Approaching the teaching of grammar is not an easy task. The issue has been already regarded as an object of thought for a long time, but it is still in its early stages of development concerning resolutions. Currently, the discussion is not
In the face of these challenges, we highlight Professor Silvia Rodrigues Vieira’s proposal for a teaching of grammar in three axes, which proposes a work with grammar that integrates
Silvia Rodrigues Vieira is an Associate Professor of the Department of Vernacular Letters at the Faculty of Letters of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and acts on The Graduate Program in Vernacular Letters and in the Professional Master’s Degree in Letters at UFRJ. The researcher has devoted herself to Sociolinguistics, and mostly to what concerns the description of Portuguese varieties. Vieira is a reference on the study of the teaching of grammar across Brazil. She has written books such as
In her talk at Abralin Ao Vivo –
From the publishing of the National Curriculum Parameters (PCNs), there has been a paradigm change in the teaching of grammar – at least theoretically – causing a replacement of a traditional model of teaching – supposedly inefficient, which presupposes a didactic transposition based on the evidences of contemporary Linguistics.
The official documents, based on those discoveries, guide the teaching from a social interactionist approach to language. Through this prism, the text is the privileged teaching object; the linguistic, grammatical component, on the other hand, assumes an instrumental character. Vieira clarifies that the official documents recognize the legitimacy of linguistic variation and assume the commitment to the teaching of the cult norm. Therefore, the official guidelines recommend a teaching model based on the tripod
Despite these advanced in the official guidelines, the lecturer highlights that there has not been a proposition and effective application of an alternate framework to the traditional teaching. Concerning this aspect, the researcher points out problems and challenges of three types that reflects the lack of scientific maturity in the teaching of grammar: i) theoretical and descriptive inconsistencies both in relation to norm and grammar and to sociolinguistic description of linguistic phenomena; ii) delimitation of the object of work, which is always observed in contrast to another as excludable –it is either text or phrase; and iii) teaching methodologies based on personal experiences, without scientific proof.
After saying that, Vieira (2017a; 2017b
The structure of the stool is representative of Vieira’s proposal for the teaching of grammar in three axes. The pillars of the teaching of grammar are the three features inherent to languages:
Vieira (2017a, p. 85-86
i) considering the functioning of linguistic resources in different levels (phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic-discursive);
ii) allowing the access to practices of reading and of oral and written text production, making the student recognize and use the linguistic resources as fundamental elements to the conveying of meaning; and, also,
iii) affording conditions to the student to have access to prestige varieties in society, according to the continua of variation (BORTONI-RICARDO, 2005), which configure a plurality of use norms without diminishing other varieties presented by the student and/or in the diverse used materials.
Vieira also argues that the relationship between the three axes must be of complementarity; but, she emphasizes that the axis
The proposed teaching of grammar integrates formal aspects related to the sistematicity of the language, involving metacognition activities; the meaning conveying, both in relation to reading and text production; considering the analysis of linguistic phenomena as a manifestation of norms/varieties in the continua speech/writing and of stylistic monitoring.
Therefore, regarded as a conciliatory proposal, the teaching of grammar in three axes: i) stems from the inherent grammatical knowledge of the speaker to the systematization of the theoretical objects and of uses, in continuous feedback process; ii) considers the contributions of diverse theoretical frameworks; and iii) argues that the theoretical objects and objects of use must be based on scientific studies of description. In the face of that, the professor proposes an alternative to the teaching proposal recommended by the PCNs, the following methodological scheme:
Complementing the discussion, Vieira problematizes the terminological and conceptual confusion that affects the issue of the reference norm, as Faraco discussed (BASES, 2020
In the third section of her talk, Vieira briefly presents pedagogical proposals developed under the three axes to the teaching of grammar (acc. VIEIRA, 2017). The professor emphasizes the proposals developed in the Professional Master’s Degree in Letters (Profletras). The program, in Portuguese language field, is designed to state elementary teachers and is aimed to the development of a pedagogical product, which integrates descriptive work, pedagogical practices, and the testing of its efficiency and replicability (FREITAG, 2017a
Among the pedagogic proposals cited by the lecturer, we highlight the work of Paes and Freitag (2020
In the face of pedagogical proposals such as this, it is sensitive that the teaching of grammar needs to be seen as a scientific object. From this, it is possible to develop methodological practices of research and teaching, and investigate the teaching of grammar in order to validate, under scientific rigor, the success of the developed pedagogical proposals. In this scenario, we highlight the figure of the teacher-as-researcher, an agent responsible for developing and experimenting teaching methodologies that are scientifically grounded in the practical context of classrooms.
Vieira ends her overall talk making explicit the importance of the teaching of grammar from the three axes and of researching the teaching of grammar, relating the three axes of teaching to the issues that entitled her lecture. Thus, it is necessary to teach grammar and to research the teaching of grammar i) for a matter of science, from student’s scientific reasoning development (axis 1); for a matter of citizenship, so that each citizen has conscious access to meaningful literacy practices (reading and text production) (axis 2); and for a matter of linguistic respect, in order to promote linguistic variants, enabling students to recognize or produce them according to their socio- communicative needs (axis 3).