EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

HAMBURG, 19th September 2003

Session 6A (09:00) / Network 10 – Teacher Education Research

Shifts in the Portuguese Teacher Education Research – the example of

verbal interaction in language didactics

Teresa CARDOSO (tcardoso@dte.ua.pt) & Isabel ALARCÃO (ialarcao@dte.ua.pt)Department of Didactics and Educational Technology, University of Aveiro, Portugal

1. Language Didactics in Portugal

In Portugal, if one is to trace back the path of Language Didactics as a subject

taught at the Universities, one will find as decisive dates the middle 1970s (when both

the University of Aveiro and the University of Minho introduced teacher education

courses) and the 1980s (when the ESE, Escolas Superiores de Educação, or, in English,

the Higher Schools of Education, were created). These two main events entailed the

development of Language Didactics in other universities, at an academic level.

Therefore, it can be said that, in the Portuguese context, Language Didactics is

approximately over twenty years old.

Although those teacher education programmes already included, right from the

beginning, Language Didactics courses, it was not until 1988 that the 1st National

Meeting of Didactics and Teaching Methodologies1 took place, at the University of

Aveiro. Curricular Didactics was its theme, because at that time it was urgent to think

about what this subject was and also to identify its role in teacher education. Indeed, this

institution has played an important role in the definition of the concept of Specific

Didactics. Alarcão (1999) relates it to the concept of “pedagogical content knowledge”

(Shulman, 1986), and distinguishes it from General Didactics – General Didactics does

not take into account the contents to be taught, whereas for Specific Didactics these are

its foundation stone (cf. Alarcão, 1999: 17).

1 In Portuguese, 1º Encontro Nacional de Didácticas e Metodologias de Ensino.

However, one of the branches of Specific Didactics, namely Language

Didactics, had to wait another ten years for its 1st National Meeting2, which took place at

the University of Minho. In 1999, we can read in the presentation of its proceedings that

“as far as the texts themes and guidelines are concerned, it was possible to infer some

current priorities in this area in Portugal, among which we can point out the following:

the definition of the languages didactics nature, status and functions, the development of

analytic competences and competences of communication, the functions of the language

in the classroom, the relation language-culture and the binomial unity/diversity in the

field of the linguistic education, the development of the student’s autonomy, English for

specific purposes, the inclusion of the ICTs in the training and teaching programmes,

the processes of construction of the didactical knowledge and the training of reflexive

teachers/researchers”3 (Vieira, 1999: 8).

2. Verbal interaction in Language Didactics – towards a meta-analysis of the

Portuguese studies

It was in this context that Portuguese studies on verbal interaction started to

emerge. At this moment, they are considerable in number and contents, and so it was

felt that they should be analyzed and systematized. Hence, we decided to put forward a

project entitled Verbal Interaction in Languages Didactics: meta-analysis of the studies

developed in Portugal between 1982 and 2002 – contributions for the learning of

languages and teacher education. It is being developed within one line of research at

the University of Aveiro (Portugal), namely at the LALE4 (the Open Laboratory for

Foreign Language Learning of the Department of Didactics and Educational

Technology). Our project meets several important themes of the Language Didactics,

our theoretical framework, particularly that of verbal interaction in the language

classroom. It has also been designed to provide for a better understanding of the

2 The 1st National Meeting of Didactic/Methodology of the Teaching of Foreign Languages; or, in Portuguese, 1º Encontro Nacional de Didáctica/Metodologia do Ensino das Línguas Estrangeiras. 3 In the original text: “Relativamente às temáticas e orientações abordadas nos textos apresentados, foi possível inferir algumas prioridades actuais neste domínio em Portugal, entre as quais podemos salientar: a definição da natureza, estatuto e funções da didáctica das línguas, o desenvolvimento de competências analíticas e de comunicação, as funções da linguagem na aula, a relação língua-cultura e o binómio unidade/diversidade no campo da educação linguística, o desenvolvimento da autonomia do aluno, o Inglês para fins específicos, a integração das tecnologias da informação e comunicação nos programas de formação e de ensino, os processos de construção do conhecimento didáctico e a formação de professores reflexivos/investigadores.”4 Laboratório Aberto para a Aprendizagem das Línguas Estrangeiras.

processes of construction of the didactical knowledge. Thus, we are interested in finding

answers to the “teleological question, that is, the relationship between the researcher

and the use to be given to the generated knowledge or the answers to the questions

‘what and who is it for?’” (Alarcão, 2001: 137).

