Tecnologia assistiva e a mobilização de estratégias de aprendizagem de língua estrangeira por aprendizes cegos

Abstract

This research investigates the foreign language learning process by blind learners, considering the use of Assistive Technology resources and their implications for the mobilization of learning strategies. Specifically, the investigation focuses on the mapping of Assistive Technology resources related to the mobilization of strategies and the identification of emerging strategies, based on the Oxford classification (1990). These objectives are directly related to the learner's perspective, something that is also the focus of the research, which, in the current context, is necessary, since studying the different ways of learning and the resources - in this case, of AT - that may imply this learning represents a gain for discussions in the field of Applied Linguistics. Accordingly, we take as a basis the assumptions of Complexity Theory (MORIN, 2011), central notion for understanding the learning process as a Complex Adaptive System (SAC), proposed by Larsen-Freeman (1997), as well as we discuss also about the Assistive Technology knowledge area, which constitutes the bridge of the triad established here and which allows us to check more closely how the SAC property, emergency, behaves in this context of using Learning Strategies. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative, ethnographic and exploratory research. Data collection was supported by different instruments: the Learning Narrative (NA), the interview and the questionnaire - idealized based on the typology of Oxford (1990) -, which allowed us to dialogue with what the learners bring to the afloat. The results point to the understanding of the learning process by blind learners as individual, complex and non-linear. We proved, therefore, based on the data analyzed, that the learner's perspective is of fundamental importance for discussions about learning and that they are increasingly necessary, since it contributes significantly. We identified, in relation to the emergency, a recurrent behavior of the direct class of strategies and, more significantly, of strategies of a cognitive nature.