THOUGHTS ON TEACHING PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY IN THE COURSE OF LETTERS: PROBLEMATIC SITUATIONS AS CUES TO PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE

This paper is a root from the research project on Linguistics and Teacher Formation (at UEM). It also investigates the relations between the linguistic knowledge and the formation of teachers, promoting an interface between scientific knowledge and the didactic and pedagogical knowledge. In order to do so, it proposes to triangulate the official documentation on teacher formation (National Curricular Guidelines, Official Decisions and Opinions; National Curricular Parameters of basic and high school education; and the Pedagogical Project of the Letters Course at UEM); the practice of teachers based on each of the themes; and the schoolbooks used: grammar and government donated books.

BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING ASSESSMENT: SAYING OF A SPANISH TEACHER OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL

The teachers' beliefs study has been a good resource for further reflection on the teaching practice. Beliefs, defined as constructions of reality, arise from the livings and experiences of teacher and encompass professional, personal, emotional and ideological aspects and influence on the practices in the classroom. Elucidating the teacher beliefs is a way of revealing what they think, how they feel and what are the limitations of these professionals. For this reason, considering the amount of value on the belief on the teacher's action and the importance (not always considered) of the evaluation of learning in the process of teaching, learning and evaluating, this work aims to present the beliefs about learning assessment of a Spanish teacher as a foreign language in a public school of Rio Grande do Sul. The results indicate that the beliefs of the teacher correspond to the contemporary theories of learning assessment and the guideline of the official documents for teaching languages.

THE PRACTICE OF ORAL PRODUCTION CONCERNING THE CONTINUING EDUCATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY

The scope of the present study is to comprehend the professional identity of a group of English Teachers. The research sought the answer to the following question: How does the mastery of the speaking aspect of the English Language influence teacher’s professional identity? The choice of the topic arose during a continuing education course offered by the authors of the present work, whose partakers were EFL teachers. The research took into consideration both, experiences observed during the continuing education course and relevant data collected with the help of an open questionnaire, which participants answered at the end of the course. Contemporary literature also supported the conclusions concerning teacher’s professional identity and its close relation to two important factors: the way teachers perceive themselves and how others see them. Regarding the English Language Teacher professional identity, the participants of the research stated that professionals from this area are not as valued as they should; in their opinion, the lack of oral fluency of most teachers is a key factor on the existence of a professional misrepresentation. Results have shown that, for them, oral fluency is essential for academic and social recognition of their profession. All participants stressed the need of continuing education in terms of oral practice, due to the lack of opportunity of practicing the English Language daily. They also pointed that teachers with limited-fluency tend to avoid the use of the target language in order to “hide their deficit” on EL; on the other hand, teachers that are fluent in English “feel safer and with self-steam”. We have concluded, from our research, that the oral fluency is indeed important for the constitution of English Language teacher’s professional identity, exerting a positive influence on it. On the other hand, the fact of not being fluent in English Language contributes for the so called “teacher’s professional identity crisis”. 

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.

COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH AND THE IMPACT ON TRAINING TEACHER IN COLLABORATION WITH A TEACHER IN SERVICE

This paper presents partial results of a collaborative action research conducted in a public school in Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, with a training teacher, a teacher in service and a third year high school class. The collaborative action research, adopted methodology, is considered an alternative way to provide the opportunity for upgrading of in service and in training teachers (Burns 1999). The purpose was to create opportunities for all the participants assimilate a reading in English approach and the language as a sociocultural mediator. From this perspective, reading workshops were developed, whose purpose was to prepare training and in-service teachers for critical-reflexive practice of the classroom, emphasizing the importance of education that addresses cultural aspects of the English language. It was found, once again, that the collaborative work promotes reflection and hence improvements in teaching and learning, which can be significant, considering the lack of actions inspired by research aimed at public English language education in Brazil (CELANI, 2009).

Homophobia and the oppressive naturalized practice: A critical discourse analysis.

This paper seeks to analyze the statements of a teacher of basic education in the city of Cocalinho-MT on homosexuality. I try to identify possible ideological traits through the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2003a), with support from Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1994). The analytical categories used are representational meaning, interdiscursivity and ideational metafunction. The studies of Rios (2009), Louro (2000, 2010) and Borrillo (2009) are used for the conceptualization of issues related to gender, sexuality and homophobia. The results show the presence of discourses that contribute to the strengthening of homophobia as oppressive naturalized practice, as the silencing of diversity discourse, the heteronormative and the nuclear family discourse. I make a reflection, to deconstruct these discourses that we educators can take advantage of rights and duties without hiding in a heteronormative profile for fear of suffer with the physical and psychological prejudice.