Innovation in Language Learning
The Main Challenges Faced by Distance Learning Tutors in a Course of Sign Language as Second Language
Felipe Venâncio Barbosa, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Ewout ter Haar, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Janice Gonçalves Temoteo, University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Abstract
In distance education courses, the tutor function is of great importance, acting as a mediator, facilitator and coordinator for the development of student learning. In the experience of obligatory education and distance learning of Brazilian Sign Language at the University of São Paulo, this professional works in partnership with the teacher responsible for discipline, exercising an indispensable tactical function to achieve the objectives of distance education. The performance of the tutor depends on your skills in dealing with the technological resources, but mostly of their knowledge and articulations with the content proposed by the discipline. Therefore, for this, the conceptual theoretical alignment and appropriate content is required for the proposed program in the course can be made available correctly. The present work aims to explain the formation process of the tutors for the work in the discipline and the development of individual tutorial service received by the students of Brazilian Sign Language course EAD of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, highlighting the influence of performance of the tutors in the final evaluations of students. The selected tutors for the performance in related course were students with basic knowledge in sign language or no knowledge in the language. These individuals went through an intensive training process, with daily activities for three months, with a workload of 30 hours per week. The training also covers the use of technology adopted for the exchange of information with the students of the course. As sign languages are visuospatial languages, visual resources have been used throughout the teaching-learning process. Despite the challenges faced in teaching sign language at a distance, the results of the research showed that the student performance is directly linked to tutor weekly monitoring during the course. Students who participated in the sign language production activities and used the monitoring of the tutor performed better in the final evaluation of the practical part of the course.
