Promovendo a autonomia do aluno pesquisador: ensinar para aprender variação linguística com a produção de reels

Abstract

This research, developed within the Professional Master's Program in Letters at the Federal University of Uberlândia – PROFLETRAS-UFU, had as its main objective, through the implementation of a didactic proposal based on workshops and centered on linguistic inquiry both inside and outside the classroom, to show students that there are various ways of using language and that what truly matters is knowing how to adapt this usage to different communicative situations—that is, to the different social practices of language. Portuguese language teaching, still largely guided by traditional grammar, often disregards this heterogeneity, presenting itself as unappealing to students and, consequently, failing to stimulate their engagement in language learning activities. This, in turn, hinders students' linguistic development. In order to bridge the gap between the standard language taught in schools and the everyday practices of language use, we adopted an approach grounded in Educational Sociolinguistics, based on scholars such as Bortoni-Ricardo (2004, 2005, 2008), Bagno (2007), Faraco (2008), among others. The proposal was developed through eight workshops (Arriada; Valle, 2012), in which students conducted research on the Portuguese language, thereby promoting scientific literacy (Silva, 2016). The knowledge acquired was then systematized and transformed into short, interactive, and engaging videos, which also fostered digital literacy (Rojo, 2009). These videos were designed for dissemination via Instagram reels, encouraging student autonomy in the production of Sociolinguistics-related content. In addition to promoting linguistic awareness and combating prejudice, we aimed to foster youth protagonism (Stamato, 2008), recognizing students as active agents in their own learning. The adoption of Thiollent’s (1996) action research methodology was fundamental in this process, enabling a more dynamic linguistic education that emphasizes respect for diversity and the development of students’ communicative competence. As a final product, we developed didactic material aimed at students in the final years of elementary school, aligned with the guidelines of the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base (Brazil, 2018). In addition to student activities, the material includes guidance for teachers on how to apply the proposals in the classroom, in order to stimulate reflection on linguistic diversity and the importance of linguistic adequacy according to the different social practices in which the speaker is situated. At the end of the research, we concluded that the proposal fostered the development of linguistic awareness and youth protagonism, promoting greater student engagement in Portuguese language classes and valuing linguistic diversity in the classroom.