"O portugues e uma alavanca para que eles possam desenvolver o ingles" : eventos de ensino-aprendizagem em uma sala de aula de ESL de uma "escola bilingue"

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2002

RESUMO

There has been a permanent tendency to treat L1-L2 relationship in the bilingual classroom from a monolingual point of view. The immediate response to such a tendency has been the exclusion or at least an attempt to exclude the L1 from the L2 classroom without any alternatives. This ethnographie study seeks to shed some light on how this relationship is established in the context of an English immersion school that provides an elementary and secondary program in Brasilia compatible with the American educational system for a multiethnic student population with a high percentage of Brazilian students. In order to understand this relationship, I have carried out a one-year observation in an ESL classroom that assists children from difterent grades who are in their early years of English acquisition and development. My aim was to understand language use patterns of English and Portuguese in this community, how community members perceive the use of these languages and how discourse is constructed in the ESL classroom - how, when and for what purposes these languages are used. Two types of analysis were developed - a macro and a micro one. In the macro level I analyze the discourse that emerges from and at school according to the school community s point of view as a whole - directors, teachers, aides, general staft and parents - and its rules - educational model and program type, language policy and social organization. In the micro level I analyze how discourse is constructed in the classroom - language choice and distribution, speech styles, turn-taking distribution and codeswitching patterns. In both macro and micro levels, results show that there is a diglossic relationchip between languages that, far from being harmonious, reflect the asymmetric structure of relations between the groups that identify themselves with and represent these languages. English is seen as the language of authority, power, of formal and instruetional situations while Portuguese is the language of friendship, informality and of rule breaking. In the classroom level, the study suggests that discursive practices are distributed according to three speech styles: academic, conversational and alternate style. The academic language style is characterized by the use of English; the conversational one is characterized by the use of Portuguese and the alternate one by the use of both languages. Through turn-taking controlling, the teacher controls discourse form, language choice and children participation in the activities. By doing that, she ensures that English - the language that is recognized as the legitimate language of instruction - is used in most classroom interactions. It was also observed in the micro level that codeswitching has many functions in the classroom. The children as well as the teacher codeswitch in order to achieve their communicative and instructional goals - give instructions, ask or give explanation, negotiate participation in the activities, translate or negotiate the meaning of a word or expression, peer talk etc. The children use portuguese as an instrument of mediation between their former experiences and the ones they are acquiring through the new language and the teacher uses portuguese as a means of providing scaffolding for students so that they can develop their potential abilities in English. These results, therefore, contradict the belief that only L2 use is good and that all L1 use in the classroom is harmful to L2 learners. This study has some implications for L2 teaching-Iearning process as well as to bilingual education: 1) L1 use should be recognized as an important tool in any bilingual education process, especially in its early years; 2) codeswitching should be seen as a valuable communicative/instructional resource in this process as it helps students to bridge their L1 experiences and the ones that are being acquired in L2; 3) it is important to recognize that bilingual education concept implies education and language development in two languages instead of only one

ASSUNTO(S)

sociolinguistica linguistica aplicada aquisição da segunda linguagem educação bilingue bilinguismo

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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