Above all, we will synthesise some of the knowledge produced in the

Portuguese studies, as far as verbal interaction in the didactical context of languages

classroom is concerned. Because research on verbal interaction is fundamental as an

experimental field to observe language development and emerges as a conceptualising

factor of what it means to know, to learn and to teach a language. Ultimately, on the one

hand, we intend to disseminate the scientific contributions to this area of knowledge,

which means to take into account the Didactics dimension of “intervention”. As Araújo

e Sá (2000) explains “Didactics warrants itself nowadays as a scientific space which

specificity lies within the two aspired aims: to produce knowledge about the process of

teaching-learning a given subject; to intervene in the field of its social action”5 (p.9). On

the other hand, we aim at enhancing the transferability of the generated knowledge, to

other contexts, which will ultimately create more knowledge. In fact, our own project,

which covers the three poles of the didactical action – the professional, the curricular

and the investigative dimensions, i.e. what Alarcão (1997) has called “the didactical

triptych”, is an example of the knowledge applicability and transferability, since it

further develops the work started by Alarcão (1999) and Canha (2001), another

Portuguese researcher who is also present at this European Conference.

As a methodological tool, we have created6 an analysis grid that systematizes

the documental analysis we are implementing on the developed Portuguese studies. This

instrument is composed of the following ten categories, of which some are still divided

into subcategories:

1. Identification of the study:

1.1. Title

1.2. Author(s)

1.3. Date

1.4. Degree5 In the original text: “A Didáctica afirma-se actualmente como um espaço científico cuja especificidade se delimita na confluência das duas finalidades que persegue: produzir conhecimento sobre o processo de ensino-aprendizagem de uma dada disciplina; intervir no terreno de actuação social sobre o qual se debruça.”6 Having as starting points both the above-mentioned works.

1.5. Institution

1.6. Context of development

2. Motivations for the study

3. Object of study

4. Objectives

5. Assumptions

6. Main theoretical frameworks:

6.1. Didactics

6.2. Verbal interaction

6.3. Sciences of language

6.4. Other(s), if applicable

7. Interconnected theoretical frameworks7

8. Methodology:

8.1. Methodology of research

8.2. Methodological procedures

8.3. Justification of the methodology and the procedures

8.4. Participants in the study and their roles in the research

9. Contributions for the knowledge construction:

9.1. Systematized, developed or constructed concepts

9.2. Categories of analysis

9.3. Patterns/Typologies

9.4. Assertions

9.5. Generalizations

10. Rapport to didactics:

10.1. Situations emerging at the level of

10.1.1. the knowledge regarding verbal interaction,

10.1.2. the development of methodologies of research,

10.1.3. the classroom;

10.2. Suggestions for didactical intervention

10.3. Suggestions for further research

7 The importance of this category is corroborated, for instance, by the following quote: “the didactical look is compulsorily interdisciplinary, instigating a ‘non-hierarchical relation with other disciplines, establishing itself in the fact of being transversal’ (Andrade & Araújo e Sá, 1989: 133), with an interface dimension, integrating the knowledge produced in other fields (Alarcão, 1991a: 306), but capable of answering essentially didactical questions, that is, related with the process of teaching and learning of a given subject matter” (Andrade, 1997: 9).

10.4. Suggestions for the teacher training.

3. Shifts in the Portuguese language teacher education research – the example of

verbal interaction in language didactics

From our twofold corpus – i) Portuguese Master and PhD theses, and ii)

Portuguese publications –, resulting from several library and Internet searches, as well

as other personal and institutional contacts, we will now consider only the first corpus

(i), where we can identify some changes in the theoretical and methodological scopes,

which characterize some shifts in the Portuguese language teacher education research.

