Interculturality and the English Language as lingua franca in Brazil

  Interculturality and the English Language as lingua franca in Brazil

 Augusto Neves, 2024

 Interculturality means, according to Cambridge Dictionary, “a set of relationships and ways of behaving that develop in groups whose members come from different cultures…”. A language it’s a cultural good, in our case English as a lingua franca can also be considered as transferring our roots, in general a language isn’t pure but rather a mix of other languages as well, that’s why when studying another language we can realise familiarities especially if you speak a language with european roots duo the imperialism and colonialism through the history.

 

 So, in the case of English as a lingua franca your accent it’s welcome. In a global scenario in Brazil there is the presence of English, as a fruit of globalisation some languages may be born or be modified, think about those words: download, likes, wifi, hot dog, fake news and internet. Those are English words, even though there are loads of traditionalists out there who claim that a language has to be pure, Raja a linguistic has stated somewhere that this is kind of impossible that the language it's pure, specially in the case of european languages based and it’s something that we can avoid. Besides, in my opinion, it shouldn't be avoided. Language is alive.

 In the USA pants means trousers in the UK, in Brazil pen drive means a flash card and notebook means laptop. This is an example of interculturality, it means that there a varieties of the English language in each country that why sometimes a communication with a foreigner tend to be hard because the varieties, of course it’s important to know that in a “standard” or referential English how to speak to avoid misunderstanding, but varieties do exist but it doesn’t mean that saying “notebook” relating to laptop it’s incorrect but rather how people use English in Brazil even though it’s hard to find people speaking in English only at the streets, this is a lingua franca.

 Now, as we are talking about Brazil, the interculturality it’s not only related to the English language but other cultures in general, it can be related to traditions, stories, religion, folklore, trends and everything that it’s related to arts. As the author Wang (2011) states that the  language it’s a culture good and the author even mentions the fact that for some sociologists it’s through culture that language exists.

 

 WORKING WITH INTERCULTURALITY ON THE CLASSROOM:

 It depends on the teacher's knowledge, how much do we know about it? How can we teach respect and inclusion with interculturality? 

 The BNCC defines that interculturality is the recognition of linguistic varieties in a global world, since we are working with Lingua Franca it makes sense. Interculturality goes beyond what it’s explicit in the BNCC document, it’s a very broad topic and following the example of Wang (2011) he states the cultural differences of the chinese culture and the English language, how words and social functions of how to be polite and express gratitude by saying “thank you” can be different from one society to another including what they say and how. As the author also says, it’s hard to judge but the comparison is a way to look at ourselves and at others, realising that what may sound common to me can be pretty awkward or unusual to another culture. Hence, language in a global context can be problematic and requires a lot of respect. It's not a matter of criticising and choosing which culture it’s better.

 

 I’m going to be very honest, but in general we can’t ignore the fact that interculturality it’s present when we are learning another language and culture. We cannot deny how to order food requires using a different vocabulary such as “would” or “could mind” to express politeness rather than“I want” which will sound too straight to the point or even impolite. 

And now, to work in the classroom I perceive that this isn’t something easy to find on the English textbooks but for me we can highlight those examples of language and culture by using digital technologies such as the Youtube, BBC learning English, British Council, National Theatre (British), TED talks, advertisement, the media in general such as social media post and meme. I know that they are very cliche apps, since it’s difficult to find something ready for us to work. I think that it will require creativity and the curiosity to learn different cultures because for me this has to come from us, from our input as well. 

HOW ABOUT YOU:

HOW DO YOU GET UPDATED WITH DIFFERENT CULTURES?

DO YOU KNOW ANY APP WHERE WE CAN USE IT TO TEACH ABOUT CULTURES?

Please, put your thoughts in the comments bellow,

Ta, xx

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REFERENCES:

WANG, Jin. Cultural differences and the English teaching. English Language Teaching. Vol. 4, No. 2; 2011.

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. MEC. Base nacional comum: Introdução. Available at <http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/abase/#introducao> accessed on 06/02/2024 at 18:05

READING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

 

 READING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS

AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES.

Augusto Neves, 2024

  I consider reading in a learning process as essential, everything involves reading verbal and non-verbal texts.

So, I remember that when I was learning to read, images were very important to guide me what the text was

talking about. Then, back in the day when I was learning an additional language, comic books, films with subtitles

and especially the transcript of a youtube video were extremely helpful. So, I needed my native language to give

me support as a tool. My reading process was very mechanical and repetitive but it helped me a lot until I felt ready

to read in another language without using the translator, so the words that I heard and read was fixed in my

memory.

  Nonetheless, when thinking about learning an additional language as a grown up, I used my native language as

a crutch. So it was basically learning how to walk as an adult and step by step I started to left this crutch until

I realiased that I gained independence. But, to become a self-learner I learnt at elementary school the basics first,

which gave me previous knowledge of the target language that I was learning.

