Por uma porta entreaberta : o desenvolvimento da competência aplicada de profissionais do ensino de línguas

Abstract

In this research, the concept of applied competence (AC) of Almeida Filho, developed in the context of the Almeidian Model, is analyzed. This model covers two specific frameworks of the Language Teaching and Language Learning Field (LT/LL): The Foreign Language Teaching Overall Operation (FLTO) and the Overall Operation of Professional Education (OPE). The first deals with the phenomena and the theorization of the processes related to language teaching and learning. The second deals with the processes of teacher education. This investigation is aligned with a reflexive education perspective, endorsed by the OPE. The Almeidian Model, therefore, is taken as the main theoretical orientation of this study, but it also resorts to other theoretical support as those presented by Moscovici (2007), Jung (2000), and Bandeira (2015) among other authors. The focus of this research relies on the Applied Competence (AC) developmental aspects. In order to achieve the research results, phenomena which arise as relevant factors in the clarification of the elements in the language teaching and in the dialectical synthesis of the components in the process are examined. This applied, interpretative, and ethnographical research had as tools in the data collection: class observation and recording in video and audio, semi-structured questionnaires, field notes, interviews and informal conversations with the participants of the research. The main leading question of this study inquires about how the participants of the research develop their AC. A subsidiary question aims at identifying what necessary elements are manifested in the applied competence development. The main purpose consists in understanding the aspects of AC and a secondary objective aims at identifying the elements needed for the development of the AC. The research has as its scenery a public language center. The participants of the research are teachers who work in that language center. They were divided into two groups. The first group, which was constituted of all the participants in the research, provided the data on the school context and collective or social aspects within the range of the space where the research took place. The data provided by the second group, formed by three members of the first group, are directly related to the questions addressed and the research objectives. The results demonstrate that the AC, inserted in a system of competences, is a competence of formality, that is, it comprehends two categories: one of explicitness and the other of synthesis. The first is developed stem from the process of making the elements of OPE explicit, including the teaching approach, language teaching and learning theories, attitudes facing the elements and subjects in the professional field and the professional activity. The second is constructed from the dialectical relationship of the elements of the explicitness category. The synthetics category gives origin to the components of the AC. The data analysis also indicates that the elements involved in the process of explicitness do not form the AC components. It occurs through the process of synthesis of the elements previously made explicit. This research contributes, among other factors, to the elaboration and implementation of policies and programs of language teachers continued education.