CASTRO, L. P.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/5583555393096800; CASTRO, Luciana Parnaíba de.
Abstract:
Thinking about the transformations that have been taking place in our society over the last decades, especially due to the technological advances, which place us in times called post-modern (LYOTARD, 1984; ANDERSON, 1999; MORAES, 2007), we start to reflect on the consequences of these transformations for the teaching of foreign languages, which indicate a shift in paradigms in this area (LOPES, 2013; MOITA LOPES, 2014). In this context, Cope and Kalantzis (2005) developed, based on the pedagogy of multiliteracies, the Learning by Design, an approach to teaching which aims to align the learning process to the needs and specificities of the students inserted in this new paradigm. Furthermore, this approach emphasizes what the authors call ‘knowledge movements’, which are the learning processes that generally take place in the classroom, although, according to the authors, they should be conscious processes and used based on the learning goals. They are: experiencing (the known and the new), conceptualizing (by name and by theory), analyze (functionally and critically), and apply (appropriately and creatively). The change of paradigms, however, must have its genesis in teacher education, so that these subjects may start the necessary changes in the classroom. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to analyze the knowledge movements of students of English in the discipline Practicum Experience IV. The approach of the present research is interpretative and, from the point of view of its goals, it is a descriptive research. Concerning the methodological procedures used, we consider this to be an ethnographic research, which has been showing satisfactory results in language teaching research (LUCENA, 2015). The instruments of data collection were the participant observation, field notes, audio recording of the classes; the semi-open interview, and we also analyzed the students’ final reports. This research was conducted at the Cajazeiras Teaching Training Campus of the Federal University of Campina Grande, in the state of Paraíba. The subjects of the present research were 02 undergraduate students of the discipline Practicum Experience IV. From the data analysis, we learned that the prevailing knowledge movements of the participants were those related to a traditional teaching, such as conceptualizing and analyzing functionally. Nonetheless, they acknowledge the need of changes in the pedagogical practices, although they demonstrate fear and insecurity to leave their comfort zone, the known, towards the new, the transformation.