Teaching portuguese as a foreign language in the city of Blumenau - SC and its connection with the speech therapy

ABSTRACT:

Purpose:

to know how the teaching of Portuguese for foreigners developed in the city of Blumenau - SC.

Methods:

the methodological approach was qualitative, and the instrument for collecting data was a semi structured interview with seven teachers in Blumenau-SC.

Results:

there is no concern regarding the duration of the class for Spanish speaking students. The level of fluency is associated with the level of prior knowledge of the language. Teachers expect their students to undergo immersion through the context of Portuguese usage. Despite using strategies to minimize the difficulties in teaching idioms, pronunciation, intonation, stress, writing, and conjugation of verbs, they have not yet been resolved.

Conclusion:

it was considered that the speech therapist can help with the performance of teachers of Portuguese, for foreigners with guidance that involves listening skills and pronunciation, among other more specific communication matters, pertaining to speech pathology, particularly in the area Educational Speech Therapist and the development of new learning materials.

KEYWORDS:
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Teaching; Learning; Language

RESUMO:

Objetivo:

conhecer como se desenvolve o ensino da Língua Portuguesa para estrangeiros no município de Blumenau - SC.

Métodos:

a abordagem metodológica utilizada foi a qualitativa, e o instrumento para a coleta de dados foi entrevista semiestruturada com sete professores em Blumenau - SC. A análise dos dados foi realizada por meio da Análise de Conteúdo.

Resultados:

não há uma preocupação em relação à duração da aula para alunos hispano falantes. O nível de fluência está associado ao nível de conhecimento prévio da língua. Os professores buscam submeter seus alunos ao contexto de imersão do uso do português. Apesar de utilizarem estratégias para minimizarem as dificuldades no ensino de expressões idiomáticas, pronúncia, entonação, acentuação, escrita e conjugação de verbos, elas ainda não foram solucionadas.

Conclusão:

considerou-se que o fonoaudiólogo pode contribuir com a atuação dos professores de português, na modalidade de língua estrangeira, com orientações que envolvem habilidades auditivas e pronúncia, entre outras questões mais específicas de comunicação, pertinentes à Fonoaudiologia, em especial à Fonoaudiologia Educacional, bem como na elaboração de novos materiais didáticos.

DESCRITORES:
Fonoaudiologia; Ensino; Aprendizagem; Linguagem

Introduction

Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL), began in the 50s in the US military, through SPOL courses (Spoken Portuguese), which had an Italian-american¹ exchange.

Regarding the history of language teaching methodology in general - i.e. neither as a second language, nor the Portuguese in particular - it is known that starts in Classic Period through the Grammar-Translation Method. It had its continuity with the Audio-Lingual Method, which contributed to the onset of Chomsky's Universal Grammar theory (1965) - due to the restricted focus on language structure - and moving through the study of Labov (1978), opposite the viewpoint of the social aspect of language, to reach the model of Chomsky's Generative-Transformational Grammar, which was criticized by Hymes (1979), although conceiving linguistic competence and linguistic performance, excluding the social and cultural aspects that should be encompassed in the formulation of Language proficiency. This criticism has collaborated with a view of the teaching language learning similar to the philosophy to the work of pragmatics. Therefore, from the twentieth century, the methodological perspective negates the exclusive concern of the structure and becomes more focused with the language acquisition for communication purposes in the communicative proposal².

As a result of these language teaching proposals, the way of teaching also suffered modifications, and this involved the learners themselves, who also participated in these changes. Chronologically, the movement of language teaching, in the view of learners, started in the 50s, with the mimic movement that reflected the repetitive emissions of the teacher's linguistic behavior. Following in the 60s, the cognitive movement went on to consider the learner's thinking; in the 70s, the affective and social movement conceived motivation as a major contributor; in the 80s, the strategic move of the learner recognized the student as having different learning styles and autonomous strategies; and in 90s, the political movement gave the learner the political dimension and thus comes to understand language as a power tool³.

For the student to take ownership of Portuguese as a second language (PL2), a number of obstacles have been encountered by teachers: lack of support⁴ material, lack of curriculum tailored for the foreign students' needs⁴, social-cultural issues ^4)-(6, pronunciation⁷, syntactic and phonological variants that have specific attributes⁸, phonetics⁹ intonation variation¹⁰ and idiomatic expressions^8),(11.

