Compondo identidades: construindo diários na aula de língua inglesa

Abstract

This research aims at investigating the phenomenon of identity construction of first year students from a Brazilian university Languages Course. Nine students produced reflexive diaries about their learning experiences in the English language classes. Written in the foreign language they were in the process of learning, the students texts are narratives of their contradictions and doubts, but also of their discoveries in relation to their learning in general, to their learning of the foreign language, and in relation to themselves.

The theoretical underpinnings for the work are studies in the areas of identity construction (Wenger, 1998; Moita Lopes, 1998, 2002; Gee, 2000; Orlandi, 1998); education (Dewey, 1938/1963; 1916/1967; Giussani, 2004; Bruner, 1976, 1995); genres and reflexive diaries (Machado, 1998, 2005; Liberali, 1999). Equally relevant are authors such as van Manen (1990), Frankl (1997) e Quintás (1995, 2003) who, under different perspectives, also contribute to a better understanding of factors involved in the construction of the students as people and as authors.

Based on the hermeneutic-phenomenological paradigm (Ales Bello, 2004; van Manen, 1990; Gadamer, 1975; Ricoeur, 2002), the data were analysed with the purpose of understanding and interpreting the learning stories present in the diaries, and the effect of the lived experiences on the students identities. Individual and shared learning stories are found, which point to three kinds of relations that help construct their identities as students: the interactions they live or seek with the teacher and their classmates; with the materials and activities proposed; with their own (present and past) learning experiences in the foreign language