Leitura e compreensão do texto videossinalizado no ensino de Libras como língua adicional

Abstract

Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), due to its visuospatial modality, requires learners to engage their visual and motor skills to understand and produce signs. This study aimed to analyze the behavior of readers who are non-deaf listeners learning Libras as an additional language when engaging with video-recorded signed texts, focusing on whether they used strategies to support their reading and comprehension of the content. To achieve this objective, digital teaching materials were developed and used with undergraduate students enrolled in a Portuguese Language and Literature teacher education program at a public university who were taking a Libras course. The following specific objectives were established: to investigate the reading and comprehension processes of learners studying Libras as an additional language; to determine whether modality effects in video-recorded signed texts interfere with the reading and comprehension process; to analyze whether the fable and poetry genres, in the visuospatial modality, contain elements that facilitate reading and comprehension; and to investigate whether readers use strategies, and which ones they employ when reading a text, in order to understand a video-recorded signed text. The theoretical framework draws on the work of Bakhtin (2010), Leffa (1996, 2016), Kato (2007), Quadros and Karnopp (2011), Solé (1998), and Tomitch (2007, 2008), among other authors. The study adopted a qualitative methodological approach, considering human beings as subjects engaged in dialogue and collaboration. The data generated through participants’ interactions with the video-recorded signed texts were analyzed using content analysis, as proposed by Bardin (2016). The findings show that participants employed different strategies in their attempts to understand the texts, including cognitive and metacognitive strategies. However, the use of these strategies alone did not ensure full comprehension of the texts. Meaning construction was also found to be related to participants’ linguistic knowledge, background knowledge, experience with Libras, level of proficiency, and the characteristics of the texts themselves.