Reconstrução de crenças sobre o processo de ensino e aprendizagem de língua inglesa em contexto de sala de aula

Abstract

This study analysis and discusses the beliefs about the English teaching and learning process in the context of a classroom, and it also aims to perceive possible reconstructions of participants beliefs. Qualitative Epistemology was the nature of the research. Thirteen English learners of basic II level from a language institute linked to a federal university, as well as the teacher-researcher were the participants of the study. The instruments used to collect the data were: letters and metaphors written by the learners, a reflective diary kept by the teacher-researcher throughout the semester, and a sentence completion questionnaire made by the learners at the end of the course. The learners beliefs were discussed based on three conceptual metaphors which emerged from the data: LEARNING AS A PATH, LEARNING IS A GAME, THE USE OF ENGLISH ONLY IS AN AGONY. Some of these beliefs were positive and sustained until the end of the research. Other learners beliefs, however, could have been obstacles for their learning process and it is possible to foresee the beginning of a belief reconstruction process by some learners. In some cases, the contradictory character of beliefs made it difficult to state if learners were or were not reconstructing their beliefs. In regard to the teacher-researcher s beliefs, three themes were more frequent in her reflective diary: the use of the mother tongue in the English classroom, the perfect pronunciation, and the silence in the classroom. The teacher-researcher reflected very much upon her beliefs and their reconstruction, however, she was sometimes confused with the beliefs she had and the literature that she had studied about the themes, which confirms the paradoxical character of beliefs.