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The language recognition abilities of students in an italian context, focusing on their awareness of italian language and culture. The study is based on activities that involved recognizing italian words and phrases, and the results reveal that students have a good understanding of italian, despite limited contact with the language. The document also discusses the importance of language learning and how it can broaden students' horizons.
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por GIANA TARGANSKI STEFFEN
DissertaÁ„o submetida ‡ Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina em cumprimento parcial dos requisitos para obtenÁ„o de grau de MESTRE EM LETRAS
FLORIAN”POLIS Fevereiro de 2008
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Esta dissertaÁ„o de Giana Targanski Steffen, intitulada ìMy father tongue is Portugueseî: developing plurilinguistic awareness with 5th graders, foi julgadaadequada e aprovada em sua forma final, pelo Programa de PÛs-GraduaÁ„o em Letras/InglÍs e Literatura Correspondente, da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, para fins de obtenÁ„o de grau de MESTRE EM LETRAS ¡rea de concentraÁ„o: InglÍs e Literatura Correspondente OpÁ„o: InglÍs e Ling¸Ìstica Aplicada
Prof. Dr. JosÈ Luiz Meurer Coordenador
BANCA EXAMINADORA:
Profa. Dra. Josalba Ramalho VieiraOrientadora e Presidente
Prof. Dr. Gilvan M¸ller de OliveiraExaminador
Prof. Dr. Pedro de Moraes Garcez Examinador FlorianÛpolis, 29 de fevereiro de 2008.
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AGRADECIMENTOS
A minha orientadora Profa. Dra. Josalba Ramalho Vieira, pelo apoio, paciÍncia e dedicaÁ„o. A banca examinadora, por terem aceitado o convite. Aos alunos que participaram dessa pesquisa, pela sua colaboraÁ„o. A todos os professores da PGI. A todos meus colegas de mestrado que participaram dessa jornada comigo. Ao Eduardo, pela calma que me emprestou nas horas difÌceis. A minha amiga e colega Maria Elizabete Villela Santiago, por ter conduzido outros estudos comigo que me auxiliaram no meu crescimento enquanto pesquisadora. Aos meus amigos, que torceram por mim nessa jornada. A minha famÌlia, pelo incentivo. Ao CNPQ, pelo apoio financeiro.
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ABSTRACT ìMY FATHER TONGUE IS PORTUGUESEî: DEVELOPING PLURILINGUISTIC AWARENESS WITH 5TH^ GRADERS GIANA TARGANSKI STEFFEN UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA 2008 Supervising Professor: Prof™ Dra. Josalba Ramalho Vieira
This study examined how the process of development of plurilinguistic knowledge occurs and how it influences the awareness of language students bring to the 5 th^ grade. In order to do so, the student-participants from ColÈgio de AplicaÁ„o (CA- UFSC) were involved in a small-scale intervention where they were exposed to a series of plurilingual activities which aimed at helping students develop the five domains of competence of Language Awareness (James and Garrett, 1998): cognitive, affective, social, power and performance. The results showed that the process of development of plurilinguistic knowledge involves development of translinguistic tools, use of a textís internal coherence, use of previously acquired knowledge and development of the ability to notice specific characteristics of languages. The activities, as well as teacherís role in scaffolding, have positively supported the students with the development of both the cognitive and affective domains of Language Awareness. The social and power domains were not noticeably affected while the performance domain could not be assessed.
Key words: Language Awareness, plurilinguistic knowledge, linguistic diversity, language education (76 pages ñ 20.226 words)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction 1.1. Statement of the problemÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..Ö.ÖÖÖ.Ö 1.2. Purpose of the studyÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ...ÖÖÖ. 1.3. Research questionsÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.ÖÖÖÖÖ. 1.4. Overview of chaptersÖÖÖÖÖÖ...ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ
CHAPTER II Review of Literature 2.1. The ëLanguage Awareness MovementíÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ. 2.2. Language Awareness programsÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ. 2.3. The need for Language AwarenessÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..
CHAPTER III Method 3.1. Introduction ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.. 3.2. Data collection instruments and proceduresÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ 3.3. Participants and settingÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ...ÖÖ. 3.4. Activities ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ. 3.5. Analysis of data ÖÖÖÖ.ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..
Data analysis and interpretation4.1. Introduction ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.ÖÖÖÖ
4.2. Studentsí profile ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.. 4.3. Re-activation of previously acquired knowledge ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ 4.4. Development of translinguistic tools ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ...ÖÖÖÖÖÖ
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4.5. Recognition of specific characteristics of languages ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..ÖÖ 4.6. The introduction of the sound of languages ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ 4.7. Episodes which reveal resistance from students ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ.
