Atividades interculturais em ensino de línguas: uma contribuição para a compreensão de inglês como língua franca

Resumo

Currently, English has acquired the status of Lingua Franca enabling world communication (CRYSTAL, 2003; SEIDLHOLFER, 2011). However, in the context of English language teaching (ELT), it is necessary to develop the idea of what the concept of ELF may contribute to students’ awareness and development. This is even more relevant when we talk about pre service teachers who are in the process of learning important abilities for teaching English in a globalized context (SEIDLHOFER, 2011; SIQUEIRA, 2008; CRYSTAL, 2003; ORTIZ, 2003). One of English as a Lingua Franca’s (ELF) characteristics is that it considers the nature of interculturality allowed by language (SIQUEIRA, 2008). The objective of this paper is to observe how students may understand the concept of ELF through the development of activities that promote intercultural discussions in an EFL tertiary context in Alagoinhas, Bahia, Brazil. The main question to investigate is in what ways a proposal of activities which consider intercultural aspects can contribute to understand the concept of ELF and therefore help in the education of English’s future teachers in the country. In order to develop the research, some activities which consider intercultural aspects of texts are proposed to the teachers-to-be who will take part in the research, and some observations and discussions are performed before, during and after the classes. The analysis is developed by considering an intercultural dialogue based on the view of: a) language and culture as places of interaction (KRAMSCH, 1998; MENDES, 2008); b) focus on the language meanings produced and on the access to new possibilities of representation (KRAMSCH, 1993); c) selection and production of materials with authentic contents and cultural meanings (MENDES, 2008) which is possible through the understanding of ELF (SEIDLHOFER, 2011).