Metapesquisa em ensino e aprendizagem de línguas: um estudo modelar com foco em interação

Abstract

The growing number of academic studies in all fields of study and, therefore, in Language Teaching (LT), raises an issue about how to synthesize systematically and in an organized way this myriad of knowledge in a way that allows and boosts science advances, so that investigations (and researchers themselves) do not become a plethora of unordered information – which can result in waste of time and/or investment in areas well settled. Hence, research synthesis arises as a methodology which is capable to fulfill this need, as its aim is to systematically organize knowledge about a certain theme and make it available for the ones interested in it. This study presents research synthesis as a research methodology, highlighting its features and providing directions for those who are interested in doing this kind of investigation under the qualitative paradigm. In order to do so, beyond characterizing this methodology, it also presents a study on interaction, clarifying and critically discussing the steps that should be taken in a qualitative research synthesis. The theme resulted from the growing number of studies in language teaching and its consequent need to organize the information in them, so that LT research can better help the development of theories and practices regarding language learning. This study highlights how organizing information systemically (through research synthesis) can broaden the content and effectiveness of knowledge developed in LT, so that we can circumvent: wasting productive time and resources, gathering practical knowledge distributed in university libraries; and, consequently, help interpret research results, which could help comprehension and impact practice. Furthermore, the data analyzed has its focus on interaction and shows the urge to rethink language pedagogical practices, so that language classrooms can enable students to be active subjects in society, connecting language teaching and language use. Research synthesis and interaction ‘in the wild’ demand more studies to enable the field to contribute more to the language learning area in countries where we face great challenges in this field.