CHAPTER V Summary and findings 5.1. Introduction ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ. 5.2. Overview of research questions 5.2.1. What is the awareness of language these students bring to the 5 th grade? ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..... 5.2.2. How does the process of development of plurilinguistic knowledge occur? ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..... 5.2.3. How was Language Awareness developed as the plurilinguistic project advanced? ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ..Ö 5.3 Pedagogical implicationsÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ... 5.4 Limitations of the study and suggestions for future researchÖÖÖÖ...ÖÖÖÖ.
ReferencesÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ...
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LIST OF TABLES Table 1 ñ Activities developed Table 2 ñ ëA visitaí Table 3 ñ ëUnknown wordsí Table 4 ñ ëCooking detectiveí Table 5 ñ Harry Potterís titles Table 6 ñ What language is that? Table 7 ñWhat students know about Italy
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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 ñ Calvetís gravitational system (Steffen, 2006) Figure 2 ñ Languages these students know Figure 3 ñ Language recognition in the activity ëcooking detectiveí Figure 4 ñ Word recognition in the activity ëcooking detectiveí Figure 5 ñ Language recognition in the activity ëhappy familiesí Figure 6 ñ Word recognition in the activity ëhappy familiesí Figure 7 ñ Language recognition in the activity ëthe sound of musicí
Language diversity is a global matter, though. In South America, the contact and conflicts between Spanish and Portuguese may have begun even before its colonization. In 1494, when Portugal and Spain signed the treaty of Tordesillas, they divided the world into two nations. This virtual frontier was exactly over the not yet discovered South America. After the revelation of this land, Brazil became the only Portuguese speaking country in a Spanish speaking continent. Besides that, many other countries (such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Holland and Japan, among many others) have helped colonizing South America and each of this people brought with them their own languages and culture. Hence, South America today is a compound of languages and cultures, and the matters of linguistic rights, prejudice and respect for the language of the neighboring countries have emerged in local applied linguistsí works (Hamel, 2003; Garcez, 2004; Scott, 1998; Vieira and Melo Moura, 2000). However, few researchers in South America have turned their attention to discussing an educational approach which accounts for this great diversity (Leal, 1998; Oliveira, 2005; Steffen, Vieira and Lucena, 2008; Lucena, Steffen and Vieira, 2008). This study aims at determining in which ways a plurilinguistic approach to foreign language teaching, based on the ideas of Language Awareness, can contribute to a greater acceptance of linguistic diversity in the Brazilian setting. However, Rajagopalan (2005) reminds us that language is a political matter as well as a scientific one. Because of that, one should not forget that languages carry symbolic and emotional values, which cannot be approached through the rational lenses of linguistics. Applied linguistics, on the other hand, is continuously searching for productive investigations of the real world, in the real world. Consequently, it has manifested itself as better equipped to deal with matters of linguistic politics and planning (Rajagopalan, 2005).
This study, under the scope of applied linguistics, may thus be another step into the discussion of the future of linguistic education in Brazil.
1.2. Purpose of the study The objective of this study is to describe and analyze the process of construction of plurilinguistic knowledge of the participants while solving the activities proposed. Furthermore, it seeks to determine in which ways a plurilinguistic program can contribute to the development of Language Awareness. Alongside the research objectives, this study has a pedagogical objective as well. It also aims at designing and testing plurilingual activities to be developed with the participants as part of a plurilinguistic program.
1.3. Research questions In order to achieve the purposes of this study, as presented in the previous section, I formulated the following research questions to be answered along the development of the plurilinguistic project: 1 - What is the awareness of language these students bring to the 5 th^ grade? 2 - How does the process of development of plurilinguistic knowledge occur? 3 - How was Language Awareness developed as the plurilinguistic project advanced?
