Abstract:

Teaching a foreign language to people with Down Syndrome (DS) is a challenging task and demands pedagogical and socio affective skills from teachers, which involve great sensitivity to recognize their specific needs. Associated with this, in addition to the fact that, in the pandemic context, in which classes took place in a virtual environment, it was necessary for the teacher to be even more attentive to the specific demands of students and their affections, so that individual pedagogical strategies could be created, which could contribute to mitigate the difficulties of these students. In addition, it was necessary, concomitantly, to foster the potential of learners, since each individual with DS responds in a singular way to their limitations. From this perspective, the present study resulting from the developments of my doctoral research aims to analyze and characterize the affections emerging from the triadic teacher-family-students interaction, prioritizing the learners' affections and the impact of some pedagogical resources on the affections of those learners concerning English language learning (EL). To this end, the theoretical assumptions comprised the reflections on the process of interaction between teacher-students and on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP), researches regarding the second language learning for people with DS and theories about affective-cognitive aspects of individual with DS. The research context consisted of classes held in three distinct phases: in the first, the classes were face-to-face by the teacher-researcher and six students, four from APAE in Capitólio-MG and two from APAE-MG in Piumhi-MG. In the second phase, classes became remote, due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the participation of two students from Piumhi-MG. Finally, in the third phase, classes returned to face-to-face, with the two students from Piumhi, due to the attenuation of cases of infection by the virus. In the first phase, semi-structured questionnaires were used; semi-structured, assisted and recorded interviews; researcher's field diary; flashcards. In the second phase, recordings of classes, semi-structured interviews attended and recorded; researcher's field diary; online games, slides; youtube; concrete objects. Finally, in the third phase, scripts of semi-structured interviews, assisted and recorded, were used; researcher's field diary; online games; printed exercises. The results of the research revealed favorable and challenging affections for the students in relation to the teacher and the learning of the English language, in addition to the fact that some situations contributed to the transformation of the affections from one nature to another and that the specific methodological procedures adopted with each student made the emergence of unique affective relationships between teacher and students and between them and the language.

Keywords:

Affections, teaching and learning, foreign language, Down Syndrome.