The theses are distributed as follows:

University of Lisbon – one Master thesis (1987), which refers to

Portuguese mother tongue;

University of Aveiro – seven Master theses [1988, 1990, 1996 (2),

2000 and 2001 (2)] that focus on English as a Foreign Language

(except one developed in 2001, which focuses on French as Foreign

Language), and two PhD theses (1996 and 1997), both focusing on

French as Foreign Language;

University of Minho (Braga) – three Master theses (1995, 2000 and

2001), which deal with Portuguese mother tongue.

Firstly, in the framework of verbal interaction in the language classroom, two

types of axes, conveying important information, are evidenced.

The geographical axis, initially composed of two poles, Lisbon and Aveiro,

includes now a third one, Braga (Minho). Rui V. Castro, who we have already alluded

to, is somehow responsible for this geographical shift. In fact, the existence of this last

pole is certainly due to the fact that this researcher is a Professor in this university,

though he has presented his Master thesis at the University of Lisbon. He was also the

supervisor of the academic studies developed at the University of Minho, regarding,

obviously, the theme in which we are interested on. These studies use his own research

work, dating from 1987, as main theoretical reference. The same can be said about two

researchers at the University of Aveiro, Andrade and Araújo e Sá, who initiated there

the research on this topic, and have supervised several post-graduation studies. In most

cases, in the beginning, Portuguese researchers had as main theoretical references

foreign authors; now, more and more they refer to Portuguese authors too.

The temporal axis (1982-2002) adds to the data presented the fact that the

majority of the theses under analysis have been developed at the University of Aveiro.

We evoke, once more, the existence of the line of research verbal interaction in the

classroom there, namely at the Department of Didactics and Educational Technology,

which can be an explanation for this.

Secondly, it is interesting to notice that the studies developed at Aveiro have

chosen to study verbal interaction in foreign languages classrooms; on the contrary,

those developed at the University of Minho study verbal interaction in (Portuguese)

mother tongue classrooms. In general, the former follow a didactical approach and the

latter a more linguistic one. Moreover, and referring now to the participants’ role in the

research, the former tend to assume a co-opted type 1 research (although the author

conducts and controls the investigation, the participation of the teachers is requested;

however, this participation is entirely defined by the researcher), whereas the latter tend

to be non-participative studies (because the responsibility for the research lies solely

on the researcher). Here, we have adopted Tripp’s categories (1989), which have been

further developed by Canha (2001) through the introduction of a new concept – that of

teacher in academic context.

4. Examples of the generated Portuguese knowledge in this area

In the whole, we have already analysed two PhD theses, four Master theses

and two publications, namely:

i’) a. Verbal interaction aspects in pedagogical context. Illocutorial objectives,

interaction’s structure and turn-taking, Castro’s Master thesis (1987), University of

Lisbon;

i’) b. Verbal interaction and knowledge negotiation in the foreign language classroom,

Vieira’s Master thesis (1988), University of Aveiro (not published);

i’) c. English for teachers. A study in language needs of future teachers of English,

Moreira’s Master thesis (1990), University of Aveiro (not published);

i’) d. Verbal interaction and student’s initiative – the teacher of English as reflexive

training, Gonçalves’ Master thesis (1996), University of Aveiro (not published).

i’’) e. Verbal interaction processes in French as a foreign language classroom:

contributions for the study of verbal adaptation dialogical activities, Araújo e Sá’s PhD

thesis (1996), University of Aveiro (not published);

i’’) f. Verbal interaction processes in French as a foreign language classroom:

functions and modalities of resorting to Portuguese mother tongue, Andrade’s PhD

thesis (1997), University of Aveiro (not published).

ii) the pioneer work of Emília Ribeiro Pedro (1982), the publication of her PhD thesis

(in Sociolinguistics, at the University of Stockholm, Sweden; it was concluded one year

before it was published in Portugal), entitled The classroom discourse. A socio-

linguistic analysis of the schooling practice in Portugal, in some way inspiring all the

other studies;

ii) Castro’s academic work. It is worthy to remark that of all the academic researches of

our corpus, developed in a Portuguese university, this is the only one that has been

published, even if it is slightly different from the original text – e.g. in the printed

version the author included a glossary and added some paragraphs corresponding to

ideas which are mainly related to pedagogical and didactical concerns. These changes

exemplify not only some shifts in this author’s thought, clearly standing for his

professional development, but also, at a higher level, both an evolution in the didactical

knowledge and concerns, and in this shared scientific thought.

