“Eu gosta muito de jogo”: acquisition of writing verbs by deaf students

Abstract

Learning the verbal morphology of Portuguese as a second language by deaf people has been perceived as one of the greatest challenges in the acquisition of writing. To better understand verb writing by deaf people, Rocha-Toffolo (2022a) analyzed texts produced by 17 students, seeking to identify, categorize, and reflect on the main deviations in verbal production. It was observed that the most frequent occurrences of inadequate verb writing were related to issues in verbal inflection of person and tense, as well as the use of verbs in the infinitive and verb phrases. Some hypotheses that may justify such difficulties were raised, and three questions that impact the writing of deaf students were presented: 1) the absence of a consolidated first language that serves as a premise for the literacy process in written Portuguese as a second language; 2) limited prior knowledge of the oral language; and, 3) poor Portuguese vocabulary. Considering that the perception and the processing of written Portuguese by deaf people is basically visual, teaching must be structured based on visual literacy and the use of strategies that aim to improve morphological competence. It is expected that the results and reflections presented may assist in understanding the complexities found in writing verbs by deaf people and contribute to the development of teaching practices suitable for this population.