Podcast, língua e poder: uma proposta didática em defesa do respeito à diversidade linguística

Abstract

This research aims to develop and implement a didactic teaching proposal for the Portuguese language, guided by the valuable contributions of Educational Sociolinguistics. In addition to fostering students' communicative competence, it seeks to demonstrate to the entire school community students, teachers, administrators, and staff in general—the unacceptability of linguistic prejudice. The research clarifies that language variations are natural and productive and, for this reason, should be (re)cognized and respected. Initially, we conducted a survey and a bibliographical study to gather the theoretical foundations that guide and support our research. Given that the target audience consists of 9th-grade students in Elementary School II, we designed a questionnaire to assess their level of awareness regarding linguistic diversity, the linguistic prejudice present in our society, and the myths surrounding the use of the mother tongue. The guidelines for this research are based on the ideas discussed by Bortoni-Ricardo (2004; 2005), Bagno (2013), and the contributions of the Pedagogy of Linguistic Variation proposed by Faraco (2008), Faraco and Zilles (2015; 2017). The goal is to promote students' linguistic awareness and adaptation, enabling them to recognize that language is a tool of power that should be used to help build a fairer society that provides equal opportunities for different social classes to develop their linguistic competence. Regarding the methodology adopted, we rely on the action research approach proposed by Thiollent (1996, 2011), as it involves the implementation of a didactic proposal that provides students with appropriate linguistic training, emphasizing respect for diversity and youth protagonism (Costa, 2006). This proposal was developed through classroom research, also contributing to students’ scientific literacy (Silva, 2016), as the didactic approach applied in this study was carried out in the classroom. To this end, seven workshops were designed and conducted, focusing on Sociolinguistics, with the following themes: 1) Language and Power/Historical Context. 2) Linguistic Prejudice/Respect for Linguistic Diversity/How to Combat Linguistic Prejudice; 3) Linguistic Diversity/Heterogeneity; 4) The Mythology of Linguistic Prejudice/Unraveling Eight Myths; 5) podcast Creation Process; 6) Podcast Recording and Editing; 7) podcast Editing and Publishing. We chose to work with the podcast genre because it possesses several characteristics that contribute to improving students' linguistic formation. It is worth emphasizing that this genre significantly involves the practice of oral language and helps develop students’ communicative competence. Moreover, it proves to be a pedagogical tool that should be further explored didactically, as it is included in the reference curriculum for the grade level in which this research is being conducted.