Identidade e aprendizagem de inglês sob a ótica do caos e dos sistemas complexos

Abstract

The present piece of work aims at presenting social identity in the contemporary moment as a complex and chaotic system. It also aims at enhancing the inter-relation between the processes of identity reconstruction and foreign language learning. To do so, it borrows thetheoretical framework of Complexity and Chaos theories and reflects upon identity issues through the contributions of Bakhtin, Giddens and Hall. To understand the learning process, it takes the concept of communities of practice, proposed by Wenger. This piece of work is developed within a qualitative / interpretative approach and isframed by the paradigm of Complexity. In accordance with this epistemology, it takes the methodology of narrative- research. The data are constituted by narratives selected from the corpus that belong to AMFALE project, developed at UFMG. The analysis is developed into twophases: a categorical and a holistic one. Both were developed in the light of the proposed theories. The results show that the processes of identity (re)construction and foreign language learning are characterized not only by a relation of interaction, but by a sense of completeness. The understanding of both, identity and learning, through the lens of Chaos / Complexity theories contributes to a new optic devoted to the learning process, which is able to make a rupture with the deterministic positions that motivate attitudes based on prejudice and hegemonic positions.Finally, evoking the image of a fractal, it is suggested a new term fractalized identities to refer to the way in which the contemporary moment, while fractalizing the identity system,makes the human being more complex.