Abstract:

This article discusses the relevancy of the new learning technologies (NLT) to favor knowledge’s mediation in inclusive classrooms with deaf students. This work was motivated by the project developed in the Coordination of Distance Education (CEAD) at Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil), focusing on the inclusion of deaf student in the Civil Engineering course. Then, it was discussed the importance of NLT and the use of different multimodal means, such as gestures, images, videos and animations, to foster interactions and construction of concepts in inclusive classrooms. To give meaning to the terms of Civil Engineering it is important that the interpreter of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and the teacher establish a partnership, exploring different visual mediational means, such as images and classifiers in signal language that enable spatial description of a scientific concept, besides gestures, which represent bodily actions inherent to discourse. According to McNeill (2005), gestures it was classified as: iconic - actions or images of concrete objects; metaphorical - abstract images or use of metaphors; pulse - fast movements that give rhythm or emphasis to speech/sing language; and deictic - point to something. Connected with Libras and use of NLT to describe knowledge, gestures can favor the representation of the dynamic scientific processes. Considering the Social Semiotics, modes of representation refer to mediational means that make communication possible. A mode is a social and cultural shaped resource for meaning-making: speech, writing, gestures, still and moving images are examples of modes used in representation and communication. Thus, the process of knowledge’s mediation presupposes involvement in organized activities, in which the different modes play key roles. In the case of the deaf, the process of semiotic mediation is related to the use of linguistic signs articulated through the hands, facial expressions and body actions, which communicate any idea that one wishes to express. These linguistic signs establish a link between signifier and meaning, where there is an association of two mental images: the signifier is a visual form and meaning is the concept attributed to that sign. In this way, communication implies in a speaker (people signaling) and a message that wants to communicate to the interlocutor, being realized through these linguistic signs. These semiotic relations mediated by NLT can favor the appropriation of signs, since communication is established through social interactions. The relationship between agents and mediational means can be characterized in terms of domain and appropriation. Wertsch (1999) distinguishes domain and appropriation as two processes related to the Vygotskian concept of internalization. According to this author, domain is related to "knowing how to do" skillfully use the mediational mean. The idea of appropriation is related to the process of taking something from the other and make owner. Thus, the learning of deaf in inclusive classrooms can be understood characterizing this process as a form of knowledge’s appropriation in the social dynamics that involves the meanings making. For this, the teacher interaction with the sign language interpreter is necessary, being mediated by NLT and their different semiotic modes.

Keywords:

Multimodal interactions, knowledge’s mediation, inclusive classrooms, deaf students.