All these studies have as object of study verbal interaction in the language

(either mother tongue or foreign language) classroom. Yet, it is interesting to find that

none of them advances a definition of the key concept that underlies them. This might

entail a lack of consensus as far as the terminology is concerned and/or a misleading use

of expressions, such as, pedagogical interaction, social interaction, verbal interaction, or

simply interaction, which do not refer to the same reality. In fact, “verbal interaction is,

thus, in a didactical perspective, means or instrument and target or objective, since

having a communicative competence in a given language is to have an interactive

competence in multiple situations or, in other words, interaction is simultaneously the

framework of the educational and interactive process which occurs in the classroom,

and the object of this same process”8 (Andrade, 1997: 123). We can observe that in the 8 In the original text: “A interacção verbal é, assim, numa perspectiva didáctica, meio ou instrumento e alvo ou objectivo, já que ter competência numa dada língua é ter competência interactiva em múltiplas situações ou, dito de outro modo, a interacção é simultaneamente o quadro do processo interactivo-

subsequent studies, still to be analysed in detail, verbal interaction is a helpful

methodological tool used to investigate other themes, like, for instance, collaborative

writing.

As a general rule, the studies share equal methodological procedures, like

classroom observation and record, classroom transcription and the identification of

sequences in which (communication) problems occur. There is a tendency to observe

trainee teachers, mostly non-native speakers of the foreign languages that are being

taught, although this is not common to all the authors. Some justify their option since

they believe that at this stage more situations can be experienced. Besides, they feel

there are more unanswered questions, and so research is more likely to be improved and

will probably cover more fields of action.

5. Contributions of the Portuguese research to this field of study

Even though we cannot find information concerning all our analysis

categories, the studies we have examined so far bear some significant conclusions

enhancing what has been attained in this field of study. These have already been

systematized in our participation, entitled Verbal interaction in the language classroom:

communicating to shape characters and choices, at the recent 21st FIPLV World

Congress9. Before we finish, we shall recall some of them; for those who want to

discover the whole systematisation, we invite you to read our previous text10.

All these academic studies refer to the most general interactional structure,

the threefold scheme: teacher’s question, student’s answer and teacher’s evaluation of

the student’s answer. This characteristics “that seems to differentiate verbal interaction

in pedagogical context and other modalities is the fact that, often enough, the

movements organization basic structure comprises not two but three movements; the

transmitters [teachers], who are those who make a higher number of opening moves,

frequently, make, over the reply movement, a closing movement (‘follow-up’), which

educativo que se desenrola em sala de aula e objecto desse mesmo processo.”9 The FIPLV (Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes / World Federation of Modern Language Associations) Congress was held at RAU (Rand Afrikaans University), Johannesburg, South Africa, in July 2-5. Identity and Creativity in Language Education was its general theme.10 It has been submitted to and is being evaluated for publication in the CD-ROM Proceedings.

function is to let the previous speaker know about the adequacy of his move”11 (Castro,

1987: 100-101). One of the principles which regulates the classroom verbal interaction

is that of asymmetric communication: the teacher takes the highest position, whereas the

students keep the lowest; needless to point that, in the classroom, the teacher speaks for

a much longer time. According to Andrade (1997), another author under analysis, “the

constant motivation for the verbal interaction in a foreign language is related to the

capacity of creating a positive affective relationship with the learners, to the capacity of

staging communicative formats that are able to catch the audience’s attention, through

processes of seduction”12 (p.621). She highlights as well that the resort to mother

tongue, in a foreign language classroom, a situation of cognitive and interaction

participation, in which the communicative and didactical intentions are more evident, is

one of the communicative strategies available to its participants (cf. Andrade, 1997: 9-

10 and 635). Nevertheless, the classroom verbal interaction prefers to focus on the

verbal products to be attained in the foreign language (cf. Andrade, 1997: 382). In a

word, and quoting this time a different researcher, Vieira (1988), who is also being

studied by us, “to interact in the classroom is, both for the teacher and the students, a

task which involves a constant negotiation to solve the problems that emerge”13 (p.116-

117).