As facing this bibliographic survey, it is possible to notice that there is strong influence of linguistic areas, languages, educational psychology and psychology on teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language, while Speech Therapy bibliography is limited to the study of the phonological aspects related to the children's population^12),(13 and the scarce studies that discuss preliminarily relationship between auditory processing and the learning of a second language¹⁴.

In addition to the clinical work on bilingualism, it is possible to consider that the speech therapist can act together, with teachers of Portuguese as a second language in educational speech therapy.

In the educational speech therapy area, this professional has an important role in consultancy actions¹⁵, which stands out: providing theoretical and technical support to the teacher, assisting him/her in developing its educational work. Associated with this factor, it emphasizes the role of the speech therapist as a professional that operates both in oral communication and in writing, involving not only the language but also the use of a language. In the same literature, produced by the Regional Council of Speech Therapy - 2nd region, discussions demonstrate the role of the speech therapist which contribute to elucidate the role of this professional together with the teacher of Portuguese as a second language - although not explicitly. The speech therapist also "deals with issues of communication and language in order to assist and guide procedures and conducts in order to remove communication barriers and architectural (universal design, implementation symbols in everyday school life and other visual signs etc.). The speech therapist is able to offer technical assistance for the effective opening other channels of communication in school and hence improve their acceptance in society "¹².

Given the above, and considering the possibility of interface between teaching Portuguese as a second language and the Speech Therapy, the aim of this study is to understand how to develop the teaching of Portuguese for foreigners in the city of Blumenau - SC.

Methods

This qualitative research approach was held with seven teachers who teach Portuguese lessons for foreigners in the language schools of Blumenau-SC, specified through the legal document 280,452/2013 from the Committee on Ethics in Research from UNIVALI, the signing of the instrument of consent of the institution by the language schools linked to the population of this study and the signing of informed consent on the part of the participating teachers.

It is noteworthy that, in Blumenau, at the time of the data collection, there were four language schools that Portuguese was taught as a foreign language. In addition, it has been identified a teacher who teaches, in her residence, Portuguese as a second language. Altogether there would be eight teachers who would participate in the research. However, as the exclusion criterion was the no-acceptance of the teacher's invitation, participated in the survey only seven teachers, featuring a convenience sampling.

The data collection was carried out, individually, a semi-structured interview with each participant. This type of interview was chosen by allowing to add, during the conversation, questions that were not provided, thus enabling a better understanding of the initial research questioning¹⁶, which will facilitate the qualitative analysis.

The duration of the interviews, which were recorded on a digital tape-recorder brand Sony ICD-PX312 model and subsequently fully transcribed, complying with the linguistic variant used by the teacher, ranged from 13 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Data analysis was performed through Content Analysis. This type of analysis is intended to consider what is written and what can be inferred, supporting the qualitative proposal¹⁷. From this perspective, the analysis categories were constructed from the data - and not previously - and therefore they were listed: 1- Teaching method, 2- Learning and 3- Language characteristics associated with teaching and learning.

In presenting the results, for the differentiation of the seven participating teachers in the research, the letter "P" was used followed by a number. The letter "F" was used to denote the female and "M", the male. Speech clippings are written in italics. The students' names, as mentioned by the interviewees have been changed, respecting the nationality of the student.

Following the relationship of the identified teachers regarding gender, age, education, mother tongues of their foreign students and the experience with foreign students:

P1 - F, 25 years; Degree in Languages (Portuguese and English); mother tongue: Spanish; experience with only one student in 10 lessons.

P2 - F, 23 years; In progress, Incomplete University Degree in International Relations; mother tongue: Hindi (Hindi is an Indo-Aryan, a direct descendant of Sanskrit); experience with just a foreign couple of foreign in 10 lessons.

P3 - F, 31 years; Degree in Psychology, MBA in human resource management; native languages: US English and English of England; experience with two foreigners.

P4 - F, 43 years; Degree in Languages (German), Specialization Diploma in Educational Psychology; native languages: English and German; experience with several foreigners. Note: This teacher teaches foreigners who stay in her home as a result of a partnership with an exchange program.

P5 - F, 57 years; Degree in Languages, Master's Degree in English and Portuguese Literature; mother tongues: German and Swedish; experience with several foreigners.

