Error Analysis Model applied to the written production of deaf students: a study of Prepositions in Portuguese as a Second Language

Abstract

According to Bilingualism, Brazilian Sign Language is seen as the deaf's first language, and Portuguese as their second language, approximating the studies on Portuguese acquisition by the deaf to the work related to second language teaching and learning. Based on such theoretical background, this study investigated the written production of 20 bilingual deaf students attending from 5th to 8th grade at Instituto Londrinense de Educação de Surdos (Londrina Institute of Education for the Deaf), describing how these subjects deal with prepositions in the Portuguese Language. For such, the Error Analysis Model was used in order to identify, classify, and explain the errors related to the prepositions that the deaf learners produced when writing texts in Portuguese. The results indicated the omission of the prepositions a (to), até (until), com (with), de (of, from), em (in, on, at), para (to, for), por (by, for), and sobre (about, on), which showed a tendency to fossilization. The present research contributes to the sedimentation of new educational paradigms and to the search for effective methodological ways to teach Portuguese as a second language for the deaf.