Exame internacional para professores de inglês : uma análise na perspectiva sócio-interacionista

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

The introduction of the Teaching Knowledge Test exam (TKT) in Brazil in 2004 raised again the controversial issue of the need or not of having a special exam to certify the English teachers knowledge in our country, as the exam was considered by some as an option for that purpose. Bearing that in mind, the general aim of this research was to verify to what extent an international exam, made according to an international assessment standard for teachers of English as a foreign language, can be used as an instrument to assess the knowledge needed by teachers working in the Brazilian context. To achieve that aim, I compared a TKT sample exam taken from its promotional booklet with the competences considered essential by the National Brazilian Directives for the Letras" Courses - Part 2 in Section 2, and by the National Brazilian Directives for the Education of Basic Education Teachers - Article 6th, as those are the official documents that guide the education of future (English) teachers in Brazil. To develop this study, I used the theoretical constructs from the Socio-discursive Interactionism, concepts from the area of assessment, reflections on the term competence" and its terminological diversity, and notions about professional genre. The research methodology used the procedures of linguistic-discursive analysis proposed by Bronckart and Machado (2004), which provided data for the better understanding of the texts, for the interpretation of the kinds of action (BRONCKART; MACHADO, 2004; BULEA; FRISTALON, 2004) intended by the texts and of the dimensions of teacher s education and work (PLACCO, 2006) the texts focus on. The comparative analysis between the TKT and the parts of the Directives showed that (1) all the texts intend to conduct their recipients to a canonical action, as they refer to a discursive world which is far from the recipients realities, and to the prescribed acting, as they determine how the recipient should act in the education of the students and when taking the exam; (2) the TKT covers three out of the four dimensions identified in Part 2 in Section 2 of the Directives for the Letras Courses, and only one out of the three dimensions identified in Article 6th of the Directives for the Teachers Education. This study showed that, even when there is coincidence between the dimensions of the TKT and of the Directives, this does not mean the documents focus on the same aspects inside those dimensions. Therefore, due to the fact that the TKT covers only partially the dimensions presented by the Brazilian official documents, I conclude that there is no sufficient alignment between the TKT and the Brazilian official Directives to consider that exam appropriate to assess the Brazilian (future) English teacher s knowledge about teaching.

ASSUNTO(S)

língua inglesa - estudo e ensino professores de inglês - formação english teacher english language - study and teaching

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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