Linguistic behavior of Italian descendants in Cascavel/PR

The maintenance and preservation of a linguistic variety are linked to historical issues, which consequently outline the beliefs and attitudes of a community. Depending on the community in which the speaker is inserted, his way of communicating can be stigmatized or prestigious. Thus, in addition to historical factors, the cognoscenti, affective and emotional components, which are connected to the way of thinking, feeling and evaluate are crucial for maintenance or not of a linguistic variety. Therefore consider the immigration process of Italian and migration of the descendants of this ethnic group until reach Cascavel city is important to understand how historical factors influence the beliefs and attitudes of the Italian community from southern region in this city. In addition, Frosi, Faggion Dal and Horn (2010) binding on the language attitudes also to social factors age and gender. Thus, in order to demonstrate the behavior of some descendants of Italians in Cascavel city before the language of their ancestors, 18 informants were selected, Italian descendants of southern colonization and that live in this town for more than 30 years or that were born in the city, which were distributed in the following dimensions: through generational and sexual. From this, individual interviews were conducted through the application of a semi-guided questionnaire and the data allowed checking the linguistic and cultural behavior of the Italian descent community from southern region, that is, those who came from Rio Grande do Sul and/or Santa Catarina states. We found that bilingualism levels vary depending on social factors such as gender and age, as well as historical factors. Language is a form of expression of a culture, however, an ethnic community does not presuppose the existence of a speech community.

Representação e Educação Linguística de Professores de Línguas: Revisitando Algumas Concepções Teóricas

Resumo: Neste texto trato da ideia de representação, discutindo como essa se traslada para a da representação linguística e em que esse movimento contribui para a compreensão do objeto língua como um território de saber atravessado por uma perene reformulação e ressignificação de sentidos. Para tanto, revisito o próprio conceito de representação (Far, 2011; Jodelet, 2000, 2001; Moscovici, 1976, 1978, 2009; Sá, 1996; Zarate, 2010) e passo a problematizar o seu deslocamento para o de representação linguística (Arnoux e Del Valle, 2010; Boyer, 1996, 2003; Calvet,1998; Houdebine-Gravaud,2002; Petitjean, 2009), articulando  conceitos como o de imaginário (Pesavento,1995;) e atitudes linguísticas (Dominique Lafontaine,1997; Fasold, 1984; Saville-Troike,1989). Interessa-me, ao longo deste texto, levantar algumas questões de natureza teórica e conceitual com o fim de promover um debate em torno da dimensão simbólica e, mais notadamente, de como essa pode ser relevante para a redefinição das práticas dos sujeitos, no caso de professores de línguas, situando-as no âmbito da educação linguística de professores.Palavras-chaves: Representação; educação linguística; língua

Mapeando Atitudes, (Des) Motivação e Orientação para Aprender Inglês

O presente artigo versa sobre as atitudes de quarenta e dois alunos em relação à aprendizagem da língua inglesa. Para tanto, são delineados fatores que estão intimamente relacionados às atitudes, tais como orientação, motivação, desmotivação, ideologia e resistência. Este trabalho, desenvolvido à luz da linguística aplicada, tem caráter interdisciplinar, e por isso está ancorado nas concepções sobre o tema, encontradas na psicologia social. Os dados apresentados aqui foram obtidos através de uma pesquisa etnográfica sobre atitudes, desenvolvida em duas escolas públicas, na região do Recôncavo Baiano por Anjos (2013). Foram utilizados três instrumentos de geração de dados: um questionário, uma entrevista e observação de aulas. Os resultados apontaram alto grau de atitudes positivas para aprender inglês e de orientação instrumental. Entretanto, alguns estudantes pesquisados sinalizaram atitudes negativas. Os resultados são discutidos na parte final do artigo com a apresentação de dados qualitativos e quantitativos.

BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY IN THE TOWN OF PRANCHITA-PR

The study of beliefs and attitudes has been increasingly valued in the field of modern Sociolinguistics, as, by means of such data, it is possible to clarify phenomena that cannot be explained only by the linguistic context. In relation to that, another factor is extremely important for the analysis of facts connected with language: the appraising attitudes that each speaker attributes to his/her speech and to the other varieties present in the area. This is the reason why the object of study in this work is the beliefs and attitudes of the speakers from the town of Pranchita-PR. Therefore, this work aims at (i) verifying its inhabitants’ opinions concerning the varieties present in the area; (ii) describing and analyzing the speakers’ feelings and opinions in relation to the language of the neighboring country, Argentina. With approximately six thousand inhabitants, Pranchita is ethnically constituted by descendants from several nationalities: Italians, Germans, Polish, Spanish, besides the fact it is on the border with Argentina.  The corpus of this work consists of oral records collected within the scope of the interinstitutional Project Linguistic Beliefs and Attitudes: a study of the relationship between Portuguese and other contact languages, whose informants were divided according to sex, age and school level. Overall, 17 interviews were analyzed by using, as theoretical basis, the works by Labov (1972), López Morales (1993), Moreno Fernández (1998) among others.

Reflexive teacher on orality appropriation in the foreign language teaching-learning process

This is a qualitative, documental and interpretative metasearch article on Applied Linguistics (LA) area, where the characteristics of the subjects involved (teachers and learners) in orality appropriation in the Foreign Language (LE) teaching-learning process are studied. In order to develop this article, theatrical texts, body and voice should be considered as appropriation mediators. The assumptions of Ortiz-Alvarez (2009) and Basso (2008) – reflexive competence – concerning the attitude of the teacher as a language professional who is reflexive on his/her practices, together with the definitions of Perrenoud (2000; 2008); Dewey (1959; [1916]2012; Freire (1975; 1976; 1984; 1996); Libâneo (2006) and Schön (1992; 2000) are here used. The professors metasearched on this article are Massaro (2001; 2007; 2008), from the University of São Paulo (USP) and Reis (2008; 2011; 2012), from the University of Brasilia(UnB); they are (re)analyzed according to the paradigms: a reflexive teacher in the exercise of his/her reflexive practices. The search for the conciliation between a practice peddled by theories and the classroom reality is visible on teachers’ thoughts – those professors not only contemplate their approaches and techniques, but also try to change or propose changes on the world perceptions of learners, other language teachers and, sometimes, their institutions. The term reflexivity is used to define the proposal of acting-thinking-(re)acting as a constant of language professionals lives. Along the reading of the metasearched professors’ work, it is noticed that they have a critical reflexive path (reflexivity) on their reflexive practices reality. They demand an emotional and cognitive involvement that supposes personal unique attitudes - such as an open mind that has the ability of listening to different opinions, with no prejudices or resistance which can block a certain question to be seen from a different point of view.