Desenvolvimento linguístico e surdez: um estudo experimental com crianças e jovens em situação bilíngue – Libras/Português Brasileiro

Abstract

This dissertation has as its study object the acquisition of Brazilian sign language as the first language of deaf children and young individuals, who have hearing parents, and debates over the importance of a spontaneous acquisition of such language at a similar age hearing children acquire oral language. In accordance with a bilingual approach, we assume that the access to the sign language allows the linguistic development of deaf people in a natural and spontaneous way (QUADROS, 2005; MAHER; 2007; QUADROS & SCHMIEDT, 2006; QUADROS & CRUZ, 2011). According to such approach, it takes into account in the present work Libras as a first language (L1) and the Brazilian Portuguese as a second one (L2). This study aims at characterizing, by means of an experimental basis methodology, the consequences arising from Libras acquisition by those children and young individuals, initiated in different contexts and, in most cases, later, that is, after the age of four. Language delay (receptive and expressive), in a cognitive level, implies perception, attention and memory difficulties, affecting the ability of generalization, concept formation, among others. The hypothesis that guides this study is that the sign language (in this case, Libras) allows to solve problems concerning the development of higher mental functions, which require the language as a mediator in this process. We assume an inate conception of language acquisition, acordding to which, independently from the quality of input the child is exposed to, for being triggered from few availabe elements, the language is acquired (CHOMSKY, 1965, 1981, 1995). We also assume a psycholinguistic perspective of language acquisition– Syntactic Bootstrapping (GLEITMAN, 1990) and Semantic Boostrapping (PINKER, 1987; 1989). The results suggest the later the aquisition of Libras as a first language the more significative will be the impact on the difficulty of judging mental states by deaf children whose access to the conventional input did not occur in the initial stage of language acquisition.