Teaching Work at Private Language Schools: Direct Speech and the Voice of Hierarchy

ABSTRACT

This paper aims at focusing on an aspect of the activity of the teacher who works at private language schools. It presents an analysis of teachers’ speeches about their work. These speeches were produced during an interview, which was conceived and applied as a research instrument to generate data. More specifically, our analysis covers the process of their selection and training, which took place before their hiring. The theoretical framework of the investigation are the language sciences from the perspective of the sociological method, as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin and the Circle, and the ergological approach of the activity. In relation to the linguistic-discursive resources used by the teachers during the interviews, it is possible to observe, in the excerpts analyzed in this paper, the constant presence of reported speech, and especially the occurrences of quotations in direct speech, through which an effect of sense of authenticity is produced and the boundaries with respect to the voice of hierarchy are marked. Furthermore, the authoritarian reception of the alien word, the degree of its ideological assurance and also dogmatism explain the use of direct speech.

KEYWORDS:
Teaching Work; Private Language Schools; Direct Speech

RESUMO

Este artigo procura focalizar um aspecto da atividade do professor que atua em cursos livres de idiomas. Traz uma análise de falas de docentes sobre o seu trabalho, produzidas pelo dispositivo entrevista; mais especificamente, tematiza o processo de seleção e o treinamento que antecederam a sua contratação. As ciências da linguagem sob a perspectiva do método sociológico, tal como desenvolvido por Mikhail Bakhtin e o Círculo, serão o marco teórico da investigação, assim como a abordagem ergológica da atividade. Com relação aos recursos linguístico-discursivos empregados pelos professores nas entrevistas, é possível observar, nos fragmentos analisados neste artigo, a presença constante do discurso citado, especialmente as ocorrências de discurso direto, por meio do qual se constrói um efeito de sentido de autenticidade e se marcam as fronteiras com relação à voz da hierarquia. Ademais, a percepção autoritária da palavra alheia, seu nível de segurança ideológica e de dogmatismo também explicam o recurso ao discurso direto.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
Trabalho docente; Cursos livres; Discurso direto

Introduction

In the last decade, there have been a number of initiatives by different Brazilian governmental spheres allowing private language schools - institutions that are not under the control of education State bodies - to be responsible for the teaching of foreign languages, the production of teaching materials or the promotion of in-service teacher education in primary and secondary public schools. Examples can be found in all three spheres of Brazilian government: federal, state and municipal.¹ Also, in primary and secondary private schools, the offer of foreign language instruction by means of agreements with private language schools has become a common practice in large urban areas.

Thus, the broad educational role of those languages in primary and secondary education (which has to do with the development of the student’s literacies in close relation with the other school subjects) tends to be erased. The learning of foreign languages as consumer goods, that is, as products that help fulfil demands of the market, is reinforced. Thus, foreign language instruction in primary and secondary education takes an instrumental approach, privileging the learning of certain skills or abilities, instead of promoting meaningful language education.

Not only have private language schools been increasing their presence within the field of regular primary and secondary schools, but they also have been expanding their business as far as their main activity is concerned: the offer of non-schooling courses of foreign languages.² However, the practices and activities of those institutions remain still nearly unexplored within Brazilian academic studies. Little research has been reported on this subject. Among the few studies reported, we can mention the studies of Freitas (2010), Fernandes (2013), and Souza (2016) as examples.

The present paper aims at presenting an analysis of private language school teachers’ speeches³about their work (LACOSTE, 1998), more specifically, about the process of selection and training that preceded their hiring, produced during an interview used as a research instrument.⁴ The theoretical framework of the investigation are the language sciences from the perspective of the sociological method, as developed by Mikhail Bakhtin and the Circle (BAKHTIN, 2010a,⁵ 2010b;⁶ VOLOŠINOV, 1973),⁷ and the studies about work, especially the ergologic approach to activity (SCHWARTZ, 1997).There are few investigations concerned with the analysis of the teaching situation as a situation of teacher’s work. As Faïta (2005) stated, the study of the modes by which the teacher invests himself/herself into the realization of his/her tasks is a field that lacks research. Tardiff and Lessard (2007) have shown not only that gap, but also the lack of understanding concerning the pertinence and the necessity of that approach to teaching. With regard to the scope of the foreign language at private language schools, that gap is even wider, as mentioned previously.

This paper is organized in four sections: the first focuses briefly on a complex discussion about the relations between language and work; the second approaches the interview as a procedure for the production of speeches about (LACOSTE, 1998) the teaching work; the third brings an analysis of the interviews, especially of the occurrences of direct speech; and the fourth presents the conclusion.

1 Language and Work

Despite being recent, the concern of linguists about the interface between language and work has been in a process of consolidation over the last four decades. It began in France in the 1980s, and within the following decade it arrived in Brazil with the emergence of the first research groups⁸ that thematized that issue.

The core position occupied by language within the work activity is recognized by Situated Ergonomics - a perspective which has human activity, the individual acting in labor, as its object. This language centrality makes it the concern of researchers who come from different fields of study and share an interest in investigating workers’ discourses. Among these researchers, we find sociologists, ergonomists, philosophers, physicians, and psychologists (BOUTET, 1993; FRANÇA, 2002).

The ergologic approach that underlies this research played a relevant role in the development of studies about the relationship between language and work. Owing a lot to the ideas of the French philosopher Yves Schwartz, Ergology was born during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1983, in partnership with the linguist Daniel Faïta and the sociologist Bernard Vuillon, the APST - Analyse Pluridisciplinaire des Situations de Travail - appeared at Université de Provence (Aix-Marseille I). By the late 1990s, the group branched off into two perspectives, both of which were engaged in the reflection, analysis and transformation of activity. One of them - the one with a philosophical nature and an epistemological and conceptual concern - became what is known as the ergologic approach (SCHWARTZ, 1997).

The conception of language developed by the Bakhtin Circle (BAKHTIN, 2010a,⁹ 2010b;¹⁰ VOLOŠINOV, 1973)¹¹ guided the founding perspectives of Ergology, through Daniel Faïta’s studies (2005). The sociology of discourse (BAKHTIN, 2010a,¹² 2010b;¹³ VOLOŠINOV, 1973)¹⁴ approaches the complexity of human beings and their work by considering language as a concrete activity of verbal exchanges, while Ergology presents itself as the study of the human activities which considers the workers to be in the center of the production of knowledge about work, thus requiring analyses from the linguistic-discursive field.

The opening of that scope of reflection is essential to the understanding of work, since there is not a single activity which takes place without verbal interaction, even if the interaction is not, strictly speaking, part of the activity, as in an assembly line, for example. Therefore, it is not possible to understand and investigate work without considering the contributions from its protagonists’ speeches, whether they are produced during work or provoked in other moments and places. According to França (2002, p.60, author’s emphasis), “[...] the production of knowledge in and about the situations of work has to listen to the voice of those who have the experience of working. They are the ones who feel the heat, get irritated and find pleasure in the work they do.”¹⁵

Nouroudine (2002, pp.21-22) emphasizes that language is supposed to be seen “as a part of activity in which physiological, cognitive, subjective, social, and other constituents get intertwined into a complex that turns into a distinctive mark of a specific experience in relation to others.”¹⁶ Thus, the investigations into the intersection of language and work require a linguistic analysis which is not restricted to the word or the clause, but consider the relationship between language and society, between the utterance and the situation in which the utterance occurs, thus converging to the perspective represented by the Bakhtin Circle’s sociology of discourse (BAKHTIN, 2010a,¹⁷ 2010b;¹⁸ VOLOŠINOV, 1973).¹⁹

The first attempt to present a methodological framework to analyze language in the situation of work was the distinction of speeches, developed by Lacoste (1998). This perspective differentiates language about, at and as work. Language about work is the production of knowledge concerning the activity, whether during its realization, among the workers themselves, or in a later debate such as the interviews carried out for this investigation. Language as work is the one used during the activity in order to get it done, such as telemarketers’ speeches or an oral exposition made by a teacher during his/her lesson. Finally, language at work is the one which is not directly related to the performance of the work activities but occurs within its own situation of work, such as conversations about different topics between two workers (LACOSTE, 1998).