P6 - M, 58 years; Training: Degree in Engineering; native languages: Danish, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Hindi and Dutch; experience with several foreigners.

P7 - M, 31 years; Degree in Languages, three Specialization Diplomas (Higher Education Methodology, Portuguese Methodology and Foreign Language and Literacy / Literacy) and doing his master's degree at Federal University of Santa Catarina; mother tongues: English and Japanese; experience with PFL in the United States and Brazil.

Regarding the students, it was observed that the predominant age group of adolescents (16 years old) to adults (26 years), who had recently joined the labor market. With regard to gender, there is a higher incidence of males. In respect to reason for learning Portuguese as a foreign language, the professional reason was the most stated.

Results

1. Teaching Method

Method applies on how to proceed in a certain action, while teaching refers to the transmission of knowledge. Therefore, it can be concluded that the teaching method is the medium used to transmit knowledge. Thus, the results of the interviews in this category elucidate the teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language in relation to the length of time, the systematicity and dynamic of the classes, the organization, the materials used, as well as the tasks to be performed by students from the guidance of teachers, since it was understood that this set of features is the teaching method.

Duration of lesson varied from twice a week, one hour a day, to twenty hours-week.

"(...) they are twice a week, every hour, and each lesson lasts one hour, as I say, it depends on the need. (...)". - P3

"(...) the Japanese student, the company pays for it; he has twenty hours a week lesson". - P7

As well as P3, other teachers made some considerations and reflected on the duration of class:

"Usually two hours everyone goes well; but then two and half hours, not everyone can withstand. Who has a little more difficult to learn, after two hours to stops producing". - P4

"People who speak with great influence of Latin language, we usually without much care, give classes up to two hours. People who use a language without ... with very little or no influence of Latin, such as Chinese, or Japanese, or Russian, we try to make the classes shorter because they get tired very quickly". - P6

The prior knowledge of the Portuguese, the proximity of the mother tongues of the learners and the students' cultural characteristics were considered by the interviewed as the analysis points to the groups' formation and classes' organization.

"Some individually, others in groups (...) always respecting the prior level of knowledge of the Portuguese language, or not. (...) the individual, in this case, for example, a few semesters we had Spanish speakers and one of them was Swedish. I would not put a Swedish together with Spanish speakers to learn the Portuguese language!". - P5

"(...) often when we have, in a group, Westerns mixed with Easterns the most difficulty was to do, to reconcile these interests because the Easterns ... Westernrs are much more dispersed and Westerns [wanted to refer to Easterns] are much more focused". - P6

"(...) it is individual because it depends on how many people there are at home, who arrived first. I do not mix levels (...) in recent years I've always had a lot of people at the same time, like eight people, then I had to sort out who had experience, who had knowledge of the language and who had not. Then it turned out two groups of four". - P4

And P6 discusses about the dynamics of their classes, supporting himself on the communicative approach:

"Normally, as we work following the philosophy of the communicative approach, we have a lot of work "Pair Work "and lots of group work as well". - P6

P7 also demonstrated to apply the communicative approach, seeking to insert his Japanese student in the language use context:

"Japanese is [long] as he joined me at a "Festa Junina", it was on a Saturday, so it's [long], I told him that I would not like his host family would bring. I wanted him to get on a bus and come here to my home. And I said this is my phone number, if you get lost, you call me".

The materials also involve the class dynamics: there are those who use the material base due to the language school rules, and those who use other tools for teaching.

"It was just the CD that reported what was on the book. The CD only repeated what was in the book (...). Oh, like, it had some songs, you know? Kind of "Cai, cai balão", you know, some things like that, it was, let's say, cultural". - P2

"(...) lyrics, advertisements, commercial videos, and I also use these comedies the student gets very interested in; I realized he's motivated and he does his best to get the joke". - P7

P4 revealed that, in his experience, his students do not always understand the songs at first:

"Songs often, they do not understand, at first, right? Oh, he does not understand.

Some report on a wide variety of materials that contribute to language teaching.

"(...) we use a lot that is from local culture. We also use sweet recipes, of brigadeiros ... ah, TV advertising, advertising, film clips with subtitles in Portuguese at the beginning". - P5

And this teacher explains why this material is diverse:

"The biggest difficulty, I would say, is that we don´t have good quality teaching materials. The teacher must create a lot of things (...) and the contact with the Portuguese language is very poor out there and they have a Portuguese of Portugal, right? And all those "shuas" those sibilants s's that we don't have here in the region".

