O papel da linguagem em uso na sala de aula no processo de apropriação da leitura de crianças e jovens e adultos

Abstract

This paper aims to contrast process of appropriation of the meanings in reading of adults and children who are in the process of literacy from the investigation of the role of language in use in the classrooms of these participants. We present the results of an ethnographic study that it was focused on two classes of initial literacy in two different public schools located in the city of Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Data collection was performed during one year through participant observation, field notes, analysis of the group's artifacts, interviews, photographs, video and audio recordings. The theoretical and methodological approach adopted is based on a historical-cultural approach, based on the theory of human development founded by Lev S. Vygotsky (VYGOTSKY, 1934/1993; 1979; 1989; GOMES, 2004; GOMES e MONTEIRO, 2005, GOMES 2004, GOMES e MONTEIRO, 2005) and assumptions of Interactional Ethnography (SBCDG, 1992; CASTANHEIRA, M. L; GREEN, J. L.; DIXON, C., 2007): Interactional Sociolinguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Anthropology, viz. We also considered the contributions of the Bakhtin´s dialogic theory and recent studies in the literacy area, focusing on the relationship between language and reading (BAKHTIN, 1992, 1979; STREET, 1984, 2002, 2009; HEATH, 1983; ROJO, 2004; SOARES, 1998, 2002; CAFIERO, 2005). The analysis of the teaching and learning process of reading, constructed within the interactions and actions of learners, made possible the understanding of what and how they read, for whom they read, when and where they read, and which are the effects of the language in use, i.e., of the context, of the communicative and social dimensions established in each classroom in the developing process of those students reading skills. In relation to the Adult Education classroom, it was possible to notice that the language produced and interpreted in the speeches and actions of the studied group worked as a means of communication, as a way to organize the interactions. However, it did not make possible a study and reflection about what they have read, about the aims of the reading, and about the process of appropriation of this cultural asset. The reading skills specific capacities developed in that classroom are restricted to the skills and knowledge related to deciphering. Unlike what happened in the Adult Education classroom, the capacities which are relative to decoding were developed together with the capacities of text comprehension and with the uses and functions of written language. The language in use by children and the teacher, there is, the language produced and interpreted in the speeches and actions of this studied group made possible the study and reflection about what they read, about the reading aims, and about the process of appropriation of that cultural asset. Even more than that, it was established in the classroom a dialogical relationship with respect and appreciation of mutual cooperation. Thus, the interactions experienced by the researched students in the classroom provided the opportunity of making visible that reading is a social practice, and it does not configure itself exclusively as neutral and technical skills, since it is absorbed in socially constructed epistemological principles. The implication of this conception of reading to the area of literacy reaffirms the need to teach the "technology" of reading and writing, but without neglecting the social, political and ideological dimensions of the act of teaching of how to read and write.