Análise de necessidades de inglês para fins específicos em um curso de graduação em turismo

This study presents the results of a survey conducted in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in order to identify (1) the learning needs of students in a course in Tourism, their desires and lacks, at a federal university, with respect to use of English; (2) the needs of the present situation of teachers and the coordinator of that course as to the language; (3) the needs of the target situation of professionals (graduates) and companies with respect to this language. This research is a case study (STAKE, 1998; YIN, 2009) and was used for data collection, instruments such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and document on the Tourism Course. To this end, it was adopted the theoretical basis for the constructs of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Inglês para Fins Específicos (IFE) in Brazil, also known as Inglês Instrumental, whose foundation is based on the work by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), Robinson (1991), Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998), Celani, Deyes, Holmes, Scott (2006), among others, since this work is devoted to a specific area, Tourism. Results show that students opined the ability to prioritize reading and speaking into the classroom. Professionals reported that the latter is an indispensable tool for entering the labor market, yet they feel unprepared and need to attend English language courses in private language schools. The testimony of company executives also point to this deficiency. Finally, the present situation of teachers reveals that, while advocating the use of English in the classroom, this is not because students prefer their mother tongue. There is also an evident lack of needs analysis. Eventually, the coordinator said that there is some uncertainty as to the methodology, content and language skills worked, and the lack of interaction among teachers of English. It was concluded, therefore, it is important to conduct a needs analysis so that one can redesign a course that meets the different contextual needs: students, teachers, coordination, represented by the institutional needs, and the labor market

Narrativas de professores em formação sobre a didatização de podcasts para o ensino de inglês na floresta

Considering the following conditions: (1) the fluency demands of students in an undergraduate program in Languages and Literatures/English in the Amazon region; (2) the listening and speaking needs of pre-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL); (3) my continuing education as a professor of EFL and my academic literacy as a teacher-researcher and pre-service-teacher trainer, this study, which is based on Narrative Inquiry, reports on a teacher experience of working didactically with oral genres through podcasting an activity that emerged with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Through this process, I engage with some theorists who promote teaching as a process that is driven by a concept of language as social practice. Subsequently, I make use of the notions of context of culture and context of situation, derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics, as well as the concept of genre and register derived from the perspective of this theory. Based on these principles and beliefs, the Amazon region constitutes the register (situation) of the genres used in this study. These principles also provide, opportunities for building learning strategies appropriate to this local context, and also to teach listening and speaking skills from a task-based approach. During the experience, based on the reflective teacher-education model, the participants produced narratives about the process, which I then analyzed according to Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul (2001), who propose possibilities of composing meanings in Narrative Inquiry. Based on this perspective, I discuss the following topics, which were highly emphasized in the participants narratives: the lack of didactic activities using oral genres; the relevance of context within teacher education; and collaborative work as a strategy to overcome gaps in digital literacy, language fluency and teaching skills. The meanings I thereby compose point to a paradigm shift in English language teaching within this context. I also argue for a pedagogical practice that is engaged with historical and socio-cultural issues, and with the development of language skills, also one that promotes the implementation of ICTs at the very start of teacher training programs, adopting teaching and learning strategies that correspond to the demands of fluency in this particular context, and deficiencies imposed by geographical isolation