The distinction of speeches, despite its limitations, was pioneering and caused a shift in the analyses. According to Lacoste (1998), there was a change of perspective because the researchers used to center their attention upon the workers’ speeches about their work and neglected the role played by language within the activity. Nouroudine (2002), in turn, highlighted that the complexity of work is present in language as a whole, being translated into different ways according to each of the elements in the tripartition of speeches.

In the context of this research, this methodological framework is important to make it explicit that the focus will be on the teachers’ speeches about their work. As Nouroudine (2002) stated, this element of the tripartition might contribute to the emergence of relevant pieces of information regarding the activity.

The dialogic concept of language, conceived by the Bakhtin Circle, allows for a linguistic-discursive study about the situation of work which integrates the verbal phenomenon with human’s industrious attribute, that is, human’s potency for the agency of life. Language is, thus, conceived as the product of human interactive work among individuals within the most diverse domains of activity. According to Bakhtin (2010a, p.63),²⁰ the constitutive dialogism of language is present in each and every utterance, because “after all, language enters life through concrete utterances (which manifest language) and life enters language through concrete utterances as well.”

In this perspective, the role of the linguist who centers his/her study on concrete utterances is that of a participant in the dialogue:

The understanding of entire utterances and dialogic relations among them is always of a dialogic nature (including the understanding of researchers in the human sciences). The person who understands (including the researcher himself) becomes a participant in the dialogue, although on a special level (depending on the area of understanding or research). The analogy of including the experimenter in the experimental system (as a part of it) or the observer in the observed world in microphysics (quantum theory). The observer has no position outside the observed world, and his observation enters as a constituent part into the observed object (BAKHTIN, 2010b, pp.125-126, italics in original).²¹

The understanding of the concrete and dialogic utterance as “the real unity of the language phenomenon” (BAKHTIN, 2010a, p.67)²² provides a new dimension for the interface between language studies and work studies: on the one hand, there is no human activity without the use of language; on the other hand, there is not language outside a field of human activity.

2 The Interview

The production of speeches about work (LACOSTE, 1998) to this research took place, as mentioned above, through interviews with teachers from private language schools. After a contact and initial survey, thirty-four teachers replied positively. All of them are teachers of Spanish²³ at taught at those institutions at that time. Thus, the design of the research was established: interviews with teachers working at private schools under franchise system. The selected schools would be those where there were at least two teachers willing to collaborate, and which had branches on a large scale in several states nationwide. In that way, the investigation would cover the private language schools which hired more teachers, due to the large numbers of franchise branches.

Following these criteria, five institutions remained. They will be designated here by the following fictitious names: Alfa, Beta, Gama, Delta, and Ômega.²⁴ After that, the interviews were done, a total of ten, because two teachers from each institution were interviewed. More than two hundred minutes of audio recording were stored into digital support material.

It is important to mention that this investigation does not regard the interview as tool to reveal information held by the interviewee (DAHER, SANT’ANNA, ROCHA, 2004, pp.164-165), but rather as a dialogic event. Hence, instead of answering the research questions and being understood as a revelation of truth, it assumes the role of being a moment of text construction, under the discursive view, which retrieves situations of previous utterances that are inaccessible to the researcher. Thus, the interview is also an activity from the memory, since it retrieves personal experiences lived by the interviewee. It might as well retrieve a collective memory, in so far as we approach themes which concern the community.

In the case of this research, we retrieve utterances originated at the workplace of the teacher who was interviewed. Thus, the amount of texts, which are inaccessible to the researcher and which emerge from the situation of the interview, concern not only that teacher, but also his/her colleagues, coordinators, principals, and other individuals in the work situation. The teachers who were interviewed retrieved other voices, which is constitutive of language on the basis of the sociology of discourse, and they are visible through the text produced.

The interview script, adapted from Daher (1998), was organized in three thematic charts with a total of eighteen questions. For this paper, we brought and analyzed only the interactions generated by two questions:²⁵ 1) What was the hiring process by the school like? Do you know which requirements were demanded? Do you know whether the hiring procedure has always been the same? 2) Was there any training? Could you describe it?

In the next section, the texts produced through those interactions are analyzed with the attention drawn to certain verbal attitudes which stood out, especially the excerpts of the teachers’ answers in which they used reported speech. We also analyzed other hints that appeared in the language materiality. One of those aspects has to do with expressiveness (BAKHTIN, 2010a),²⁶ that is, the individual’s emotional-volitional tone with regard to his/her saying that determines the choice of lexical, grammatical, and compositional resources of the utterance, as well as the marks of dialogic relations that are visible through the materiality of utterances. We also observed the discursive movements established between the researcher and the interviewees, that is, the dialogic flow of questions and answers.

3 The Speeches about Work

As we said previously, the questions thematized here are about the teachers’ hiring and training. The teachers from Beta, Gama, Delta, and Ômega reported that they were hired after passing a written exam, attending an interview, and doing a brief training. When they were asked about the content of the written exam, all teachers claimed that it was exclusively a proficiency test in the language they wanted to teach, Spanish:

Teacher Adriana27 – Ômega28 R: How were:: you hired by the School? Adriana: I passed all the/ written exam++ I had to do a training and they called me to work. R: Written exam. What was the content of that written exam? Adriana: Very easy. It wa::s the one I thought the most difficult was Beta. Ômega was the easiest method because it was structural method, isn’t it? Those questions change the sentence to the past tense? R: Just grammar? Adriana: Just grammar.29

Teacher Adriana27 – Ômega28
R:	How were:: you hired by the School?
Adriana:	I passed all the/ written exam++ I had to do a training and they called me to work.
R:	Written exam. What was the content of that written exam?
Adriana:	Very easy. It wa::s the one I thought the most difficult was Beta. Ômega was the easiest method because it was structural method, isn’t it? Those questions change the sentence to the past tense?
R:	Just grammar?
Adriana:	Just grammar.29

Teacher Patrícia – Delta R: It was only one interview then? Patrícia: An interview and an essay. R: An interview and an essay. Patrícia: But in general in the other Delta, the one in ((neighborhood’s name)), where I had already taught I had an exam++ Well a long one with vocabulary stuff I didn’t remember, I think no one would remember that, a long list of false friends++ you had to say what they were, you know? ((laughter))30

Teacher Patrícia – Delta
R:	It was only one interview then?
Patrícia:	An interview and an essay.
R:	An interview and an essay.
Patrícia:	But in general in the other Delta, the one in ((neighborhood’s name)), where I had already taught I had an exam++ Well a long one with vocabulary stuff I didn’t remember, I think no one would remember that, a long list of false friends++ you had to say what they were, you know? ((laughter))30

Some of them mentioned that the exam looked like or was a sample of DELE, one of the international Spanish language proficiency tests:

