Apreciações de alunos de inglês sobre sua produção oral: um estudo com base no sistema de avaliatividade

O vasto número de pesquisas sobre produção oral no ensino de Inglês como Língua Estrangeira (ILE) ao redor do mundo (p. ex. LITTLEWOOD, 1981; BROWN; YULE, 1983; BROWN, 1994; UR, 1996; CARTER; MCCARTHY, 1997; BROWN, 1994; 2004; ELLIS, 2008), assim como estudos sobre aspectos cognitivos e de aquisição da produção oral (SWAIN, 1985; 1995; LEVELT, 1989; SWAIN; LAPKIN, 1995; SKEHAN; FOSTER, 1997; 1999; ROBINSON, 2001; BYGATE, 2001; D‟ELY;WEISSHEIMER, 2004; GUARÁ-TAVARES, 2007; WEISSHEIMER, 2007; BERGSLEITHNER, 2009; dentre outros) têm revelado aspectos para um ensino de ILE mais eficaz e motivador. Com a proposta de contribuir para esse avanço, o presente estudo está inserido no paradigma qualiquantitativo de pesquisa no campo da Linguística Aplicada (LA), primordialmente com base nos estudos de Moita Lopes (1996; 2006), para quem a LA está centrada na resolução de problemas de uso da linguagem, cujo foco está na linguagem de natureza processual. O estudo tem como objetivo verificar as percepções de 34 alunos, de quatro turmas distintas de um curso de ILE, em uma escola privada de línguas, acerca de sua produção oral, ao participarem de atividades orais. O corpus da pesquisa foi gerado pelas respostas dos alunos a questionamentos sobre sua produção oral, em duas fases, no início e no meio do curso, além de uma entrevista semiestruturada realizada com dez dos alunos, ao final do curso, com o intuito de verificar suas percepções sobre sua produção oral. As discussões relacionadas à produção oral em sala de aula de ILE têm respaldo teórico nos trabalhos de Littlewood (1981), Brown e Yule (1983), Almeida Filho (1993), Brown (1994), Ur (1996), Carter e McCarthy (1997), Nunan (1999), Brown (2004) e Ellis (2008), que explicam fenômenos que exercem influência na produção oral, tais como afeto, interação, características de atividades orais, dentre outras variáveis em relação a aspectos cognitivos da produção oral analisadas pelos estudos de Swain (1985; 1995), Levelt (1989), Swain e Lapkin (1995), Skehan e Foster (1997; 1999), Robinson (2001) e Bygate (2001). A análise e discussão dos dados tem como base a Gramática Sistêmico-Funcional proposta por Halliday (1985; 1994) e posteriormente desenvolvida por Halliday e Hasan (1989), Halliday e Mathiessen (2004) e Eggins (2004), dentre outros. O foco desta pesquisa são os mecanismos de Apreciação, um dos domínios avaliativos do subsistema de Atitude, que por sua vez, é parte integrante do Sistema de Avaliatividade, desenvolvido por Martin (2000), Martin e Rose (2003) e Martin e White (2005). Para análise das escolhas linguísticas feitas pelos alunos, utilizamos a ferramenta computacional WordSmith Tools 6.0 (SCOTT, 2010), cuja função Wordlist (lista de palavras) foi utilizada na busca pelos tipos de processos, assim como epítetos, entre outras marcas linguísticas mais recorrentes que caracterizassem suas percepções. Os resultados revelam que nas percepções dos alunos acerca de sua produção oral, ao longo das três fases da geração dos dados para a pesquisa, eles gradativamente deixaram de mencionar aspectos afetivos quanto ao desenvolvimento de sua produção oral e passaram a perceber aspectos mais estruturais de composição da língua

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

Histórias de professores universitários sobre ensinar inglês para fins específicos

