O papel da gestualidade na educação infantil em aulas de língua inglesa

Abstract

The growth in the number of schools in the last three years that have been implementing the bilingual curriculum is gradually increasing. The choice for teaching the English language as a target language in bilingual programs is given by the understanding that the English language has become a lingua franca, that is, a language which is chosen as a way to unite different peoples in order to have a better understanding. However, when we observe how the acquisition of a new language occurs, it is possible to realize that, linked to speech, gestures play a fundamental role in understanding the message transmitted as a whole. Thus, this research aimed to analyze how gestures facilitate the process of acquisition of the second language. It is also important to list that the specific objectives brought on the agenda were to observe the patterns of interaction between teacher and students focusing on gestures; to highlight the role of gestures in the virtual classroom; and finally observe which gestures had greater preponderance in the recordings used. The classes analyzed in this research were provided by a private school, located in the city of Paulista, Metropolitan Region of Recife. The chosen team was the Infantil III, and some classes of the fourth bimester were selected to be analyzed here. Thus, classes of 12/11/2020, 13/11/2020, 10/12/2020, 11/12/2020 and 04/01/2021 were elected, in view of a spacing of almost one month difference. In order to empower this research, the writings of Vygotsky (1978; 2002; 2009) were used, in which they discuss that language is given through social interactions. Regarding bilingualism and bilingual education the discussion of Bialystok (2003), Grosjean (2008), Krashen (1978; 1981; 1985) were also brought up. To be able to discern the difference between bilingual schools, schools with bilingual project and international schools, it was brought about by the research of Carvalho, Coutinho and Oliveira (2018). Finally, about multimodality and gestures, the studies of McNeill and Kendon (1985), Kendon (1982), McNeill (1985; 1992; 2000; 2002) and Fonte e Cavalcante (2016) were led. Tomasello (2019) was also discussed here when talking about the scenes of joint attention. During the course of the analysis of the classes, it was aimed to discuss the role of gestures in the teacher’s speeches. After the analysis, it was identified that the gestures that showed the highest frequency in speech were the deictic gestures of McNeill (1985; 1992; 2000; 2002), despite all the context of social isolation lived in the period of analysis of the material, it was possible to observe an acquisition of the English language by the students so that they could assimilate and reproduce the vocabularies worked during the classes. Thus, it is expected that this research can open a little more doors for analysis and insertion of gestures in the practice of second language teachers and that more research should be carried out in this field within the Brazilian context.