Teacher Gabriela – Beta R: Got it. So you were recommended and by arriving there you did an exam? Gabriela: I did, an exam DELE+ style:: Higher level, an exam quite:: quite tough. R: I see. What are the contents of that exam? Gabriela: Content exactly? R: In general, it was a grammar exam, it was an exam/ Gabriela: No, nope. It was DELE style, indeed. Listening comprehension, there was comprensión lectora, there was::+ it was quite well divided, well, grammar:: it was quite DELE style, indeed. It seemed like they/ it sounded to me that they took one of the samples of the DELE Higher level exam from the last years and gave them to me. R: I see. And:: but there wasn’t any didactic content, for instance, how to teach? Gabriela: Nope.31

Teacher Gabriela – Beta
R:	Got it. So you were recommended and by arriving there you did an exam?
Gabriela:	I did, an exam DELE+ style:: Higher level, an exam quite:: quite tough.
R:	I see. What are the contents of that exam?
Gabriela:	Content exactly?
R:	In general, it was a grammar exam, it was an exam/
Gabriela:	No, nope. It was DELE style, indeed. Listening comprehension, there was comprensión lectora, there was::+ it was quite well divided, well, grammar:: it was quite DELE style, indeed. It seemed like they/ it sounded to me that they took one of the samples of the DELE Higher level exam from the last years and gave them to me.
R:	I see. And:: but there wasn’t any didactic content, for instance, how to teach?
Gabriela:	Nope.31

Teacher Aline – Gama R: But then how were you hired? You had to take an exam, anything? /.../ Aline: That’s it. There’s an exam. R: What’s that exam like? Aline: Nowadays the exam, it has a level as it were from DELE. Higher level. It is like, basically a copy. When I did the exam it was a quite basic level one.32

Teacher Aline – Gama
R:	But then how were you hired? You had to take an exam, anything? /.../
Aline:	That’s it. There’s an exam.
R:	What’s that exam like?
Aline:	Nowadays the exam, it has a level as it were from DELE. Higher level. It is like, basically a copy. When I did the exam it was a quite basic level one.32

A selection of teachers organized from an exam which encompasses just contents related to the language proficiency of the candidate reflects the concept of those institutions about the competencies that are necessary for teachers to do their job. From that perspective, any individual who gets a reasonable score in an exam which assesses the application of certain language pieces of knowledge, especially those concerning standard language, is qualified to be a teacher - or at least to participate in the following selection stages. That concept does not consider elements which would come from professional learning in the area of education. In fact, it explains the presence, quite often, of ungraduated teachers working at private language schools (FREITAS, 2010; FERNANDES, 2013; SOUZA, 2016).

No interviewee manifested explicit criticism of the procedure of hiring by means of a proficiency test, which could indicate that this is a rather commonplace fact. However, we can observe a devaluation of their contents in the linguistic-discursive qualification of those exams by some teachers. Patrícia said that the exam had “vocabulary stuff that I didn’t remember, I think no one would remember that, a long list of false friends++ you had to say what they were” and then she laughs. That laughter constructs a volitional tone, an expressiveness which refers to its discredit with regard to the contents approached in the exam, and its validity in the selection of teachers (“I think no one would remember that”).

Adriana says that the exam was “quite easy,” and Aline points out that “it was a quite basic level exam” and that “nowadays the exam, it has a level as it was from DELE. Higher level.” Gabriela states that it is “an exam DELE+ style:: Higher level, an exam quite:: quite tough.” Thus, whilst Adriana and Aline adopt a critical tone to the exam because they found it easy, Gabriela hesitates to search for a suitable qualifier to the exam and decides to use “tough,” that is, tiring, painful. For a selection exam, being “tough” would not be a negative qualification because it indicates the choice of the best ones, those teachers who manage to overcome the hardships they found. Similarly, by comparing the current exam to the one done in the past, Aline establishes an opposition against basic/higher level (“Nowadays the exam, it has a level as it was from DELE. Higher level. It is like, basically a copy. When I did the exam it was a quite basic level one”), which points to a better qualification if compared to the current one (“higher level”). Ultimately, the statement that the exam is a simple “copy” of a test made by another institution in order just to assess proficiency indicates an understanding of the schools’ inability to supply their own teacher selection program.

With regard to the interviews, few teachers mentioned the content of the exam. Some of them reported that they were like oral examinations. Carla, from Beta, states:

Teacher Carla – Beta Carla: Well, I delivered my résumé. They called me to sit for the exam, a written exam which was a grammar one, vocabulary and so on. I passed the exam and then gave the interview. In Spanish. So::/ R: Who did you give it to? Carla: I gave it to the coordinator of Spanish. At that time, one of the coordinators of Spanish. R: Uh-hu. Carla: And she::: talked a little about my résumé, she held it and said: “Hm, what you/ Hm, tell me a little bit about your experience, the course you’ve taken” and stuff like that.33

Teacher Carla – Beta
Carla:	Well, I delivered my résumé. They called me to sit for the exam, a written exam which was a grammar one, vocabulary and so on. I passed the exam and then gave the interview. In Spanish. So::/
R:	Who did you give it to?
Carla:	I gave it to the coordinator of Spanish. At that time, one of the coordinators of Spanish.
R:	Uh-hu.
Carla:	And she::: talked a little about my résumé, she held it and said: “Hm, what you/ Hm, tell me a little bit about your experience, the course you’ve taken” and stuff like that.33

To approach the interview, the teacher brings the voice of the coordinator by means of direct speech (“And she::: talked a little about my résumé, she held it and said: ‘Hm, what you/ Hm, tell me a little bit about your experience, the course you’ve taken’ and stuff like that.”). That way, an effect of sense of authenticity is produced. Vološinov (1973, p.119)³⁴ affirmed that “[i]n the first place, the basic tendency in reacting to reported speech may be to maintain its integrity and authenticity.” The use of reported speech, whether it was direct or not, is found in several excerpts of the teachers’ speeches. The voice present in those speeches, and which can be retrieved, is the voice of hierarchy, especially in the form of prescriptions.

Furthermore, also on the basis of Vološinov’s writings (1973),³⁵ it is possible to analyze the use of reported speech, especially direct speech, from another standpoint, which coexists and relates to the search for authenticity: the reproduction of the voice of hierarchy usually has sharp boundaries, as the ones present in the direct speech, which marks a larger distance from the speaker who reports in relation to what was said by the speaker reported. Vološinov (1973, p.123)³⁶ states that “[t]he stronger the feeling of hierarchical eminence in another’s utterance, the more sharply defined will its boundaries be, and the less accessible will it be to penetration by retorting and commenting tendencies from outside.” That sensation of hierarchy in discourse relates to the link between the discourse and society.

The latter [forms of verbal communication] are entirely determined by production relations and the sociopolitical order. Were we to apply a more detailed analysis, we would see what enormous significance belongs to the hierarchical factor in the processes of verbal interchange and what a powerful influence is exerted on forms of utterance by the hierarchical organization of communication (VOLOŠINOV, 1973, p.21, italics in original).³⁷

The utterance is powerfully influenced by the hierarchical organization of the communication, which, in turn, has its forms determined by production relations and by the sociopolitical order. Thus, the hierarchy present in the work has been seen shaped in communication and appears through direct speech within the teachers’ speeches.

Vološinov (1973, p.120)³⁸ states that

The more dogmatic an utterance, the less leeway permitted between truth and falsehood or good and bad in its reception by those who comprehend and evaluate, the greater will be the depersonalization that the forms of reported speech will undergo [...]. Here the explicitness and inviolability of the boundaries between authorial and reported speech reach the utmost limits.

Therefore, the authoritarian reception of the alien word, the degree of its ideological assurance and dogmatism also explain the use of direct speech, by resuming what was said by the hierarchy which, as we will see, is much frequent in the teachers’ interviews.