As common features to these studies, other than those that have been

presented during the previous paragraphs, we can think of the few difficulties the

Portuguese authors had to deal with, such as temporal and spatial limitations (like the

pre-defined and strict classroom space organization) or the restricted scope of some

analysis categories. So, these researchers have spotted some aspects for further

consideration – for instance, the discrepancy between theory and practice, which alludes

to one of our concerns, that of the weak spreading of knowledge and its seldom

effective use. Perhaps that is why they point out didactical interventions, future possible

11 In the original text: “que parecem individualizar a interacção verbal em contexto pedagógico relativamente a outras modalidades é o facto de, com relativa frequência, a estrutura básica de organização dos movimentos comportar não dois mas em três movimentos; os transmissores, que são quem faz um maior número de jogadas de abertura, realizam, com frequência, sobre o movimento de resposta um movimento de fechamento (“follow-up”), que tem por função informar o locutor anterior sobre a adequação da sua jogada”.12 In the original text: “a motivação constante para a interacção verbal a realizar em LE se relaciona com a capacidade de criar uma relação afectiva positiva com os aprendentes, com a capacidade de encenação de fromatos comunicativos capazes de captar a atenção do público, através de processos de sedução”.13 In the original text: “Interagir na sala de aula é, para o professor e para os alunos, uma tarefa que envolve constante negociação para resolver os problemas que lhes surgem.”

researches and teacher training actions. They all put forward modular generalizations

that emerge within the specific context of each research, which means that the results

they have achieved must be read within the particular contexts of their studies, and

eventually in similar situations (cf. for example: Vieira, 1988: 41 or 188; Moreira, 1990:

45; Gonçalves, 1996: 34 and 100).

6. Expectations headed for a European dialogue

We hope the future Portuguese research will take, if not the international

context, at least the European one into account. The pioneer work of Pedro, mentioned

in the fourth section, continues to be the sole academic research in which several studies

are compared; she compares her own study to British and Swedish ones. She also covers

different educational levels, at Portuguese schools, which does not happen in most of

the other theses. Yet, every author studied acknowledges it to be highly relevant.

At a later stage, we expect to systematize the knowledge produced in our

country, within the framework of verbal interaction in the language classroom, in this

wider perspective, which will enrich the outcomes of our own project.

Verbal interaction, a broad area of study, like communication, has been

studied from different points of view; as it has been stated, our perspective is that of

languages didactics. In this context, and especially in that of languages classroom,

verbal interaction aims at the co-construction of identity, experiences, knowledge, and

meanings, through oral or written exchanges that organize the pedagogical

communication according to rules, routines and rituals, shared and accepted by the

engaged social actors (students and teachers). It also reveals the students’ learning path,

as well as the teachers’ strategies to achieve their aims. Portuguese researchers, aware

of its vast importance in various fields14 of our multicultural society, have decided to

thoroughly study it in the educational contexts, since they believe education to be the

sustainable basis of society. It seems therefore evident that European educational

policies should allocate it its due importance.

14 e.g. Anthropology, Education, Informatics, Law, Linguistics, Psychology, Sociology, etc.

In Portugal, we are presently witnessing an increase in the demand for meta-

analytic studies15. Though this process has proved slow, which is not surprising, bearing

in mind, for instance, the work it involves, it reflects nonetheless one major important

shift in research. Our ambition is that broader meta-analysis may be achieved through a

European dialogue. Broader in the sense of including more than verbal interaction itself.

And, broader in the sense of linking all European contexts through the networking of

educational policies. Because, one of the best ways to reach “a European conscience

based upon the intersection of cultures, of which languages are necessary and privileged

instruments”16 (Sequeira, 1999: 12) is definitely education!

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This paper was supported by: Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação (POCTI) and Programa Operacional Sociedade da Informação (POSI) do Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III.

Teresa CARDOSO & Isabel ALARCÃOCampus Universitário de Santiago

Universidade de AveiroP – 3810-193 AVEIRO

PORTUGAL