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| Author(s): |
Laura Fortes
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2016-04-11 |
| Examining board members: |
Marisa Grigoletto;
Maria Teresa Celada;
Leandro Rodrigues Alves Diniz;
Carlos Renato Lopes;
Marcia Aparecida Amador Mascia
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| Advisor: | Marisa Grigoletto |
| Abstract | |
This research proposes a discursive analysis of meanings of bilingualism, bilingual education and curriculum in Portuguese-English bilingual schools in the Brazilian educational system. Drawing on the materialist discourse analysis framework proposed by Michel Pêcheux in the 1970s, it examines a complex of heterogeneous discursivities shaping the real of the fast increasing number of those schools, which is often justified by a growing demand for the acquisition of the English language at an earlier age. In view of that complex of discursivities, research data comprises texts from four archives: a) scientific discourse on bilingualism, consisting of a bibliographic survey of academic research and publications on bilingualism; b) political-educational discourse, consisting of national/state language policies and curriculum guidelines; c) institutional discourse, consisting of texts available on bilingual schools websites and news/advertising media; d) professional discourse, consisting of interviews with teachers and coordinators of three bilingual schools in the city of São Paulo. The first part of the research analyzes the formation of concepts, the conditions of production and circulation of meanings of bilingualism and bilingual education in the first three archives (scientific, political-educational and institutional). The second part of the research focuses on a discursive analysis of meanings of Portuguese-English bilingual schools curricula in professional discourse, considering possibilities of its imbrications with the discourses analyzed in the first part. The main research question was formulated as follows: how is knowledge about language(s) constituted and organized in those school institutions, considering that Portuguese-English bilingual education is not regulated by law? The analysis indicates that the meanings of this lack of regulation function differently in a discursive process interpreted as a tension between the silenced and the sayable which is produced by the (de)regulation of political-educational discourse. The initial hypothesis predicted that meanings of English language teaching in bilingual education provision were produced by the preconstructed (the already said of other discourses) evoked by a social-historical memory of delegitimation of English language teaching in the Brazilian educational system. However, that hypothesis was only partially confirmed, as an incidence of other meanings was found in this discursive process, such as the representation of language as mediation, which has configured an imaginary of tension between learning in English and learning English We concluded that these meanings could be better understood if the curriculum were interpreted as a linguistic tool. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 12/21924-3 - Between the silence and the sayable: a discursive study of the English language curriculum in bilingual schools |
| Grantee: | Laura Fortes |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |