Syntactic clause combining from an interdiscursive viewpoint: a new approach for understanding and teaching

• Grant number: 12/22189-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: April 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Portuguese Language
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Suarez Abreu
• Grantee: Ana Carolina Sperança Criscuolo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this project, we propose a discussion about teaching grammar from an interdiscursive language approach. In the last years, especially from de 80's, much has been questioned about the need of teaching grammar or not. Instead of an approach only focused on language structural organization, the curricula proposals (BRAZIL, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2006) suggest a contextualized grammar teaching, using authentic texts. However, pedagogical grammars and didactic books which provide support for teachers, although they use various types of texts in order to exemplify grammar phenomena, they still apply a traditional approach to these phenomena. Despite the fact that there are many discussions about "what" to do, it is possible to notice a great need of papers on "how" to do, in concrete terms. Based on Cognitive Linguistics theorical framework (FAUCONNIER, 1994, 1997; FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002; BYBEE, 2010, entre outros), we aim to describe and analyse some aspects of clause combining, which depend not only on linguistic factors but also on the way the Speaker conceptualizes grammar and uses linguistic expressions. Our main objective is to develop a sequence of activities - a "didactic sequence" (DOLZ, NOVERRAZ and SCHNEUWLY, 2004) - for teaching this grammar issue, focused on the Speaker's communicative/interdiscursive interests. We believe that the principles underlying this didactic sequence can also serve as a basis for teaching other grammatical topics, contributing to a more concrete and meaningful teaching of grammar in general.