P3 agrees with P5 regarding the lack of material, and also adds the obstacle of "time":

"I think the biggest difficulty; the biggest obstacle is time, right? And materials for the preparation of these classes for the foreigners". - P3

The tasks, which in turn, are used by some for setting the class content and, for others, for contextualization of PFL teaching:

"(...) I always ask them to sing songs they have in class to practice the pronunciation, to practice rhythm, to practice, to learn vocabulary and to work with the very vocal structure, you know? (...) It is sometimes ... when the book has a lot of grammar activities and if it is not done in the classroom, in order for the student to have contact with the language he is studying, he did the grammar activities at home". - P7

"(...) now in a book that I used last, there, there was something talking about is ... country music, ball cheese bread and whatever, and then I asked them to listen to the country song on youtube, right ? But they are usually written or conversation". - P4

"Sometimes they bring a recipe and present what they will make. Sometimes they bring ... they will talk about the family, then, they show photographs. They show their family tree and then speak about their origin, where they lived, what they did when they were children, what they liked to play, average things. This sort of thing also happens. Sometimes it's about the company, about ... strategies, on how the company is positioned, is, as the company develops strategies, researches, things like that too". - P6

It stands out, in this category, the speech of an interviewee on a deadlock that permeates the teaching of Portuguese for foreigners: not having the knowledge of the mother tongue of their students, even if they are languages of the same origin.

"The obstacle was that I did not master her foreign language. Her mother tongue, by the way, that is Spanish. So I had things she asked and I could not explain why I was not able to give an answer, all of a sudden, on her the corresponding language". - P1

The next moment, the teacher referred to strategies that he performed in order to minimize their difficulties in the teaching process:

"(...) sometimes I had to ask to the Spanish teacher, or so, I picked up the Spanish dictionary and took it to the living room. Then he sought to show, "oh, in your language this is so". Then she looked and said, "Oh, I see"." - P1

2. Learning

Learning is to be aware of something that is, discovering something new. Learning regards factors that interfere with the acquisition of this new knowledge. In this survey, interviewees revealed factors that interfere in learning: prior knowledge of Portuguese language, the goal learn the language, the interest and the type of student.

Regarding the first factor, prior knowledge, which results in some exposure / previous experience of Portuguese, there was a consensus in the discourse of teachers who reported that for students who have had some contact with Portuguese; it is easier to learn Portuguese:

"(...) a German and an Austrian. They came here with great ease. They had a good command of the language". - P6

"Oh, they learn, they learn more, right? They go further because, usually, they already have that baseline and then they can walk faster, go faster". - P4

With regard to the second factor, interviewees reported that the vast majority learn Portuguese for professional reasons, and the minority, for personal ones.

"(...) They usually come to ... learn to speak and understand, precisely because they need for volunteer work, right? Their goal is usually not the language, it is the volunteer work". - P4

"Two of my students, they were Brazilian and wanted to learn to speak Portuguese with the family in Brazil. It is both Mexicans they wanted to learn Portuguese because of the World Cup. (...) Abby, I want to come and study in Brazil and Carl also would like to do a master's degree in Brazil". - P7

Although the goals may be different, the interest in learning focus tends to be the same: conversation.

"(...) I think the main goal was to speak". - P2

"Usually the focus is on conversation". - P6

There was also a report of differentiation of approaches in learning, according to nationalities:

"(...) the Germans are generally very focused on the grammar. While the Swedish want more oral communication, this verbal communication". - P5

As for the interest, the teachers also reported that learning depends on the willingness and dedication of the student.

