Abstract

CAPOVILLA, Fernando Cesar. How to conduct a systematic and comprehensive assessment of language development of Brazilian Deaf students. Rev. psicopedag. [online]. 2024, vol.41, n.126, pp.444-488.  Epub Dec 16, 2024. ISSN 0103-8486.  https://doi.org/10.51207/2179-4057.20240039.

This introductory article describes a compendium in the final stage of completion, to be launched soon, and ‘which may be relevant for Brazilian bilingual education. The Compendium of Language Assessment of the Brazilian Deaf Student derives from a 25-year-long research and development program. The Program for the Evaluation of the Linguistic Development of the Brazilian Deaf Student has been dedicated to assessing the degree of language development of deaf students from Elementary School through College, and the variables that foster or hinder its development. This introductory article describes the structure of the compendium and its relevance, and briefly describes some of the instruments developed to assess several skills, such as Libras sign comprehension, alphabetical reading comprehension, speechreading comprehension, sentence reading comprehension, naming pictures and signs by writing, and ‘writing to dictation under speechreading, among others. The article mentions in passing some of the findings arising from analyses of the research sample (e.g., out of the 5,515 deaf students, 95% ‘were born to hearing parents, with no deaf relatives), and performance data (e.g., hard of hearing students thrive on mainstreaming, whereas congenital deaf students thrive on bilingual schools). The paper briefly explores some theoretical implications for future theoretical and research developments.

Keywords : Deaf; Libras; Alphabetic Reading; Orofacial Reading; Reading Comprehension; Writing Production; Misreading; Misspelling.

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