With respect to the training course, the teachers mentioned various configurations. At Gama, it is developed by the franchisor only; at Beta, there are two training courses, the one provided by the franchisee and the franchisor’s training course; at Delta, they reported the existence of the franchisee’s training course only; at Ômega, each teacher mentioned the existence of one of them: one teacher has taken just the franchisee’s course; the other teacher only the franchisor’s.

Carla’s account reflects the procedure mentioned by most of the teachers from Beta, Gama, Delta, and Ômega with regard to the event. The exception would be in the first training course attended in the franchisee:

Teacher Carla – Beta Carla: Then after being approved at the interview, we did a training course++ which was divided into two stages. First we did a little training err:: there in ((neighborhood’s name)) the same place, where they gave us some ideas about the course, what to/ what it was like, the course’s methodology, and so on. We stayed a couple of days there ((neighborhood’s name)). /.../ After we went to ((neighborhood’s name)). In ((neighborhood’s name)) we took the full training course. All, all franchise businesses, specifically, Rio de Janeiro, provided the training course in ((neighborhood’s name)). We stayed there for three days with ((name of the person in charge)), who is the responsible for::+++ err:: to assess all teachers from the country. So he explained the methodology, we did some, we prepared some, some parts of the lesson to make a presentation there. And on the last day of:: training course, it lasted for three days, on the last training day, we:: a day before we used to receive the lesson plan we were supposed to prepare and on the last day we used to teach the lesson. /.../ The assessment-class. The whole lesson, how it would be, with all the steps involved into the class, like++ with/ with all the steps of the class. And afterwards ((name of the person in charge)) applied an assessment. We didn’t know right out about his evaluation, the person who spoke to us was the coordinator of Spanish. /.../ And we stayed or not. Then he approved or didn’t approve +++ Or approved with reservations: “Well, you’re approved, but you’d better, better... You’d better/ you’d better retake another training...” /.../ The training course at the branch not all branch makes it. I found out that later. People from ((neighborhood’s name)) took the course in order to better prepare the teachers so that they weren’t expected to go++ straight to the training in ((neighborhood’s name)). R: Now, tell me more about that training course. What was it like? When you got there what did he talk about? About Methodology all the time...? Carla: ((name of the person in charge of the training course)) explained what the methodology of Beta was like. The communicative methodology, the lesson STEPS, he had a lesson plan. The first thing he did was to teach a lesson. It lasted more or less an hour and a quarter... /.../ ...teaching, with some teachers who played the role of students as volunteers. /.../ And he gave us the lesson. Err:: Beta’s methodology has a few steps: setting, awareness, systematization, practice... And he explained every step. How a vocabulary lesson had to be, how a reading lesson had to be, how a grammar lesson had to be, and so on. 39

Teacher Carla – Beta
Carla:	Then after being approved at the interview, we did a training course++ which was divided into two stages. First we did a little training err:: there in ((neighborhood’s name)) the same place, where they gave us some ideas about the course, what to/ what it was like, the course’s methodology, and so on. We stayed a couple of days there ((neighborhood’s name)). /.../ After we went to ((neighborhood’s name)). In ((neighborhood’s name)) we took the full training course. All, all franchise businesses, specifically, Rio de Janeiro, provided the training course in ((neighborhood’s name)). We stayed there for three days with ((name of the person in charge)), who is the responsible for::+++ err:: to assess all teachers from the country. So he explained the methodology, we did some, we prepared some, some parts of the lesson to make a presentation there. And on the last day of:: training course, it lasted for three days, on the last training day, we:: a day before we used to receive the lesson plan we were supposed to prepare and on the last day we used to teach the lesson. /.../ The assessment-class. The whole lesson, how it would be, with all the steps involved into the class, like++ with/ with all the steps of the class. And afterwards ((name of the person in charge)) applied an assessment. We didn’t know right out about his evaluation, the person who spoke to us was the coordinator of Spanish. /.../ And we stayed or not. Then he approved or didn’t approve +++ Or approved with reservations: “Well, you’re approved, but you’d better, better... You’d better/ you’d better retake another training...” /.../ The training course at the branch not all branch makes it. I found out that later. People from ((neighborhood’s name)) took the course in order to better prepare the teachers so that they weren’t expected to go++ straight to the training in ((neighborhood’s name)).
R:	Now, tell me more about that training course. What was it like? When you got there what did he talk about? About Methodology all the time...?
Carla:	((name of the person in charge of the training course)) explained what the methodology of Beta was like. The communicative methodology, the lesson STEPS, he had a lesson plan. The first thing he did was to teach a lesson. It lasted more or less an hour and a quarter... /.../ ...teaching, with some teachers who played the role of students as volunteers. /.../ And he gave us the lesson. Err:: Beta’s methodology has a few steps: setting, awareness, systematization, practice... And he explained every step. How a vocabulary lesson had to be, how a reading lesson had to be, how a grammar lesson had to be, and so on. 39

The teacher’s speech presents an opposition between the “little training” taken at the franchisee, in which they prepared the candidates “a little,” working as a previous preparation to the full training by the franchisor, when the teacher would learn the communicative methodology and the procedures adopted by the institution with “the responsible for::+++ err:: to assess all teachers from the country.” The second is the decisive one, the one that determines whether the teacher will be hired or not after teaching at an assessment-class.

Carla role plays the speech of the person in charge for the training course at that moment of making a decision about who would get the job position (“Well, you’re approved, but you’d better, better... You’d better/ you’d better retake another training...”), which she herself states not to have witnessed (“We didn’t know right out about his evaluation, the person who spoke to us was the coordinator of Spanish”). The voice of hierarchy appears in several moments during the interviews, especially in the format of direct speech, coinciding with Vološinov’s analysis (1973).⁴⁰ In Carla’s speech, besides the reported excerpt in the previous paragraph, we identify the reproduction of the voice which prescribes - in that case, the voice of the responsible for the training course, the representative of the franchisor: “And he explained every step. How a vocabulary lesson had to be, how a reading lesson had to be, how a grammar lesson had to be, and so on.” Here, there are marks of another voice whereby the deontic modality is highlighted (CERVONI, 1998) by the use of the verb “have to,” manifesting obligation, although it was variegated by the nuance of the form “had to be.”

That training model described by her is much similar to the one mentioned by almost all the interviewed teachers: Two or three days of activities with the presentation of the method and teaching material, a model lesson, and an assessment-class.

Rafael, who teaches at Ômega, says:

Teacher Rafael – Ômega R: /.../ What was the training course like? Rafael: Okay. Err:: it was the girl, the/the girl, the coordinator showed us the book, gave us a book and we had to follow the classes she taught us. That, that is, step by step. In, in the text you do this, repeat this way, here you make this question, quite:: step by step indeed, quite like a cake recipe. And then you:: did that and I think that within three weeks/ two days already teaching a lesson, the other weekdays we were supposed to present the lessons to her. And then in that lesson presentation I imagine that she:: she observed whether we had understood well the cake recipe she had told us, that way. I, by that time, I just remember that I thought like: I’m not going to be called/selected. Particularly because I’m not much of following a cake recipe, like, I can’t manage to do it, right:: I’m much more like an interactive person, I skip stages, do things, like, the ones I think that work and, in short, things out of my head. 41

Teacher Rafael – Ômega
R:	/.../ What was the training course like?
Rafael:	Okay. Err:: it was the girl, the/the girl, the coordinator showed us the book, gave us a book and we had to follow the classes she taught us. That, that is, step by step. In, in the text you do this, repeat this way, here you make this question, quite:: step by step indeed, quite like a cake recipe. And then you:: did that and I think that within three weeks/ two days already teaching a lesson, the other weekdays we were supposed to present the lessons to her. And then in that lesson presentation I imagine that she:: she observed whether we had understood well the cake recipe she had told us, that way. I, by that time, I just remember that I thought like: I’m not going to be called/selected. Particularly because I’m not much of following a cake recipe, like, I can’t manage to do it, right:: I’m much more like an interactive person, I skip stages, do things, like, the ones I think that work and, in short, things out of my head. 41

The training course model reported seems similar to the one described by Carla. However, we notice his critical view in relation to the event: “quite like a cake recipe” is how he qualifies what used to be taught at the course. This expression was repeated three times in an excerpt which lasted only a few seconds. Thus, it establishes a relationship between the training received and a pretty stable instructional gender, consisting of some “ingredients” and a “way of doing,” which, if followed correctly, would assure the accomplishment of the follower’s objective: to make a cake. In the case of Ômega, with the materials provided by the institution and following the step-by-step list offered by the person in charge of the training course, the teacher would manage to teach a good lesson.