"(...) it largely depends on the student being exposed to the language, even among Spanish speakers; they do not always become fluent". - P5

"Because, for this not only classes are worth it, right? One has to do the homework and has to talk. Some people, the last boy that came here, he was very, very, very shy. He spoke to no one, and then I cannot do much for him. And then he did not learn anything, really". - P4

"The hardest thing was that they did not come to class. They missed a lot and ... I believe there is a lack of commitment at home as well, you know". - P2

However, P4 highlights that the greatest difficulty for their learning goes through the insertion in the social context and they blame the Brazilians for not knowing how to communicate with a foreigner:

"(...) when Brazilian people, right? Or speak too fast or too low, or an accent slightly different tool, right? Because the Brazilian have to know the people, right? Human beings have to learn to talk to foreigner as well". - P4

In relation to the type of student, there are two groups: women who accompanied their husbands as a result of the job transfer and exchange students and / or professionals

"(...) her husband works for a company that is transferred every once and again, right? Then she came accompanying him and she wanted to learn Portuguese because she is taking a course to pass her time". - P1

"It was an Indian couple. It is her husband ... "he was" on a job and then the wife "was" accompanying him, right? (...)". - P2

"Hm, 95% of exchange students and I think I had a manager only, so if I'm not mistaken, 99%". - P4

3. Peculiarities of language associated with the teaching-learning

A language has its own characteristics that involve since the cultural traits of a group of people until the roots of their own language. Therefore, idioms expressions, pronunciation, intonation and accent, language writing, and its own verb conjugation have become important elements in the context of this research.

Regarding to idioms, which are those that, when translated literally, do not express the real meaning of the speech, P5 revealed:

"(...) we had an American student ... the first week he arrived he said:" (...) one of the things that I really like in Brazil is that people are very optimistic. They always call each other beautiful. "I said, "Yeah? I never noticed it. " "You can see, when they greet each other they always say, he told me in English, as you are beautiful". I said, "Really?" (...) I said, I must be very out of dated. Students come and say, and then, beautiful? And they thought that beauty was like, "you are a beauty!", "How beautiful you are!"

P6 shown interest in the teaching of idioms:

"(...) most of the time the terms, they don't even notice. So we're anticipating the process because we say: (...) "Look, for example, it is likely that you hear in a meeting or a conversation the term" ASPONE "hun? And "ASPONE" mean, hun? ... "Oh, yes I've heard" [teacher tells the students' report]. Hun?"

This same teacher revealed how he does to explain some idioms:

"What we try to do in this direction is to seek the historical reasons that brought that expression, right?"

P3 brought a distinct speech, revealing that his students had no difficulties with the idioms; they had an interest in learning them:

"(...) the issue of expressions, they sometimes bring them. Like, I was learning, like ... ... there is a word they said: "The teacher, but I heard it". Then I say, "Ah ... but this we use like that". I always used kind, beautiful. Beautiful is beautiful, but if I say "boniiiiito" (prolonging the word) like, it may be that the person did something bad. (...) It was a part they liked a lot because it is actually much used by people (...)".

The pronunciation was revealed as one of the most common difficulties in learning PFL:

"They have difficulty with the" A - O - til "(referring to the syllable" will "), the nasal sound. Hm ... have difficulty with the "lh" that for them, they also separate the "l" of "h", right? And the "nh" as well. (...) The "x" when you have sound "z" type examination, or that sound "ics", right? There some who get it". - P4

"(...) The German has the" r "very" glottal "very strong," r "very from the throat. So he has this serious problem with "r"". - P5

"We see that Russian learns to pronounce Portuguese easily. Spanish, Spanish-speaking students have a great difficulty with the vowels because the their vowels are more limited. (...) English language speakers also have a hard time, but ... this difficulty is not too sharp. French-speaking ones have tremendous difficulty. It is very difficult for them to pronounce the "r". It is also very difficult for them to pronounce the "nh", the "Nha". (...) The Chinese and Japanese also have a hard to time pronouncing the "r"". - P6

Some teachers exposed techniques used to minimize these difficulties:

"(...) I tried to demonstrate myself, and ask them to repeat, trying to demonstrate the difference, for example, queue and daughter. They could perceive it. (...) Then ... in the grandfather, close your mouth, makes the lips touch. Grandmother opens the mouth. Then after they began to realize the mouth movements and managed to make the pronunciation, but they could not make the lh sound, both the Japanese and Americans". - P7

"We show, here we have to do the same visual exercises. To show where we put the tongue, where we ... what we try to do with the throat because they have a hard to pronounce it". - P6

The latter teacher confessed that even using these strategies, it is common these difficulties to persist:

"It's difficult. It's difficult. It is difficult also because I believe they've already conditioned their hearing skills for certain sounds. So it's very difficult for them to realize what that their hearing is not conditioned."

