A significação de conceitos químicos: estudo semiótico referente à ação coformadora do intérprete de libras em uma sala de aula com surdo

Abstract

Chemistry teaching for deaf students has specificities regarding their culture. In a classroom that aims to be inclusive, the presence of the Educational Interpreter - EI is essential, as he is the responsible for ensuring the linguistic accessibility of these kinds of students. His performance in this teaching space is linked to the work of the teacher, who is a representative of the scientific / chemical community, which uses a specific language from this area of knowledge in the teaching and learning process with the students. In this context, EI needs to deal with a lot of chemical’s terminologies that do not yet have an equivalent sign-term, and pass them from Portuguese to the Brazilian Sign Language – Libras. Thus, in this research we are dedicated to investigating how an Educational Interpreter, in a context of a lack in the chemical sign-terms, interprets the speech of a Chemistry teacher; analysing what her interpretive choices are and what linguistic resources she uses. For this, we recorded a chemistry class on “Rule of the Octet / Chemical Bonds” in a public school in the city of Juiz de Fora - MG, in the first year of high school, in a room with a deaf student. In addition, in order to characterize some aspects of the activities of EIs, we applied a questionnaire via Google Forms for interpreters from different locations in the country, asking them mainly about which functions are assigned to this professional in the educational context. The discussions on the research data were made through the content analysis (questionnaires) of Lawrence Bardin (1977-) and in the use of Charles S. Peirce's semiotic theory (1839-1914), as well as the gesture classifications elaborated by David McNeill (1933-) (filming the lesson) and the theoretical bases of Libras linguistics. In this connection, performing the analyses, we infer that an EI has some functions such as (i) cooperating for the accessibility of the deaf in the educational space; (ii) promoting mediation between deaf culture and others; (iii) act as co-trainer of this student; (iv) perform linguistic mediations through their knowledge of translation / interpretation, Portuguese and Libras. Still, we identified that these professional uses classifiers, typing alphabet, some gestures and signs to signify certain chemical’s concepts that were presented by the teacher. However, not only in situations in which there are no sign-terms, these resources were used as a strategy to describe chemical phenomenal and their processes, aiming to cooperate with the deaf student's learning. In short, through the analysis of the class episode, we perceive the reinforcement of the idea, also present in the responses to the questionnaires, that the EI has a co-forming function for the deaf, collaborating with the teacher through his interactions and interpretive choices.