Rafael establishes a dichotomy between what would be the desire of the ones who prescribe, that is, that everyone followed the “cake recipe,” and his personality traits, which are considered to be different from that (“Particularly because I’m not much of following a cake recipe”). Therefore, he establishes a relationship of opposition: a teacher who follows the “cake recipe” against a teacher who is “interactive” and who “skips stages.” Furthermore, Rafael’s speech shows the devaluation of the teacher’s work by the school by prescribing a lesson as a “cake recipe,” which is understood as something stable, not susceptible to variations. In that way, by rebelling against the recipe, Rafael intends to value his work, to show that he re-invents his activity from his experiences. In fact, making a cake, as well as all other activities, is not limited to applying the prescription into one’s recipe. Rafael expresses the difference between prescribed and actually done by saying, “[I] do things, like, the ones I think that work and, in short, things out of my head.” His class “works” because he performs things out of his “head,” that is, he regulates the activity through the management of the variations into which he runs.

Similar to Carla’s speech, the voice of the person in charge of the training course appears within Rafael’s account: “In, in the text you do this, repeat this way, here you make this question.” The injunctive character of the alien voice taken by the teacher through direct speech is manifested with the use of the present with value of command (“do,” “repeat”). The voice of hierarchy, as Vološinov (1973)⁴² says, is reproduced with clear boundaries that highlight a wider distance from the speaker who reports in relation to what was said by the speaker who was reported.

Gabriela, a teacher at Beta, reports the training course she took at the franchisor, and the material she received during the realization of the course:

Teacher Gabriela – Beta R: How could you describe the training course? +++ What was it, exactly? Gabriela: There was a teacher, with some experience at the school, she had probably been working there for about seven years, she:: beforehand, she used to teach a lesson, okay:: she said: guys, I’m going to teach, I’m going to choose a unit of the book and let you know what a class would be more or less like. She taught the lesson indeed and:: she taught the lesson indeed and afterwards she used to tell us: The class is like this. Yet, after that, she was scrutinizing the methodology: well, how to do a pré calentamiento, how to do a producción++ and/and the practices she used remembered the practices I am getting in touch with now in that refresh course. She::/she helped:: /.../ R: How to cope with your work. You received ((any kind of instruction manual))? Gabriela: Oh, I received from Beta. They were:: were ideas, like, general ones. Nothing much specific about methodology. You have to do like this or like that. Quite a cake recipe. And during the training course the teacher started talking about those techniques we worked here, for example. It was the technique of pelota, technique of estrella, it was like this. 43

Teacher Gabriela – Beta
R:	How could you describe the training course? +++ What was it, exactly?
Gabriela:	There was a teacher, with some experience at the school, she had probably been working there for about seven years, she:: beforehand, she used to teach a lesson, okay:: she said: guys, I’m going to teach, I’m going to choose a unit of the book and let you know what a class would be more or less like. She taught the lesson indeed and:: she taught the lesson indeed and afterwards she used to tell us: The class is like this. Yet, after that, she was scrutinizing the methodology: well, how to do a pré calentamiento, how to do a producción++ and/and the practices she used remembered the practices I am getting in touch with now in that refresh course. She::/she helped:: /.../
R:	How to cope with your work. You received ((any kind of instruction manual))?
Gabriela:	Oh, I received from Beta. They were:: were ideas, like, general ones. Nothing much specific about methodology. You have to do like this or like that. Quite a cake recipe. And during the training course the teacher started talking about those techniques we worked here, for example. It was the technique of pelota, technique of estrella, it was like this. 43

In the answers, we can observe plenty of reported speech. The teacher retrieves the prescriptions that were present during the training (“she said: guys, I’m going to teach, I’m going to choose a unit of the book and let you know what a class would be more or less like,” among others), and in the handout received during the course (“You have to do like this or like that”). In almost all excerpts we can notice an injunction, either an assertion (“the class is like this”), or an order (“you have to”).

The comparison already noticed through Rafael’s account concerning the “cake recipe” is repeated in Gabriela’s speech. Nevertheless, the teacher’s appreciation seems to reveal less critical tones, despite the pejorative sense of that expression, because it compares the training course to a refresh course she had been attending at that moment (“the teacher started talking about those techniques we worked here”).

At Alfa, the procedure of hiring teachers is significantly different from the others. Besides the interview held at the school where the candidate wishes to teach, the main requirement mentioned by the teachers is the attendance of a two-semester course offered by the institution. In addition, for a teacher to be hired, s/he has to have attended a regular course at Alfa:

Teacher Andreia – Alfa Andreia: I took Span 2, I didn’t get used to the method; no way, I didn’t want to attend it anymore; I took the Span 7 aft::er because of ((husband’s name)), who had already been working there; and then I took the Span 7 because, to work there, mandatorily, at Alfa is something very strict, you HAVE to do the course they have there; Then I took Span 7, Span 2 and the course for teachers. Aft::er, now I undergo the selection process at other branches which would be an:: interview speaking in the Spanish language. Speaking Spanish. 44

Teacher Andreia – Alfa

Andreia:

I took Span 2, I didn’t get used to the method; no way, I didn’t want to attend it anymore; I took the Span 7 aft::er because of ((husband’s name)), who had already been working there; and then I took the Span 7 because, to work there, mandatorily, at Alfa is something very strict, you HAVE to do the course they have there; Then I took Span 7, Span 2 and the course for teachers. Aft::er, now I undergo the selection process at other branches which would be an:: interview speaking in the Spanish language. Speaking Spanish. 44

The teacher says that “to work there, mandatorily, at Alfa is something very strict, you HAVE to do the course they have there.” By qualifying Alfa as “something very strict,” it means the course does not accept elements or people from the outside, and that just the ones who had attended their lessons before are apt to become teachers in their branches. The voice of hierarchy can be seen in the teacher’s speech through this emphatic statement “HAVE to do the course they have there” with the meaning of necessity. Andreia’s speech manifest a certain view of Alfa as an institution that seeks to value itself and that uses its own learning programs, whether regular programs or the ones devoted to the future teachers, as an advertising element: the school is so good that graduates its own teachers and does not accept teachers from other schools.

