Why learn English? A study on the relation to knowledge and the personal sense attributed by the student in the context of the public school

• Grant number: 10/12336-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: June 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Nelson Viana
• Grantee: Andréia Dias Ianuskiewtz
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the relations students establish to the English language learning in the context of the public school, as well as the sense they attribute to this learning. We are interested in researching the way the relations established by the student to the world (the school, the classroom and everything that comprises it), the other (teachers and classmates) and themselves (their knowledge, their expectations) influence the English language learning. This study will be based on studies developed by Bernard Charlot (2000; 2001; 2005) about the relation to knowledge, which aims to understand the way the subject categorises, organises their world, makes sense of their experience (especially to their school experience), apprehends the world, and constructs and transforms themselves. We aim to answer the following questions: (1) Which relation the public school student establish to the English language learning? (2) Does the teaching of English, in the context of public school, guarantee the students the necessary conditions to the development of a significative relation to knowledge, so that learning is successful? and (3) What is the sense of (having to) studying English to the student? By understanding the attribution of sense to the activity of English language learning, under the perspective of students from the public schools, this study may contribute to a better understanding of the specificities that involve the learning of English language in that context, so that we find ways of overcoming the obstacles that impede the successful English language learning in the public school.