Public policies for English teaching, an overview of

Brazilian public network experience

Next year, 2020, English teaching^b will become compulsory in public schools in Brazil. The government has recognised that, if it wants to have a world class economy that can negotiate internationally, having a greater percentage of people who can operate in English is an essential requirement, not a luxury. A study carried out by Move Social exclusively for the British Council, the first comprehensive analysis of how Brazilian states are creating a basis for compulsory teaching and learning of English has been issued. The study is supplemented by analyses and reflections by professionals from the area of education and English language teaching, and also describes some inspirational practices. As was to be expected, the results show great variations in the states’ level of preparation, even though a considerable amount of work has been done in developing^d curricula to comply with the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) [Commom National Curricular Base]. There is also an important analysis of the positioning in state documents about a focus on traditional grammar versus essential communication skills for the 21st century listed in the BNCC.

According to the survey Demandas de Aprendizagem de Inglês no Brasil [Demand for English Learning in Brazil, British Council, 2013], only 5.1 per cent of the population aged 16 or more claim to have some knowledge of English. This claim, however, is more a question of perception and does not necessarily translate into actual knowledge of the language. Among the younger people, aged from 18 to 24 — who have completed or are about to complete their secondary education — the number claiming^a to speak English doubles to 10.3 per cent. Even so, this is a low percentage if we consider that most Brazilian students spend at least seven years studying English at school – more specifically, from the sixth grade of lower secondary education to the third grade of upper secondary education, for an average of two hours a week. There are also students who take English lessons at private language institutions or on courses offered before or after class by the public networks themselves. If we want to disrupt this conflicting^c situation and offer quality English teaching for all as part of the basic curriculum, we have to understand what it is during their time at school that determines whether or not they learn the language properly.

(Available at https://www.britishcouncil.org.br. Adapted.)

A aprendizagem significativa instaura novamente na escola uma condição fundamental de nossa busca de conhecimento. Essa condição é a do desejo, ou seja, do conhecimento como necessidade, algo que “falta ser”, que ainda não é nos termos pretendidos ou aceitos pelo sujeito. No contexto da competência relacional, isso é interessante porque o desejo instaura-se como busca e como complementaridade. A busca supõe a devoção daquele que deseja, isto é, trabalho, compromisso, responsabilidade. Complementaridade supõe sair dos limites de onde se encontra e incluir um outro todo como parte. Marías analisa essa questão no plano do jogo, como forma de ilusão. Ou seja, o que anima os adversários em um jogo é a mesma ilusão: vencer. Essa ilusão corresponde ao que se chama de “desejo com argumento”, ou seja, como falta traduzida em ações de busca, dirigidas por um objetivo ou finalidade, ações que são reguladas por essa meta a ser alcançada. Daí a dupla condição para competência relacional: desejo e devoção. Desejo como fim ou direção. Devoção como meio ou instrumento. Ou, como quer a sabedoria popular: “quem ama, cuida”.

Desejo e devoção são cognitivos e afetivos ao mesmo tempo. Cognitivos porque supõem uma formulação, uma pergunta, hipótese ou proposição. Porque supõem construção de recursos, tomadas de decisão, avaliação reguladora etc. Afetivos porque supõem um querer, supõem a atribuição de uma significação pessoal, no sentido de que algo ainda não é para um sujeito, mas “deve” ser.

A aprendizagem significativa supõe que se encontre “eco” no sujeito a quem é proposta. Daí sua vinculação com uma forma relacional de competência. A aprendizagem significativa é uma das condições defendidas por Piaget para um método pedagógico ser construtivo. Significativa porque expressa essa categoria da paixão: deixar-se, como sujeito a ser atravessado por um objeto; por isso, estar envolvido, interessado, ativo, em tudo o que corresponde a sua assimilação. Por isso, Piaget, ao menos com as crianças, era muito crítico ao que chamava de “verbalismo da sala de aula”. O verbalismo refere-se às exposições orais (explicações) para crianças sobre temas que as excluem por sua natureza formal, conceptual, adulta. A consequência disso, não raro, é a presença de crianças apáticas, desinteressadas, passivas, ou, então, agitadas, indisciplinadas e pouco cooperativas. As mesmas exposições com adultos podem ser positivas, pois esses possuem mais recursos cognitivos para relacionarem-se com essa forma de linguagem. Ou seja, um adulto, mesmo que só escutando, tem recursos de pensamento para manter um “diálogo” ativo (anota, faz associações, concorda etc.) com o assunto que está sendo exposto.