Teachers also recognized the difficulty in stress:

"Accent, they had, but they always have trouble, right? Portuguese is complicated even for a foreigner because ... because ... it is different from the mother tongue, so that's it". - P2

In this regard, some teachers declared what they do to lessen this difficulty:

"I always kind of worked like this, like " powder "," coffee? It is a sound much more kind of open. The little hat, right? It is a more closed type "grandfather" then a little sound, then the sound that comes through, you know? And it is this feeling that I was explaining to them, right? The "apple" I always gave a stretch on the vowel, thinking that he'll make the turn". - P3

"(...) if you write the word like this. It can mean several things, but if you put this stress ... it means just that; if you put this other accent, just that. An example is grandfather and grandmother". - P7

With regard to the intonation, it was realized that there were two strands of answers: those who believe that there is no change of intonation and those who believe that students use the intonation from their native language:

"Look, they do not have much trouble with intonation". - P4

"(...) the Japanese, for example, they do not have this high voice you have when you will ask a question, right? (...) Yeah, yeah, they are more monotone". - P5

The P3 revealed something different that observed in their classes:

"The question when they learned the denial. Then too, the "no" was very, like, "no". And I said, "No, not like this, right?" Like, "I do not want" (emphasizing not). No, calm down! (...) You end up being kind of rude sometimes to people (...)".

From there, she taught that:

"(...) the words are neither in port ... that not even in English, they can be the same words, but if you change the tone or context is different, the meaning to people is different, huh?"

The P6 alerted that, often, the use of intonation in questioning in assertive phrases is due to doubt whether the syntactic context is appropriate:

"(...) we realize that he spoke with question intonation (...) because he wants us to confirm that he's pronouncing properly or not [laughs]".

The features of Portuguese, when compared with those of other languages, they also carry impasses in the teaching of Portuguese writing. P4 reported that:

"What makes the difference is in German, for example, and this problem I think the Americans did not have, it is, for example, "Saturday" and "shoe"for them sounds exactly the same, because of the / p / and / b /, the / t / and / d /".

A strategy used by P7 to let his students more secure during the writing task was:

"(...) I tried to show them that many words from the Spanish language is similar to Portuguese and [long], not only words like grammatical structure, for example, and [long] I showed for the American students who had English as a first language that much of vocabulary and [long] in English is similar to and the Portuguese as well".

The verbs also have problems:

"The difficulty emerges in the writing between, I don't know, sometimes in conjugating a verb or the spelling (...)". - P4

The participant added that his greatest difficulty, in face of his tasks, was the conjugation of the verbs:

"(...) I think it is hard to explain in a way that they understand 100% the two pasts. Both the perfect and the imperfect (...)". - P4

Given this difficulty, she reported what they do to help their students:

"(...) I speak: one is finished and the other is longer, but here comes an example, an exception and ... it's the same way it is difficult to illustrate so it is hard for them to understand why the German doesn't have it , huh? The gerund is also a thing they do not have German, but then I can use English because almost everyone speaks English. (...)".

Discussion

In the research results, it was found that there is a concern about the duration of class for the Spanish speaking students, but teachers believe not being feasible a group formation where there are students who use the Latin language and students who do not have it or do not have contact with it. Participants realize through their experiences, the speakers of Latin languages have an easier time acquiring Portuguese. Therefore, they recognize that cultural and linguistic differences can interfere with the learning process.

One must underline that prior knowledge of the Portuguese in their country of origin - or others who use Portuguese - it is also used as a criterion for group training, as one of the teachers argues that a student who has been exposed to Portuguese previously it may be easier or even harder, for example, in Portugal, due to the sibilants "s".

Overall, the speech of teachers revealed that they intend to submit their students as much as possible into the immersion context in the use of Portuguese. This assertion can be seen in the speeches of teachers when they bring reports on the different material they use with their students, and tasks proposals. However, it is clearer on the teacher's testimony, the one who requested that his student caught a bus so that they both could go together to a festa junina.

