow the premise that learning a second language is based on the person's knowledge of their mother tongue. The data presented here were collected through individual and collective interviews with deaf people, where it was possible to verify that Libras fulfills its role as L1, favoring the linguistic, cognitive, social, emotional and communicative development of deaf people, however, the interviewees report that they were not exposed to the teaching of their linguistic organization. This fact influences the learning of Portuguese as L2. We point out a reflection on the need to start teaching the linguistic aspects of Libras, leading students to know it fully, so that it can be a contribution to learning the Portuguese language and being able to move between the two languages.