THE IMPORTANCE OF IDENTITIES AND DEAF CULTURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PRACTICE

Abstract

The inclusion of deaf people in the school, despite linguistic differences, is a challenge in English language teaching that requires the teacher to adopt strategies that pay attention to different deaf identities and the specificities that affect the student's educational needs. With this justification, this exploratory, descriptive and explanatory work aims to indicate factors that must be considered by the English language teacher regarding the profile of the deaf student and methodologies that are applied in the classroom. The study had a bibliographic nature, adding meanings constructed by the researcher after carrying out semi-structured interviews with deaf students from the Federal Institute of Roraima in a previous research conducted in 2018. The qualitative approach was supported by the hermeneutic phenomenological method that focused on the interpretation of the phenomenon from the perspective of the researcher who presents an explanation to it, attributing meanings linked to theories of deaf studies. The researcher is an active part of the research as an observant and active historical character in the education of the deaf as a teacher and translator who interprets Libras. The analysis resulted in an explanation about deaf culture, deaf identities and the important role of the English language teacher in the teaching-learning process for deaf people, indicating, based on the meanings, a way for the English language teacher to value the differences in classroom seeking to define inclusive strategies that take into account that each student is unique. We conclude that it is essential to understand the student's linguistic, educational and cultural context as well as use resources appropriate to the deaf student's linguistic modality.