(Lino de Macedo. Competências e

Habilidades: Elementos para uma Reflexão Pedagógica. Disponível em: http://portal.inep.gov.br. Fragmento.)

Media and Education in the digital age

The idea that education is a fundamentally political process construes education as a process in which a number of participants compete for a variety of goals, depending on the nature of the issues at stake. A classical tradition in political science defines the core aspect of this process as a competition for control over the distribution of values in society. In this perspective, the study of politics is, in practice, the study of ‘who gets what, when and how’ (Lasswell, 1950). Seen as political process, the study of education is the study of who gets what, when and how in the competition for control over the future of society. This includes the study of the main cleavages, or the fault lines defined by relevant issues at the core of the competition between the main actors, the strategies, or the moves through which main actors try to gain political influence and the nature of the stake. While shared in political studies and also in critical contributions to the analysis of education (Youdell, 2011) this position seems nevertheless far from mainstream in much of the current discussion on media and education. For too many, education is a technical problem: one which has to do primarily with the effective management of available resources, with the identification and implementation of costefficient educational models, curricula and technologies.

(Available at: https://library.oapen.org. Adapted.)

Using Podcasts in World Language Classes

(Elena Spathis; September 03/2021.)

In a sense, language teachers act as tour guides as we lead our students through the unfamiliar territory that is a newlanguage. Over the course of this cultural and linguistic journey, we hope to witness them as they grow into culturally competent communicators. Therefore, we must ensure that they have ample opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the target language throughout the school year. Each year, my students consistently share that they find listening comprehension tasks to be the most difficult and nerve-racking. Without a doubt, listening to native speakers use the language at a fast pace can be daunting for language learners of all ages. To help build my students’ listening skills as well as their cultural awareness, I strive to expose them to a wide range of culturally rich songs, videos, and audio clips. Repeated practice improves their skills and builds their confidence.

With the rise in popularity of audiobooks and podcasts over the past few years, I suddenly thought to myself, why not integrate podcasts into my classes? Rather than repeatedly playing quick audio clips for my students, I felt that a podcast could tell a compelling story. This was likely to immediately engage them and hopefully could make listening to the target language a bit less overwhelming. I found myself exploring the award-winning Radio Ambulante by NPR, despite the fact that it was not a traditional language-learning podcast. Upon browsing the multitude of culturally focused podcasts on the site, I noticed that they aligned well with my units. Many of the episodes focused on immigration experiences, while others discussed environmental challenges or global issues. When using any podcast, I focus on designing pre-listening, while- -listening, and post-listening activities for students to complete. Here are some key steps for incorporating podcasts.

1. Preview the material. Prior to listening to the podcast, I present students with the title and theme of the episode and ask them to share what they know about the particular topic. I also have them make predictions in pairs as to what the podcast might address. This sets them up for success once they start listening.

2. Encourage active listening. While students listen to each podcast section, I provide them with cloze-style activities or a series of open-ended comprehension questions, students need to fill in the blanks with missing words; you can have them focus on verbs, nouns, adjectives, or a mix. I often have them participate in think-pair-share activities and ask them to share their responses with a partner. Sometimes I simply ask them to share what they’ve understood in the target language aloud.

3. Finish with reflection. Upon listening to the entirety of the podcast, I lead a whole-class discussion in which we collectively talk about the highlights and takeaways. While improving students’ listening skills is at the forefront, podcasts also allow for a wide range of speaking and writing tasks. If you are looking for podcast options take a look at an article in Afar magazine called “15 Best Podcasts to Help You Master a New Language”, which is broken down by proficiency level and language. Instead of treating listening comprehension as a drill, we can take a more creative and engaging approach by exploring world-language podcasts.

(Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-podcasts-worldlanguage- classes.)