 

 AS A TEACHER:

  I like how the BNCC describes reading in general, it’s about quality rather than quantity. Moreover, especially

working with reading in another language for students, it requires something more than a codification of words,

it includes imagination and interpretation. I like when Paulo Freire mentions in his book the “Pedagogy of the

Autonomy”, it’s never about how many books we read but about a critical reader that: reads, understands and has

an opinion about the lens of the author. Perhaps, our opinion can be different or go beyond the author's opinion. 

  Besides, I think it’s pretty annoying when I heard a snob saying that they read the entire local library. Okay, Good

for them! And plus, I don’t believe that the young generations don't read anymore, actually the way that all of us

read has changed from the last decades. It has become a bit informal and the books it’s not the only sources of

reading thanks to the internet. There are a variety of genres including posts, blogs, infographics, recipes, a piece of

news on facebook and list goes on. Besides, working with reading news it’s one of the most important and listed by

the BNCC.

  The BNCC, defines that a reader needs three basic steps for a good read including: pre-reading, reading and

after-reading. The first one will give a previous knowledge about the text which I consider rather important to

the reader and to the teacher because it will give us a clue if it’s this text that we can or want to work on.  

 The document also defines 2 styles of reading, the skimming, which it’s when we read or take a look to find the

general information and the scanning which is when we look for the specific information we’re looking for.

Well, those are my words to describe them.

 

 Lastly, the after-reading includes a series of questions related to the text, sometimes this can be the hard part and

in my opinion it requires the presence of the teacher to guide the students to the interpretation of the text,

identifying the informations, sharing the ideas in a friendly environment by respecting each one speech.

NOW, WHERE CAN WE FIND BOOKS OTHER THAN THE SCHOOL LIBRARY?

  This one it’s very problematic, we can simply google out and download the PDF of the text that we want to work

on. This can be considered as piracy and even though most of us do it will be great to avoid. 

  Hopefully there are loads of websites that give us the possibility to work with reading. Including the: Internet

Archive, Librivox, Open Library, BBC learn English, News in Levels, British Council, Big Fish and

the OpenDyslexic extension.

  So, let’s start with the Internet Archive, it’s like a virtual library where you can rent online books or other media.

However, you have to create an account that will make it easier to use all the functions that the website has to offer,

it’s for free and you can even use the online bookmarks. In my opinion, I have been using this site since 2019 and

it’s still my favourite, even though the books available there it’s not on a PDF format but something like a

scanned book it’s still good and I love the button read this book out loud, it works and it will read for you, even

though it sounds very robotic  and with some glitch sometimes if you use a computer and the Edge browser (YES,

you read that) you will have a variety of voices including the characters and accents in English (including non-native

accent). It’s like Librivox, which it’s a platform with books and audiobooks from the public domain and for free,

it’s better visually and you can download it on your phone (android) or visit their website. Personally, I prefer the

app version. It's a good app, however the Librivox has a fixed character and accent which means you can change

them. Then, following the structure of the Internet Archive, there is the Open Library, which is the same thing as

the Internet Archive, however you will find only books. 

 Those websites are very good but rather boring to use to teach in the classroom, but it can be a good

recommendation for those students and teachers who would like to read but they can find it on the local library

neither in PDF. Plus, as mentioned before you have the option of listening to those books, which at least for me is

therapeutic, it feels like I’m not reading alone and plus you practise the listening. Fabulous! Isn’t it?

NOW, TO WORK IN THE CLASSROOM:

 Now, I know some websites where you can use it in the classroom to work with reading and it will include

exercises.

The British Council, it has loads of simple text to be used in the classroom, some of them have the audio or a

video and extra activities after reading. The site in my opinion it’s very good but I feel that it isn’t the best. 

  Also, The News in Levels it’s very simple and one of my favourites. ou can work with a piece of news and the

site provides a video and  audio of the text. It’s very short and quite simple. I believe it can be used as a “quick”

activity.

Following the same category of news, the Learning English BBC which in a nutshell I think it’s one of the best.

It's very similar to the British Council but with topics related to news and includes the after reading exercises as well.

 Then, the Big Fish, where it’s a platform that transforms the book into a game, so you’ll feel like you are living the

book. I personally didn’t find it very nice but rather a bit confused as I use it only once. And last but not least,

OpenDyslexic which is an extension for Google Chrome that helps people with Dyslexia. I still didn’t use it well,

but it seems that it helps the reader to get focus while reading, adding colours and organising the sentences giving

support to the reader with Dyslexia. I find it very important to mention it.

SO, HOW ABOUT YOU?

• Do you know better apps to use in the classroom that have before and after reading exercises?

• Do you use those apps listed above?

• Physical books and textbooks are also great. Do you use them? How? And how do the students react with analogical technologies?

PLEASE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.

TA! xx

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REFERENCES:

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. MEC. Base nacional comum: Introdução. Available at <http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/abase/#introducao> accessed on 06/02/2024 at 18:05

WRITING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

 WRITING AS AN ARTICULATING AXIS AND PRACTICES INVOLVING EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

Augusto Neves. 2024

 

 Alright?

