The practice of orality in the classroom: the perspective of Portuguese-speaking teachers in the basic public education system

Abstract

The present work has as its theme the discursive domain of orality practice. Among the practices foreseen for Portuguese language teaching in Curricular Guidelines of the State of Paraná (2008), it is common for Portuguese-speaking teachers to consider orality as more informal and more error-prone than writing practice. In this work, based on Dolz and Schneuwly (2011) and Marcuschi (1997; 2010), the proposal is to reflect on the importance of orality as a discursive practice, and, above all, on its teaching in Portuguese language classes. The conception and the way the orality practice is considered in the classroom were analyzed through questionnaires applied to Portuguese language teachers in the basic teaching network. This corpus of analysis showed that the teaching-learning of orality as a discursive practice is late and little accomplished. The teachers demonstrated a superficial conception of orality and a work perspective that does not privilege the practice of oral production, since the written genres are indicated as the most worked in the classroom.