1.4. Overview of chapters This thesis is organized in five chapters. In chapter 1, I introduce the reader to the problem being investigated and present the purpose of this research as well as the research questions guiding this study. In chapter 2, I review some theoretical and
2.1. The ëLanguage Awareness Movementí Hawkins (1981, 1984) was responsible for the foundation of the British Language Awareness movement in England. This work was born as an answer to some uneasiness raised by the survey conducted by Her Majestyís Inspectorate, which investigated the Modern Languages in Comprehensive Schools (1977). Results showed that students were achieving poor results both on mother tongue (MT) and on foreign language (FL) studies. Ten years before this survey, Gardner (1968), already claimed that two out of three students who started studying a foreign language in the first year of secondary school dropped it before graduation (James and Garret, 1998). Language Awareness (LA henceforth) comes as a new element in the curriculum of students with the age range 10 to 14. This new element should help students in the transition from primary to secondary education, especially by bridging the ìspace between the different aspects of language educationî (Hawkins, 1984), namely English, FLs, minority tongues, English as a second language, and Latin. These different subjects were studied in isolation, and there was no space in the classroom for discussing language (Hawkins, 1984). Hence, one important aim of LA was to challenge students to ask questions about languages and therefore, through discussion and consequently greater awareness, to defy linguistic prejudice and parochialism. Hawkins (1984) still proposed a
contrastive study of languages, learning to listen and having confidence in reading and writing as key elements in LA education. The National Council for Language in Education in England (NCLE) understood that LA encompasses three parameters: cognitive, affective and social. The cognitive parameter is related to developing knowledge of pattern in languages. The affective parameter is about forming attitudes and the social parameter about improving oneís capacity as citizens (James and Garret, 1998). James and Garret (1998), suggest an extension of these parameters into five domains of competence: cognitive, affective, social, power, and performance. The cognitive domain is related to the fact that LA includes developing awareness of pattern in language and the ability to reflect upon them. James and Garret remind us that children should learn about patterns in language, but ìthe functions are not to be overlooked either, for LA is not in any sense a return to the arid, decontextualised grammar-grind of pre-war parsing.î (1998, p. 15) In this fashion, the cognitive domain is closely related to the ëpowerí domain. As the knowledge of pattern in communication (such as the patterns of non-literary genres) develops, oneís ability to perform within determined social conventions and to recognize hidden meanings in communication does as well. Also, the authors assume that learning a FL is a cognitive act as much as it is an affective one. The affective aspect of LA then, refers to forming attitudes, sensitivity, curiosity and interest for languages. The social domain is related to the fact that by increasing awareness of oneís origins and language, LA can promote better relations between ethnic groups and ease the problems raised by ethnic diversity. This domain is treated the same way by Hawkins and Van Lier. Both authors assume that linguistic prejudice is based on
researchers. While some still focus on young pupils and plurilinguistic LA programs (Candelier, 2004; Jaling, 2006; Steffen, Lucena and Vieira, 2006), other researchers are applying LA to tertiary education (Clark and Ivanic, 1998; Silvester, 1998), English for Special Purposes (Scott, 1998) and teachersí development (Brumfit, 1998; Van Lier, 1995), which means LA can be profitable for students at all ages. The work of Van Lier (1995), another important name in the LA Movement, refers mostly to the cognitive domain of LA. The author guides the reader through a path of discovery of the intricate system of the English language. First, he discusses what he calls ìbasic elements of languageî (Van Lier, 1995, p. 10), comprising graphemes, morphemes, syllables and intonation among others. Second, he explains the notions of linguistic, interactional and social contexts. Although it is not made clear, this knowledge can interfere in the performance domain, as it enables the speaker to communicate better in a certain context. Discussing words and meanings, Van Lier (1995) explains the notion of transparency in language. Transparent words (also called morphologically motivated) are easier to understand than more opaque ones. He gives as an example the English words ëbookcaseí and ëwardrobeí. ëBookcaseí is relatively more transparent, as most people recognize ëcaseí as a container where we keep objects, in this instance books. However, after one has learnt that ëwardí is related to ëkeepingí, the word ëwardrobeí becomes relatively more transparent. Correctness has been a topic of much discussion on language studies. Speaking correctly depends on the group of people one is speaking with. The judgment of ëproperí speech involves delicate matters such as race, ethnicity, social class or geographic origin. On this subject Van Lier states that ìLanguage Awareness must include a conscious effort to put correctness in its proper place: a social phenomenon,
on a par with dress codes and table manners, but not an integral part of the study of language.î (1995, p. 63) Another controversial topic is textbooks. Van Lier states that even though textbooks may still be necessary for LA studies, ìour real, main textbook will be the world of language use all around us in the street, electronic media, newspapers, novels and so onî (1995, p. 74). Not only does Prabhu agree to that, but he also argues that the content and procedures of lessons should be uncomplicated, as a complex syllabus ìreduces the range of language that can be used in teaching materials or the classroomî (1987, p. 92). So far we have seen the ideas which motivated the LA movement. However, most of the authors involved in the first discussions about this topic focused their attention to theory. More recently, by the mid-90ís, researchers started designing and testing ways to bring this theory into the real classrooms. Some LA programs of relevance to this research will be discussed in the next section.
2.2. Language Awareness programs Language Awareness (LA) programs attempt to offer a solution to the isolation in which foreign languages (FLs) are usually taught at school. This isolation has been constant in language teaching designs 2 for most of last century, from the direct method which rejected translation to behaviorism which understands translation as a negative interference. LA, on the contrary, motivates the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competence. According to Candelier (2004, p. 17),
(^2) For the purpose of this study, I follow Richards and Rogersí (1986) distinction between the concepts ëapproachí, ëdesigní and ëprocedureí, where ëdesigní is understood as the objectives, content selectionand organization, roles of learners, teachers and materials, which should be consistent with the ëapproachí or theory of language learning, and guide the ëproceduresí or classroom behavior.
