Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as a teacher´s mediation strategy in teaching english for deaf people: The contribution of the reflective journals

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate the practices and procedures developed by a hearing teacher of English during language classes to deaf people in a language teaching institute. This work aims at understanding, analyzing and interpreting the representations and assessing processes related to the classroom situation.  Also, what elements influence the evolution and subjective construction of the English teacher for deaf people, who use Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as the main didactic medium. This article also contributes to reflections and discussions about the actions involved during the classes, as well as in the formation of English teachers who teach for deaf people. We depart from analyses made through Reflective Journals produced by the teacher-researcher, during the period of the course, aiming at a better understanding of the English learning process by deaf students. The data analysis demonstrated that Libras was used by the students to replace the unfamiliar structures to them, in English. Both students and teacher were able to use Libras as a mediation language in the teaching of English and its learning process. In addition to that, the selected approaches were beneficial to the learning of reading and writing by the deaf students.