This research has as its theoretical and methodological assumptions (1) the Narrative Inquiry (CLANDININ; CONNELLY, 2011), (2) the Systemic Functional Grammar (HALLIDAY, 1985, 1994; THOMPSON, 2002; EGGINS, 1994; HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004) and (3) the English for Specific Purposes Approach (ESP - HUTCHINSON; WATERS, 1987; CELANI, 2005; RAMOS, 2005), and its overall objective is to survey the meanings construed by the participants who are ESP practitioners and have not received a specific education to teach this approach at their undergraduation. The field texts and therefore the analises were divided into two distinct groups: the first with data generated from a questionnaire applied to nine professors from a federal university in the northeast of Brazil, which contains open and closed questions about their training and their experiences in teaching ESP; the second group, focusing this time on the experiences of three professors from the first group who were still teaching ESP, with data generated from interviews with these participants in addition to the data generated from their autobiographies and from the researcher´s as well. The computational tool WordSmith Tools 6.0 (SCOTT, 2012) was used to select, organize, and quantify data to be analyzed in the first group of texts, identifying the types of Processes and Participants through the Transitivity System (HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004). The Processes which were more used by the professors in the questionnaire were the Material, followed by the Relational and then the Mental ones, indicating that most professors reported their actions related to the teaching of ESP, rated or evaluated the approach, their training to teach it and their experiences, hence, rarely showing their thoughts and emotions about teaching ESP. Most of the nine professors say they carry out needs analysis, but not all do it according to the authors cited by them or the ones that are considered a reference in this area, such as the ones used in this research as reference. Similarly, their definitions and conceptions of ESP, in most cases, differed from these authors. All the professors claim not having had specific education to teach ESP at the undergraduation. When examining the stories of the four teachers, in the second group of the field texts, based on meaning composition according to Ely, Vinz, Downing and Anzul (2001), it was revealed that the kind of knowledge they report using when they teach ESP is related to their Personal Practical Knowledge and their Professional Knowledge (ELBAZ, 1983; CLANDININ, 1988). In their autobiographies, metaphors were also identified and they represent their concepts of teaching and being a teacher. Through this research, we hope to contribute to the understanding of what teaching ESP might mean for professors in the researched context and also to the continuing education of ESP practitioners, as well as to a review of the curricula in the English language undergraduate courses and of the role of ESP in the training of these professionals

Recomendações para um sistema de sinalização tátil a partir de abordagens ergonômicas e da percepção do deficiente visual para o Campus Parnamirim do IFRN

This study reports recommendations for a tactile and graphic wayfinding system aiming to offer more orientability and mobility for visually impaired people (blindness and low vision) at Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), Parnamirim Campus. It was necessary to focus on visual impaired people and approach concepts like orientation and accessibility at the built environment. In order to provide the comprehension of a complex social phenomenon and preserve the meaningful characteristics of the events, this research has developed a single case study in which elements of Post Occupation Evaluation have been used. Its purpose was to allow not only a technical analysis, but also the user perception about the space in use. The chosen tool to collect the user’s opinions and considerations was the Walk Together Method. The collected and analyzed information has demonstrated that, although Parnamirim Campus has implemented some interventions in relation to the spatial accessibility, they are still not enough to create an environment which arranges safety and autonomy for the visual impaired people and the other ones who attend there. This study suggests that it happened because the engineering interventions at the Campus have been based on Brazilian technical standards NBR 9050:2004, which is proper for the physical impaired people, but it does not offer enough information to respond to all the specific needs demanded by all the classifications of visual impairment.

Recomendações para um sistema de sinalização tátil a partir de abordagens ergonômicas e da percepção do deficiente visual para o Campus Parnamirim do IFRN

This study reports recommendations for a tactile and graphic wayfinding system aiming to offer more orientability and mobility for visually impaired people (blindness and low vision) at Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), Parnamirim Campus. It was necessary to focus on visual impaired people and approach concepts like orientation and accessibility at the built environment. In order to provide the comprehension of a complex social phenomenon and preserve the meaningful characteristics of the events, this research has developed a single case study in which elements of Post Occupation Evaluation have been used. Its purpose was to allow not only a technical analysis, but also the user perception about the space in use. The chosen tool to collect the user’s opinions and considerations was the Walk Together Method. The collected and analyzed information has demonstrated that, although Parnamirim Campus has implemented some interventions in relation to the spatial accessibility, they are still not enough to create an environment which arranges safety and autonomy for the visual impaired people and the other ones who attend there. This study suggests that it happened because the engineering interventions at the Campus have been based on Brazilian technical standards NBR 9050:2004, which is proper for the physical impaired people, but it does not offer enough information to respond to all the specific needs demanded by all the classifications of visual impairment.