The undergraduate degree does not entirely change that circumstance:

Teacher Andreia – Alfa R: Hmm, got it. Bu they don’t demand, as you said, a major in Spanish... Andreia: They don’t demand an undergraduate degree. And graduated teachers are obliged to attend a two-semester course for teachers; that’s a course where they teach/ er/ they teach the didac::tic structure of the methodology, how to use, stuff like that. 45

Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:	Hmm, got it. Bu they don’t demand, as you said, a major in Spanish...
Andreia:	They don’t demand an undergraduate degree. And graduated teachers are obliged to attend a two-semester course for teachers; that’s a course where they teach/ er/ they teach the didac::tic structure of the methodology, how to use, stuff like that. 45

The discursive flow following that excerpt leads the dialogue so as to consider the teachers’ course offered by Alfa a training program:

Teacher Andreia – Alfa R: Got it. So, er +++ Besides/ and can you say it was a training program? Andreia: It’s a training program. It has to do with using the equipmen::t and stuff like that, to rewind::, to forward::, to repeat the picture. It’s a training program. 46

Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:	Got it. So, er +++ Besides/ and can you say it was a training program?
Andreia:	It’s a training program. It has to do with using the equipmen::t and stuff like that, to rewind::, to forward::, to repeat the picture. It’s a training program. 46

Then the course is described as a place to learn about handling many of the devices used at Alfa during the lessons (“It has to do with using the equipmen::t and stuff like that, to rewind::, to forward::, to repeat the picture”). The teacher is assertive and states twice that “it’s a training program.”

Later in the interview, Andreia says:

Teacher Andreia – Alfa R: Some/some kind of instruction: in your work you need to be there at a certain time... Andreia: Oh, yeah! Those things we get to know in the course. R: Hmm hmm Andreia: To arrive ten minutes before starting the class, to turn all the equipment on so that when the student arrives, everything is on; the air-conditioner must be on as well, because that stuff regarding the air is very important to them, they say the place must be clean, neat, stuff like that. R: Hmm hmm. Andreia: To check whether the classroom was cleaned up. 47

Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:	Some/some kind of instruction: in your work you need to be there at a certain time...
Andreia:	Oh, yeah! Those things we get to know in the course.
R:	Hmm hmm
Andreia:	To arrive ten minutes before starting the class, to turn all the equipment on so that when the student arrives, everything is on; the air-conditioner must be on as well, because that stuff regarding the air is very important to them, they say the place must be clean, neat, stuff like that.
R:	Hmm hmm.
Andreia:	To check whether the classroom was cleaned up. 47

The prescriptive function of the training course is reinforced in that excerpt, because within its contents there are prescriptions about non-pedagogical issues, such as the need to provide students with a clean and organized classroom. To refer to those tasks, the teacher turns to reported speech, bringing along the voice of the didactics teacher: “To arrive ten minutes before starting the class, to turn all the equipment on so that when the student arrives, everything is on; the air-conditioner must be on as well”; “To check whether the classroom was cleaned up.” The voice of the didactics teacher is identified as an institutional voice, marked by means of using “them/they”: “because that stuff regarding the air is very important to them, they say the place must be clean, neat, stuff like that.”

However, in the following excerpt, the meaning being constructed so far gets redefined:

Teacher Andreia – Alfa R: What else do you do besides preparing lesson, learning to deal with... Andreia: Er, there are two terms of Hispa::nic and Spanish Literature+ because the regular course doesn’t work with literature and::: also two terms of::: grammar, but a harder grammar because in the course we:: er:: don’t say there’s a past perfect, we say accomplished past. So, in that course for teachers they will talk about past perfect, like, the compound past tenses, say the real++ names++ the grammar name. /.../ One is didactics, it lasts two terms: didactics 1 and didactics 2. R: I see. Andreia: Literature 1, Literature 2, and Language 1 and Language 2. I attended the first term++ Got it? R: I see. Andreia: As I had been attending college and the method isn’t something difficult to learn++ then I went as++ as if I had finished the course because of it, because the subjects I had in co/college made up for that Language and Literature that I:: had to attend there. R: I see. And how, what is the number of training hours of that course? Andreia: Two hours+ each credit. Two hours of language, two hours of Literature, and two hours of Didactics, weekly. 48

Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:	What else do you do besides preparing lesson, learning to deal with...
Andreia:	Er, there are two terms of Hispa::nic and Spanish Literature+ because the regular course doesn’t work with literature and::: also two terms of::: grammar, but a harder grammar because in the course we:: er:: don’t say there’s a past perfect, we say accomplished past. So, in that course for teachers they will talk about past perfect, like, the compound past tenses, say the real++ names++ the grammar name. /.../ One is didactics, it lasts two terms: didactics 1 and didactics 2.
R:	I see.
Andreia:	Literature 1, Literature 2, and Language 1 and Language 2. I attended the first term++ Got it?
R:	I see.
Andreia:	As I had been attending college and the method isn’t something difficult to learn++ then I went as++ as if I had finished the course because of it, because the subjects I had in co/college made up for that Language and Literature that I:: had to attend there.
R:	I see. And how, what is the number of training hours of that course?
Andreia:	Two hours+ each credit. Two hours of language, two hours of Literature, and two hours of Didactics, weekly. 48

The course, which looked like a training program related to non-pedagogical issues, changes its nature. The institution’s method is qualified as something that is not “difficult to learn,” and the course starts being described as a one-year program, consisting of a course load of 6 hours per week including subjects of Language, Literature, and Didactics. It is, therefore, a way to replace the teacher’s undergraduate program, clearly competing with it. It does not mean to prescribe lessons in accordance with the procedures and with the book used, as we have seen concerning the other franchisors. Instead, its goal is to allow the teacher to acquire knowledge which competes partially with the one provided by the undergraduate teacher education program. There is, thus, some devaluation of university education, since “graduated teachers are obliged to attend (the course).” We can see that, as far as Alfa is concerned, its program for teachers replaces teachers’ university education, but the opposite does not occur, as graduated teachers have to attend it.

Nevertheless, Andreia’s speech, in spite of reproducing, through many passages, the voice of the institution, destroys Alfa’s prescriptions regarding the hiring of the teachers. Firstly, she states that she did not take the entire regular course; next, she says that, as she has been a college student, she did not attended the two terms of the course for teachers, a statement followed by laughter as a sign of breaking the rules. Therefore, Alfa’s teachers selection, which seemed severe in its own criteria, turns into a space where transgression is possible and easy to happen.

Concluding Remarks

The passage below is quite explanatory with regard to the dialogue between the teachers’ speeches within the interview and what is said about the teaching work:

Each utterance is filled with echoes and reverberations of other utterances to which it is related by the communality of the sphere of speech communication. Every utterance must be regarded primarily as a response to preceding utterances of the given sphere (we understand the word “response” here in the broadest sense). Each utterance refutes, affirms, supplements, and relies on the others, presupposes them to be known, and somehow takes them into account (BAKHTIN, 2010a, p.81).⁴⁹

Therefore, the utterances produced in the interviews analyzed in this paper interact closely with all the other utterances related to education and, specifically, the teaching of foreign languages.

Firstly, the selection does not follow parameters related to academic knowledge on language studies and education, and does not value the candidates’ previous experience. What we can see through the utterances produced by the teachers is that the selection reproduces standards from common knowledge and is restricted to a proficiency test as the main criterion. It presupposes, therefore, that it is not necessary to have knowledge acquired in the didactics of languages, which facilitates the commitment of that professional to the institution’s material and methodology.

Secondly, the training course is referred to by the teachers as a mandatory and prescriptive moment. It has the function of presenting the procedures and the institution’s teaching material. It is different from the teachers’ course at Alfa, which competes with the teachers’ major degree at a university.

With regard to the linguistic-discursive resources used by the teachers during the interview, it is possible to observe, in the excerpts analyzed in this paper, the constant presence of reported speech, especially the occurrences of direct speech, which produces an effect of sense of authenticity and highlights the boundaries in relation to the voice of hierarchy. Moreover, the authoritarian reception of the alien word, the degree of its ideological assurance and dogmatism also explain the use of direct speech (VOLOŠINOV, 1973).⁵⁰ We also observed occurrences of laughter, ironies, and other appreciative manifestations.