  Let's talk about writing at Basic education. I had loads of opportunities to write in an additional language after I finished high school and it was basically for pleasure, some of them I shared on the internet but now I don’t wanna talk about my experiences outside of the classroom.

When I was a student at basic education I hated the fact that I had to write as just an assignment that will be graded, especially if it was a story. I wanted to share what I wrote and let people think and comment about it. When I was in my 2nd year of high school, our teacher asked us to do something similar as a culture exchange, this was back in the days where the laboratory and the computers were only restricted to the teachers. We had to write a letter talking about Brazilian culture, including our favourite books, films and a little bit about our favourite activities. It was a program in which our letter had to be shared with someone from another country, just like a PenPal, but without the internet.

  A PenPal it’s when you write a letter to a friend, it doesn't necessarily have to be from a stranger but in most of the cases, yes. I still have that letter with me and right now I’m thinking about rereading this letter from more than 10 years ago.  So, this was my first contact as a student with the PenPal and writing in an additional language.

  Now, as an undergraduate student of English Language Arts with focus on teaching English Language as an additional language in Brazil, there is a document called BNCC that guides what and how teachers from each subject should work and this document includes the competencies and skills that the students from the basic education must achieve, it has a variety of details and codes from each subject and grade. It  sounds pretty complicated at first but it’s not. You can visit the BNCC website and translate to English from your browser. 

Now, what does this document talk about writing in English as Lingua Franca?

  It depends on what grade you’re working on. So, the key word that it’s shown it’s the writing as a social function and being authorial where the students can act as protagonists with the experiences that they have, moreover, the document describes what grammar and theme we should work on, also known as linguistic knowledge that is considered to be essential such as tense, discursive connector and the phrasal structure. The BNCC also establishes the relation between writing and intercultural dimension which includes the idea of staying in contact with other cultures that can be outside of the anglo-saxon bubble and sharing  with the classroom, around the school or around  the internet. So, this is the public target like to whom it may concern? 

  I like how BNCC defines the students as the centre of the learning process by being active as well as the writing production related to their routine. In another words it’s everything that BNCC proposes and according to Hoffart and Zanella (2015, page 165) imagination it’s a present in our lives by not only being exclusive to the children, even though for the author this is a stimulus where the creativity and imagination it’s different from each one including children and adults. There are loads of possibilities to work with writing as a social practice such as the literacy of writing and posting on the internet, it will depend on each teacher's style. We can work with blog, magazine, news, internet comments, comic books, reviews, memes, comic strips, autobiography, diary, how to write an email and PenPal. Those activities can include games such as The Secret Santa in which students can play with each other or with students from another class. And, there are loads of apps around the internet that we can work with writing and sharing including facebook groups, MeetUp and Italki. Of course some of them may sound interesting.

  I also realised that at least at some schools in my town that there is a tendency of the education system to start including digital technologies in the classroom, including the Educatron and technology laboratory. And according to Zancanaro (2016), she says that specially the young generation are more involved with the digital technologies it’s part of their world but on the flip side the traditional classroom tends to distance them from their background. Moreover, if we are following a Freirian education, it’s important to respect their background and possibly to work with the world that they live in and I second that. However, we can have a modern classroom but if the learning method it’s mechanical, then I can’t consider that the classroom it’s modern at all. Plus, in the context of basic education dealing with the internet can be such a problem when the activities involve communication with strangers. I would use caution. 

  So, I found it necessary to discuss the other perspectives as well, because I guess I also feel  insecure. Besides, technology can help even with all the red-flags that exist.

Now, let’s talk about the apps. There are a list of apps that can be helpful to the students to write, illustrate and to create books or comic books that will for sure  work with creativity. 

  Let’s get started with the famous one: Canvas, this is my favourite one where we can write infographics, posts, slides and even comic strips, although Pixton and Make Belifs Comixs may be better at creating comic strips than Canvas. 

 Storybird it’s also another good platform to work with the creation of books. Padlet, which it’s also a good app to work and share with since it’s pretty basic, I'd recommend writing simple texts. And finally blogs like this website, Blogger.

 

AND NOW, I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO HEAR FROM YOU:

*What do you think about creative writing using digital technology? Do you prefer the traditional style? Or both? 

*Do you know any free apps that can be easy to use in the classroom? 

*How do you manage to teach in the classroom using digital technologies? Do you think Pen-Pal or E-pal can be safe to work with under 18 students?

PLEASE, SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. It will help us at lot!

Cya! xx

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REFERENCES:

HOFFART, Ana Laura. ZANELLA, Daniela A. Vendramini. A produção de significados na elaboração escrita em língua inglesa na atividade social: Participação de Pen-pal. Revista Letras Raras. Vol.7, Ano 4 , No2. 2015. Pg 165.

ZANCANARO, Rejane. Blog: Uma proposta pedagógica. ÁGORA , Porto Alegre, Ano 7. 2016.

BRASIL. Ministry of Education. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. MEC. Base nacional comum: Introdução. Available at <http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/abase/#introducao> accessed on 06/02/2024 at 18:05