Given the above, we note that there is a preference in the use of communicative methodology now being held around 1979². The referred author understands that language encompasses the structural aspects of language, socio-cultural practices and the emotional and psychological state of the subject. That is, the author understands the subject, to use the language, it is perceived as a superior entity or less than your interlocutor. This perception of upper and lower body involves economic, social and power, as the individual adapts the pragmatic and semantic aspects for each situation and position that it occupies in the speech with a particular interlocutor. This perspective characterizes his concept of communicative competence. Through this, it can be determined that a person is competent in a language when the pragmatic and semantic aspects are in line with the situation. Therefore, language competence is conceived as an instrument of power

When it comes to learning materials, participants are not limited to the book and demonstrate that there is a lack of quality material for this type of education. An example is the pronunciation teaching through mechanically activities, not communicative, as it has been found in many textbooks nowadays¹⁸.

The findings of a study on three surveys that emphasized the difficulty of learning of older language students, namely those who have passed the appropriate learning age- the three years until puberty - they will meet this survey, since it was realized that many are the variables that interfere with learning. Namely: quantity and quality of incoming stimuli; usage, necessity, motivation and similarity between the mother tongue and language learned and learning style¹⁹. Thus, the need, as part of that research, would be associated with the objective factor and motivation, the level of interest.

However, in the context of this research, the results indicate another issue: the language fluency level is associated with the level of prior knowledge of the language of the students and not to their interest and learning objectives.

It must be emphasized, however, that this study is innovative, since it brought reports of difficulties encountered by participants during the teaching process as well as the way they were willing to solve them. It can be observed that the greatest difficulties are associated with the characteristics of the language (idioms, pronunciation, intonation and stress). Among the teachers' techniques to diminish their difficulties, it stood out: the search for historical reason of a particular idiom; demonstration of articulation and repetition to improve pronunciation; minimum oppositions to contribute to the aspect of stress and intonation.

The participants concerns to pursue solving such difficulties are justified by the literature that addresses the issue of pronunciation in the second language learning, as seen in the introduction. The pronunciation of sounds and prosodic aspects as accent, rhythm and intonation of the new language, while similar to the mother tongue of the learner, they can be produced with shifts¹². Hence, if there is no auditory discrimination between the phonemes of the new language, this production will tend to occur with shifts, which may cause a speech with a different meaning to what it was meant to be produced.

A study showed that a group of students undergoing phonetic lessons in English language - previously to the English course - obtained better results in auditory processing as compared to those who had only English classes²⁰.

Auditory processing involves the capacity of perception, identification, location, attention, analysis, storage and retrieval of auditory information. Furthermore, it involves the use of prior knowledge, contributing to the understanding of integrated auditory information to other stimuli sensoriais¹⁴.

In the study, which aimed to relate auditory processing and perception of English learners as L2 - second language - on the own learning, there was the following: students who had speech therapy evaluations and auditory processing altered did not realize their difficulties in the learning of L2¹⁴.

Within this research, the lack of awareness from the pupils was reported by teachers showing that, even using diverse strategies to minimize the difficulties of their students, they have not yet been settled.

Following these strategies grouped, considering the prospect of learning and teaching. In regard to the difficulties in the learning perspective, it is possible to observe the accountability that teachers incorporate to the student's figure, such as absences from classes and lyrics misunderstandings. Already in the difficulties related to the teaching perspective, the teacher transfers the trouble himself i.e., he recognizes that in some aspect there are limitations, among which stand out the class duration and the material, as well as the lack of knowledge of maternal student's mother tongue and the complexity of grammar explanation.

Conclusion

Through this study which aimed at understanding the teaching of Portuguese for foreigners in the city of Blumenau - SC, it was possible to find out that the Portuguese teachers in L2 mode feel some difficulties, especially in the context of the language features, compared to this teaching process. Despite these difficulties, the speeches of this faculty research suggested that they seek to consolidate this type of education in many different ways, trying to focus on immersion in the Brazilian culture

Given the results, it can be inferred that Speech Therapy is able to help with the teaching when it comes to communication and its barriers and also to promote a better acceptance of foreigners in society, through assessing the demands of each teacher, either through discriminatory auditory techniques for better differentiate between the phonemes of the new language and in their mother tongue - contributing to the perception and correct production of phonetic and phonological aspects - be more with specific issues relevant to the communication field of speech therapy, involving, even the prospect of language as being an instrument of power. The results of this study lead the researchers to consider the importance of the interface between degree courses of Letter and Speech Therapy. This type of interface has already had a history between Pedagogy and Speech Therapy.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Nov-Dec 2015

History

• Received
  19 Dec 2014
• Accepted
  09 Sept 2015