Thus, the attention was turned to the expressiveness of what was said, that is, the individual’s emotional-volitional tone with regard to their saying that determines the choice of lexical, grammatical, and compositional resources of the utterance, as well as the marks of dialogic relations which are visible through the materiality of the utterances.

According to Situated Ergonomics, the speech about work restates prescriptions. Although in the interviews the teachers brought along the official’s voice both from the franchisee’s and the franchisor’s with some frequency, in other intances they brought other prescriptions, coming from several different places and not always determined by others. They are utterances that dialogue with education, especially, with language education, valuing initiatives that display a higher degree of teacher’s autonomy, aiming at escaping from the attempts of standardization and impositions that are characteristics of the large franchises of private language schools.

• 1
  Some examples: the hiring of Cultura Inglesa by the Secretaria Municipal de Educação do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Municipal Secretariat for Education), since 2010, for providing several “services” (for example, the selection of teachers through public entrance exams, the implementation of in-service teacher education programs, the provision of teaching materials to the system, and the supervision of the English lessons and teaching practices); the possibility, set out in Law 11.161/2005 (a law that has now been repealed), that the offer of Spanish in schools could be implemented by means of “Centro de Estudos de Língua Moderna”. More similar cases can be seen in Freitas (2017).
• 2
  According to data from the Brazilian Franchise Association, four out of the twenty-five largest franchise businesses in Brazil are private language schools (ABF, 2017).
• 3
  Hereafter a “teacher” is an individual who teaches at private language schools, irrespective of having a university degree in a pre-service teacher education program.
• 4
  Although the research had the participation of individuals other than the researchers, the interviews were carried out between 2006 and 2010 (FREITAS, 2010), previously to the establishment of the Plataforma Brasil and the routine concerning the requirement of authorization from the Research Ethics Committee for such investigations in the field of language studies.
• 5
  BAKHTIN, M. The Problem of Speech Genres. In: BAKHTIN, M. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Translated by Vern W. McGee. Edited by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. 20th ed. Austin: University of Texas Pressa, 2010a, pp.60-102.
• 6
  BAKHTIN, M. The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis. In: BAKHTIN, M. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Translated by Vern W. McGee. Edited by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. 20th ed. Austin: University of Texas Pressa, 2010b, pp.103-131.
• 7
  VOLOŠINOV, V.N. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Translated by Ladislav Matejka and I. R. Titunik. New York: Seminar Press, 1973.
• 8
  The first research groups were Atelier - Linguagem e Trabalho (PUCSP) and Alter - Análise de Linguagem, Trabalho Educacional e suas Relações (created at PUCSP, and currently based at USP).
• 9
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 10
  For reference, see footnote ⁶.
• 11
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 12
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 13
  For reference, see footnote ⁶.
• 14
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 15
  Text in Portuguese: “[...] a produção de conhecimento nas e sobre as situações de trabalho tem de dar lugar e ouvir a voz daqueles que têm a experiência no trabalho. São eles que sentem calor, se irritam e têm prazer no trabalho que estão fazendo.”
• 16
  Text in Portuguese: “como parte da atividade em que constituintes fisiológicos, cognitivos, subjetivo, social etc. se cruzam em um complexo que se torne ele próprio uma marca distintiva de uma experiência específica em relação a outras.”
• 17
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 18
  For reference, see footnote ⁶.
• 19
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 20
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 21
  For reference, see footnote ⁶.
• 22
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 23
  The research focused only on teachers of Spanish; however, the part of the interview taken to this paper does not approach specific aspects of that language.
• 24
  A characterization of the profile belonging to each business can be found in Freitas (2010).
• 25
  See Freitas (2010) for the format of the complete script.
• 26
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 27
  Due to ethical reasons, the teachers’ names registered here are fictitious.
• 28
  The criteria of the transcriptions were adpated from Marcuschi (2003):

  • - pauses - +

  • - abrupt truncation - /

  • - emphasis or syllable stress - CAPITAL LETTERS

  • - vowel stretching - ::

  • - researcher’s comment - (( ))

  • - indication of elimination - /.../

  • - voices overlapping - [ ]

