The Asl

Teaching English to Brazilian deaf students faces specific challenges, as English is their third language, followed by Portuguese and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) as L2/L1, respectively. Traditional English classes emphasize oral production and comprehension; thus, personalized guidance that addresses the specific linguistic needs of deaf students is lacking in national educational documents. This study highlights the importance of New Literacy Studies, advocated by Street (1984, 2000) and Barton et al. (2000), which emphasize literacy practices in diverse social and cultural contexts, crucial to meeting the linguistic and communicative needs of minority groups. Incorporating sign language could increase deaf students' motivation to acquire English as L3 through visual learning, language transfer, cultural connection, multimodal learning, and student engagement. Wauters and Knoors (2008) found that integrating sign language into English language instruction improved the comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, and overall language skills of deaf students. Our research explores whether American Sign Language (ASL) could be a motivational resource for these students. The study involved observing six lessons in two classes of a regular inclusive school with deaf students, collecting questionnaire responses, and analyzing discourse sequences provided in interviews. Following an intervention in the language laboratory of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), where English classes were taught in Libras, interviews revealed that the combination of Libras, ASL, and English significantly increased students' interest and motivation to learn English

American Sign Language · Comprehension · Linguistics · Literacy · Pedagogy · Portuguese · Sign language · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism