O ENCONTRO DE CRIANÇAS COM UMA LÍNGUAESTRANGEIRA: ?Se eu fosse mágico eu queria passar tudo denovo?

by DENARDIN, MARIANE FRIGO

The main objective of this study is to comprehend the encounter of learners witha foreign language (FL) inside a Brazilian Public School. More specifically: a) toanalyse the students? reactions to English as a second language (EL); b) toverify the students learning preferences during the FL classes and c) to discusshow learners react to the first encounter with the FL. In order to achieve suchaims, the present study was developed during the English language (EL)classes with a group of students from the 5th grade of an Elementary PublicSchool in Santa Maria, RS, Brasil, during the first semester of 2006, period inwhich the teacher was the researcher as well. The data of the research includeda diary from the teacher/researcher, recording and transcription of someclasses, an interview with the students? parents, a sample of the students?notebooks and a questionnaire applied to the students. Considering the dialeticconception of language, the interpretation of the data occurred based on thetheoretical reference and on the teacher-researcher?s observation. The analysisreveals that: 1) there were students aged form 9 to 13 who reacted in the FLclasses as babies acquiring their first language, there were students who wereafraid of distancing themselves from their mother tongue and, by the otherhand, there were students who happily dived into the ?new ocean of meanings?of the FL; 2) even though shyly, many students could realize that being a FLspeaker demands much more than writing and pronouncing words in a differentway from the mother tongue, in this case, Portuguese: it implies to adventure ina new way of representing the world and 3) students wanted to learn in the wayand the meanings that were close to their culture. It is expected that this studycan increase the comprehension the learning/teaching process of a FL in itsbeginning stages, as well as to show new ways to learn and teach a FL in theElementary School, especially in Brazilian Public schools.