An instrument for the formative assessment of texts produced by users of the Brazilian Sign Language - Libras

This paper reports an analysis of the adequacy of a measure for the assessment of text production in Portuguese by deaf Brazilian students who are users of Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). Instruments that enable the analysis of students' difficulties are crucial in the formative evaluation and the design of individual educational plans for deaf students. The theoretical foundation for this measure was proposed by Nunes and Bryant (2014) in their distinction between two types of relation between the oral and the written forms of a language, which are a direct relation, via the surface of the languages, and an indirect relation, based on concepts acquired through experience with the language. This measure focuses on the latter and includes two scales, which assess the use of syntax and text quality, respectively. The importance of the measure was examined through its application to texts produced by 18 deaf pupils, users of LIBRAS who attended schools for deaf students in Porto Alegre. The measure showed neither a floor nor a ceiling effect, and approached a normal distribution. This indicates adequacy of the measure to the selected group. Internal consistency was high; an indication of construct validity was obtained by a high and significant correlation between the two scales. We concluded that the scale is relevant for the assessment of users of LIBRAS and can be productively used for formative assessment, which facilitates the identification of text production aspects that can be used in the delineation of individual educational plans.