A relação da competência comunicativa com o planejamento temático baseado em tarefas em um curso de português língua estrangeira

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the relations between a Thematic Task-Based Syllabus and the Communicative Competence (CC) of students of Portuguese as a second language. This qualitative, ethnographic - interpretative research is grounded in studies on CC (CANALE; SWAIN, 1980; CANALE, 1983; CELCE-MURCIA, 2007; HYMES, 1972) of foreign language learners in immersion context. The framework for the Thematic Task-Based Syllabus is founded on theoretical studies of Barbirato (2005), Ellis (2003), Nunan (1989). The thematic material used in this work is called Brasilidades and the theme is based on cultural perspectives of the Northeast and South parts of Brazil. The material was implemented in two courses of Portuguese as a second language in a university in the Southeastern part of Brazil. Each course lasted 30 hours, and the data was collected in the second semester of 2012 and the first semester of 2013. Some of the instruments used for data collection were: research diary, audio and video recording of the classes and questionnaires. The results suggest that the Thematic Task-Based Syllabus allow students a profound mobilization of their CC in communicative scenarios. This kind of syllabus has also shown to be consonant to the model of CC proposed by Celce-Murcia (2007) which places the discursive competence as the center of the CC model since this type of planning recovers primary functions of language such as communication and production of meaning through meaningful contexts. During the task phase, it also offers moments of interaction between students based on the discursive construction of language.