Language In Activity: Mediation And Understanding Of Meaning And Sense In Comic Stories By People With Chromosome 21 Trissomy

Abstract

This thesis is linked to the line of research on Acquisition and Development of Typical and Atypical Language and to the Thematic Project of Investigation of Aspects of Acquisition and Development of Speech, Writing and Reading of Subjects with Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum of the Postgraduate Program Graduation in Linguistics at the Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB) aimed to analyze the process of understanding the meaning and sense in Comics by people with trisomy 21 (T21) who are literate and neurotypical people. Thus, this study was methodologically based on field research with a qualitative approach, as well as on the theoretical assumptions of Discursive Neurolinguistics (DN) and Historical Cultural Theory (THC) that based our actions in the process of data generation, transcription and analysis. of the data. We emphasize the postulates defended by Vygotsky from the THC, since he emphasizes the need for the subject to be immersed in cultural contexts so that he can interact with the production processes of interpreting texts that circulate in the social environment. In addition, we adopted the relationship between language, culture and society proposed by ND so that the construction of knowledge takes place in the interconnection between these three elements. The research participants were four people with T21 members of the Research Group “Fala Down” that is linked to the Laboratory of Research and Studies in Neurolinguistics (LAPEN) of UESB and four neurotypical people, residing in the municipality of Guanambi-Bahia. The procedures/instruments that generated the data were the dialogic encounters, that is, interactive moments performed virtually to understand the meaning and sense in the comics (HQ) authored by Maurício de Sousa. In this way, the results of the dialogic encounters revealed that neurotypical people were able to establish links between the verbal and non-verbal text present in the comics, using knowledge of reality to assimilate the ideas that were implicit. The relationships of meaning were understood in a shorter time and, most of the time, they did not use the four pre-defined guiding questions to help in the understanding of meaning and sense. People with T21, on the other hand, needed more time and also more questions to identify the meanings proposed in each comic book. We noticed that they had greater difficulty in identifying the meaning and sense, as they stopped using the word in the literal sense and did not observe the non-verbal elements that contributed to the meaning of the text as a whole. The realization of questions directed to the events portrayed in the comics facilitated the identification of elements that had not been perceived and culminated, in most cases, in the understanding of meaning and sense. From the data generated, we present as a conclusion that people with T21 can understand the meanings and senses present in the HQ as much as neurotypical people, but for this to occur satisfactorily, it is necessary to provide situations of contact and discussion of texts from so that they can develop the higher psychological functions of thought and language and, consequently, interact more autonomously in communicational contexts. Thus, the thesis defended here is that, although people with trisomy present deficits, higher mental functions are built in the ontogenetic process, therefore, the structuring of their capabilities will depend on the opportunities and qualities of their lived experiences.