Uma experiência no ensino do inglês: reflexões de uma professora sobre sua prática

Abstract

This research is part of the Applied Linguistics studies in the subarea of Foreign Languages Teaching and Learning. English lessons were taught to graduate Engineering students in two laboratories at a public university. It is a qualitative study inserted in the interpretive perspective according to Bogdan and Biklen (1998) and it is configured as a case study. The topic analyzed in this study is my teaching practice during the course called English without borders aiming at understanding the reflection of my conception of language, approach and teaching and how these concepts were established in relation to students learning process. The course was developed with six students from Lab A and four students from Lab B. I taught the classes and carried out this investigation as a teacher and researcher. The data collected and analyzed were students reflexive diaries, self-assessment tests and interviews as well as teacher s field notes, diaries and self-assessment tests. The main references that anchor this work are based on the theoretical notions of approach and method, according to Richards and Rogers (1986), Anthony (1963), Brown (2000), Almeida filho (1993), Leffa (1988), Paiva and Borges, (2011), language teaching and learning concepts according to structural, traditional, cognitive approaches based on Castro (1998) and Silveira (1999), language teaching and learning concepts in the communicative approach based on Hymes (1972), Widdowson (1978), Littlewood (1991), Richards and Rogers (1985), Messias and Norte (2011) and Dalacorte (1998) as well as theoretical discussions on the continuing education of teachers based on studies of Almeida Filho (1993), Geraldi (1996), Gimenez (2005), Celani (1997) and Silva (2001). When I planned my course I did not seek a theoretical support to base my teaching practice. I considered myself affiliated to the communicative approach and believed, intuitively, that my practice would have only the features of this approach. The final reflections suggest that my teaching was presented, along the course, naively considering externalizations with structural, cognitive, communicative and traditional approach characteristics. The results confirmed that during my teaching practice, there was a mix between the communicative and the structuralist approach. However, these choices were made unconsciously as I worked intuitively which did not permit a redesigning in the model of practice and review my teaching practice along the course. Therefore, the continuing education of teachers could take advantage of my experience by showing that the teacher who knows why he or she teaches in a certain way, can be more critically aware and contribute to a more effective learning.