Narrativas de aprendizagem: o deslocamento de crenças e a construção das identidades de aprendizes de LE

Abstract

The present investigation aims at reaching understandings on how learning experiences of foreign language students may act on the construction of their identities and beliefs. It is particularly interesting for this research to understand how those identities are constructed within classroom interactions, in which affect (ARNOLD; BROWN, 1999; ARNOLD, 2007, 2009) cannot be understood apart from the social context (MORAES BEZERRA, 2013). The present research was conducted in a language course, located in the city of São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro. It is a piece of an autoethnographic research (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2002; MAGALHÃES, 2018), in the field of Applied Linguistics (ROJO, 2006; MOITA LOPES, 2006), guided by the Exploratory Practice principles (ALLWRIGHT, 2003). My English students and I participated in this study. The present investigation came up due to my puzzles, as the teacher-researcher and exploratory practitioner, related to my own foreign language learning experience. Such puzzles moved me to involve my students in a reflexive process concerning foreign language teaching and learning, because I realized that reflecting on such issues could empower my students. I also realized that the cognitive, social and affective dimensions are interwined in the process of teaching and learning of a foreign language (MILLER et al., 2008), through a reflection which not only integrates my research, but also my pedagogical practice, aiming at reaching the quality of life in the classroom as well as in other contexts. Thus, to reach the central aims of this study, activities were proposed for classroom observations which were carried out for an initial perception of students beliefs (BARCELOS, 2001, 2004, 2006b) and their learning culture. Oral interactions were also recorded in order to be analyzed and help me understand how the participant students and exploratory practitioners constructed their identities (MOITA LOPES, 2003b; RAJAGOPALAN, 2003; HALL, 2003), as English students, through their narratives about their learning experiences. Through a Potentially Exploitable Reflexive Activity (MORAES BEZERRA, 2007a), the participants shared their English learning experiences. The data generated were used in another Exploratory conversation, which happened at the end of the observation period, so the group would be able to rethink their foreign language learning experience, also reflecting about beliefs, and if issues of power and affect were related to the construction of their identities. The meeting promoted a reflexive attitude in the group and moved us to search of new understandings, so the learners could engage in the research process as investigators of their own practice, searching for understandings of their own puzzles about their learning process (ALLWRIGHT; HANKS, 2009)