Questões de Inglês - Advérbios e conjunções | Adverbs and conjunctions para Concurso

Text for the question.

The route to perfection

TEXT 3

“Despite the contemporary calling of the speech/textual genre conceptions to deal with privations in the educational system (ROJO, 2008), the treatment given to genre, especially in theories operating with the notion of textual genre, has mainly focused on genre’s stable characteristics and on the development of competencies/capacities that lead to the comprehension and production of the oral and written genres circulating in the social world.

One of the implications of this kind of treatment for the literacy practices at school has considerably often been the genre displacement from micro and macrolinguistic contexts that interact in meaning construction to abstractly focus on the stable characteristics defining news, comics, recipes, editorial, blogs etc. Another, and maybe more serious, unfolding is that since it doesn’t look at how genres mingle and hybridize with other genres and semiosis in processes of constant (re)designing meanings, such a treatment can end up contributing to the mere (re)production of genres legitimized by school, leaving little or no space at all for the innovations and destabilization that mingling and transgression processes print to texts in contemporaneity and, as a consequence, for a critical position in relation to meanings constructed in the margins of what school validates as acceptable literacy practices.”

OLIVEIRA, M. B. F.; SZUNDI, P. T. C. Multiliteracies Practices at School: for a responsive education to contemporaneity.

                                   Bakhtiniana, São Paulo, v. 9, n. 2, Jul./Dec. 2014, p. 206,207.

      There is a danger in paying too much attention to learners’ errors. While errors indeed reveal a system at work, the classroom language teacher can become so preoccupied ________ noticing errors that the correct utterances in the second language go unnoticed. In our observation and analysis of errors – for all that they do reveal about the learner – we must beware of placing too much attention on errors and not lose sight of the value of positive reinforcement of clearly expressed language that is a product of the learner’s progress of development. While the diminishing of errors is an important criterion ______ increasing language proficiency, the ultimate goal of second language learning is the attainment of communicative fluency.

      Another inadequacy in error analysis is an overemphasis on production data. Language is speaking and listening, writing and reading. The comprehension of language is as important as production. It so happens that production lends itself to analysis and thus becomes the prey of researchers, __________ comprehension data is equally important in developing an understanding of the process of SLA.

               (Brown, D. H. Principles of language learning and teaching. 2000. Adapted)

Text III

Here are some of the conclusions of a study conducted by The British Council to examine the policy, perceptions and influencing factors of English in Brazil:

[…] Brazil does not have a policy that focuses solely on teaching and learning English. The National Education Guidelines identify English as one of many foreign languages offered to students in primary and secondary education. Various English language learning initiatives have emerged at the federal, state and municipal levels however many English initiatives have limited success due to unbalanced curriculums, limited class time, teachers lacking the linguistic and pedagogical knowledge to effectively guide students, and minimal resources.[…]

Those working in internationalised industries, especially in management roles, do need English for employment though they may use it sparingly. As FDI ("Foreign Direct Investment") and interaction with other countries grow, especially in localised sectors, the demand for English as a medium of communication will increase. Currently, Brazil‘s average level of education and lack of English are perceived by some as detrimental to its economic growth and investment.[…] 

Perceptions of English language use are changing. Younger generations are more open to English and link it less to a political agenda and more with personal growth and opportunity. Although there seem to be deeply-rooted ideological barriers at a national level to prioritise English over other languages, at an individual level, the language is gaining increased value and influence.

(Source: British Council Education Intelligence. (2015). English in Brazil: An examination of policy, perceptions and

influencing factors. Retrieved and adapted from https://ei.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/latin-americaresearch/English%20in%20Brazil.pdf.)

TEXT 5:

                                                    TEXTO I

                                   English for Specific Purposes

      English for specific purposes (ESP) refers to language research and instruction that focuses on the specific communicative needs and practices of particular social groups. Emerging out of Halliday, Macintosh, and Strevens’ (1964) groundbreaking work nearly 40 years ago, ESP started life as a branch of English language teaching, promising a stronger descriptive foundation for pedagogic materials. In the years since, ESP has consistently been at the cutting-edge of both theory development and innovative practice in applied linguistics, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the varied ways language is used in particular communities. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary influences for its research methods, theory, and practices, ESP has consistently provided grounded insights into the structures and meanings of texts, the demands placed by academic or workplace contexts on communicative behaviors, and the pedagogic practices by which these behaviors can be developed.

HYLAND, K. “English for specific purposes: some influences and impacts”. In: Cummins, J. and Davison, C., (eds.) The International Handbook of English language education. Springer: Norwell, Mass, 2006.