• 29
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Como você foi:: contratada pelo Curso? - Adriana: Passei por todos os/ prova escrita++ tive que fazer um treinamento e me chamaram pra trabalhar. - P: Prova escrita. Qual era o conteúdo dessa prova escrita? - Adriana: Bem fácil. Era::a mais difícil que eu achei foi o Beta, Ômega era o método mais fácil porque era método estrutural, né? Aquelas questões passe a frase para o pretérito indefinido? - P: Só gramática? - Adriana: Só gramática.”
• 30
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Foi só uma entrevista então? - Patrícia: Uma entrevista e uma redação. - P: Uma entrevista e uma redação. - Patrícia: Mas em geral no outro Delta, o da ((nome do bairro)), que eu também já dei aula lá eu tive uma prova++ Assim enorme com coisas de vocabulário que eu não lembrava, acho que ninguém ia lembrar daquilo, uma lista enorme de falsos amigos++ que você tinha que dizer o que era, sabe? ((risos)).”
• 31
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Entendi. Aí você foi indicada e chegando lá você fez uma prova? - Gabriela: Fiz, uma prova estilo:: DELE+ Superior, uma prova bem:: bem árdua. - P: Sei. Quais eram os conteúdos dessa prova? - Gabriela: Conteúdos em si? - P: De maneira geral, era uma prova de gramática, era uma prova/ - Gabriela: Não, não. Era estilo DELE, mesmo. Compreensão auditiva, tinha comprensión lectora, tinha::+ tava bem divididinha, assim, gramática:: era bem estilo DELE, mesmo. Parecia que eles/ me pareceu que eles pegaram um dos exemplares da prova do DELE Superior de anos anteriores e aplicaram. - P: Sei. E:: mas não tinha nenhum conteúdo de didática, por exemplo, como ensinar? - Gabriela: Não.”
• 32
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Mas aí como você foi contratada? Teve que fazer algum teste, alguma coisa? /.../ - Aline: Isso. Tem uma prova. - P: Como é que é essa prova? - Aline: Atualmente a prova, ela tem um nível como se fosse do DELE. Superior. É, assim, basicamente uma cópia. Quando eu fiz era uma prova num nível bastante básico.”
• 33
  Text in Portuguese: “Carla: Assim, eu deixei o currículo. Me chamaram pra fazer a prova, uma prova escrita que era uma prova de gramática, vocabulário etc. Eu fui aprovada na prova aí fiz a entrevista. Em Espanhol. Aí::/ - P: Com quem? - Carla: Com a coordenadora de Espanhol. Na época, uma das coordenadoras de Espanhol. - P: Hum hum. - Carla: E ela::: falou um pouco sobre o meu currículo, pegou o meu currículo e falou: “Ah, o que que você/ Ah, me explica um pouco sobre as suas experiências, o curso que você fez” e não sei o quê.”
• 34
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 35
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 36
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 37
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 38
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 39
  Text in Portuguese: “Carla: Aí passando na entrevista, a gente fez um treinamento++ que se dividiu em duas partes. Primeiro a gente fez um treinamentozinho é:: lá em ((nome do bairro)) mesmo, que eles já preparavam um pouco como era o curso, o que que/ o que que consistia, como era a metodologia do curso e tudo. A gente ficou uns dois ou três dias lá em ((nome do bairro)). /.../ Depois a gente foi pra ((nome do bairro)). Em ((nome do bairro)) a gente teve o treinamento geral. Todos, todas as franquias, no caso, do Rio de Janeiro, faziam o treinamento em ((nome do bairro)). A gente ficou três dias lá com o ((nome do responsável)), que é o responsável por::+++ é:: avaliar todos os professores do país. Então ele explicou a metodologia, a gente fez algumas, a gente preparou alguns, algumas partes de aula pra apresentar lá na hora. E no último dia de:: de treinamento, foram três dias, no último dia de treinamento, a gente:: um dia antes a gente recebia a aula que a gente deveria preparar e no último dia a gente apresentava essa aula. /.../ A prova-aula. Toda a aula, como seria com, com todo o processo de aula, assim++ com/ com todas as etapas da aula. E depois o ((nome do responsável)) fazia uma avaliação. A gente não ficava sabendo diretamente da avaliação dele, quem falava com gente era a coordenadora de Espanhol. /.../ E a gente ficava ou não ficava. Aí ele aprovava ou não aprovava +++ Ou aprovava com ressalvas: “Ah, ta aprovada, mas é bom que, que... É bom que/ é bom fazer outro treinamento...”. /.../ O treinamento na filial não é toda filial que faz. Isso eu soube depois. O pessoal de ((nome do bairro)) fez o treinamento até pra preparar melhor os professores pra não irem++ direto pro treinamento em ((nome do bairro)). - P: Agora, conta mais desse treinamento. Como é que era? Você chegava lá e ele falava de que? De metodologia o tempo todo...? - Carla: O ((nome do responsável pelo treinamento)) explicava como era a metodologia do Beta. A metodologia comunicativa, os PASSOS da aula, ele tinha um plano de aula. A primeira coisa que ele fazia era dar uma aula. Isso dava uma hora e quinze mais ou menos... /.../ ...dando a aula, com alguns professores que serviam de voluntários pra serem alunos. /.../ E ele entregava pra gente o plano de aula. É:: A metodologia do Beta tem algumas etapas: ambientação, sensibilização, sistematização, prática... E ele explicava cada passo. Como devia ser uma aula pra vocabulário, como deveria ser uma aula de, pra leitura, como deveria ser uma aula pra gramática etc.”
• 40
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 41
  Text in Portuguese: “P: /.../ Como é que era o treinamento? - Rafael: Tá. É:: era a moça, a/ a moça, a coordenadora mostrou pra gente o livro, deu pra gente um livro e a gente tinha que acompanhar as aulas que ela dava pra gente. Que, ou seja, passo a passo. No, no texto vocês fazem isso, repetem dessa forma, aqui vocês fazem essa pergunta, bem:: passo a passo mesmo, bem receita de bolo. E aí você:: fazia aquilo e acho que com três semanas/ dois dias já dando aula, os outros dois dias da semana a gente ia apresentar aulas pra ela. E aí nessa apresentação de aulas imagino eu ela:: ela observando ali se a gente tinha entendido bem a receita de bolo que ela passou pra gente, assim. Eu, na época, eu só me lembro que eu pensei assim: não vou ser cha/selecionado. E mesmo porque eu sou não muito de seguir receita de bolo, assim, não consigo, né:: eu sou bem mais interativo, eu pulo etapas, faço coisas, assim, que eu acho que funciona e enfim, da minha cabeça.”
• 42
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• 43
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Como, você podia descrever o treinamento? +++ O que é que era, exatamente? - Gabriela: Era uma professora, já experiente no curso, já devia estar trabalhando lá há uns sete anos, ela:: a priori, ela dava uma aula, né:: ela falou: gente, eu vou dar, eu vou pegar uma unidade do livro e vou falar pra vocês como seria mais ou menos uma aula. Ela ministrava a aula em si e:: ela ministrava a aula em si e depois falava com a gente: a aula é assim. Só que depois ela foi esmiuçando a metodologia: ah, como é que se faz um pré calentamiento, como é que se faz uma producción++ e/e as práticas que ela utilizava lembravam as práticas que eu estou vendo agora nesse curso de atualização. Ela::/ela deu uma ajuda:: /.../ - P: De como atuar no seu trabalho. Você recebeu ((algum tipo de manual de instruções))? -Gabriela: Ah, eu recebi do Beta. Era:: eram ideias, assim, gerais. Nada assim muito específico de metodologia. Você tem que agir assim, assim, assado. Bem receita de bolo. E ao longo do treinamento é que a professora foi falando essas técnicas que a gente trabalhou aqui, por exemplo. Foi técnica da pelota, técnica da estrella, foi assim.”
• 44
  Text in Portuguese: “Andreia: Eu fiz Esp 2, não me adaptei com o método; aí não, não quis fazer mais; fiz o Esp 7 depo::is por causa do ((nome do marido)), que já trabalhava lá; e aí fiz o Esp 7 porque, pra trabalhar lá, obrigatoriamente, no Alfa é uma coisa muito fechada, TEM que fazer o curso de lá; aí fiz o Esp 7, o Esp 2 e o curso pra professores. Depo::is, agora eu passo por processo seletivo nas outras unidades que seria uma:: entrevista falando na língua espanhola. Falando em espanhol.”
• 45
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Hum, entendi. Mas eles não exigem, como você disse, a graduação de espanhol... - Andreia: Não exige a graduação. E professores graduados são obrigados a fazer dois semestres de cursos para professores; que é um curso onde eles ensinam/ é/ que eles ensinam a dida::tica da metodologia, como usar, essas coisas todas.”
• 56
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Entendi. Então, é +++ Além/ e você pode dizer que esse curso foi um treinamento? - Andreia: É um treinamento. É como usar o equipamen::to e essas coisas toda, voltar::, adiantar::, repetir a imagem. É um treinamento.”
• 47
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Alguma/algum tipo de instrução: no seu trabalho você precisa chegar tal hora... - Andreia: Ah, sim! Essas coisas a gente recebe no curso. - P: Hum hum - Andreia: Chegar dez minutos antes da aula começar pra ligar todo o equipamento pra quando o aluno chegar já ta tudo ligado; o ar condicionado ligado também, porque essa coisa do ar é muito importante pra eles, eles dizem que tem que tá um ambiente limpo, arrumado, essas coisas todas. - P: Hum hum. - Andreia: Verificar se a sala se foi limpa.”
• 48
  Text in Portuguese: “P: Que mais que vocês fazem além de preparar aula, aprender a mexer... - Andreia: É, são dois períodos de Literatura+ Espanhola e Hispâ::nica porque o curso regular não trabalha com literatura e::: dois períodos de::: gramática também, mas uma gramática mais puxada porque no curso a gente:: é:: não fala que há um pretérito perfeito, a gente fala passado consumado. Então nesse curso pra professores vai falar pretérito perfeito, assim, os pretéritos compostos, dar os nomes++ reais++ o nome da gramática. /.../ Uma é didática, são dois períodos: didática 1 e didática 2. - P: Entendi. - Andreia: Literatura 1, Literatura 2 e Língua 1 e Língua 2. Eu só fiz o primeiro período++ entendeu? - P: Entendi. - Andreia: Que como eu já fazia faculdade e o método não é uma coisa difícil de aprender++ aí eu já fui como++ se tivesse terminado o curso por isso, porque as matérias que eu tive na fac/faculdade compensaram essa Língua e Literatura que eu:: tinha que fazer lá. - P: Entendi. E quanto, qual a carga horária desse curso? - Andreia: Eram duas horas+ cada crédito. Duas horas de língua, duas horas de Literatura e duas horas de Didática, semanais.”
• 49
  For reference, see footnote ⁵.
• 50
  For reference, see footnote ⁷.
• Translated by Ricardo Luiz Teixeira de Almeida - [e-mail]

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Jan-Apr 2018

History

• Received
  26 May 2017
• Accepted
  01 Nov 2017