Cognitive strategies in the linguistic production in English

Abstract

The linguistic production in a foreign language in academic contexts can be a difficult activity for learners due to some external and internal factors, like psychological factors; that may cause interference in the linguistic production (GOMES, 2018). Considering these factors, it is possible to use cognitive strategies to help to deal with difficulties in the oral and written production (OXFORD, 1990). In this context, this study tries to identify and describe the psychological factors that interfere the oral and written production of the freshman students in the course of Letters and map the cognitive strategies used to deal with the difficulties in the mentioned context. To carry out this research, a questionnaire was applied to ten freshman students of Letters – English Language at UFCG. After analyzing the results, it was possible to identify that anxiety, fear, pressure, shyness, tension, nervousness, and lack of motivation were the factors mentioned as obstacles in the linguistic production in academic activities. As a result, to deal with those factors, the strategies of practicing, repetition, annotation, reading and listening to contents in the foreign language worked as facilitators in this process. Finally, using the mentioned strategies can help to deal with psychological factors that block the oral and written production.