Ensino de gramática nos anos iniciais: o que dizem as pesquisas acadêmicas?

Abstract

Since the 1980s, Portuguese language teaching, specially the teaching of grammar, has been questioned about its pertinence, based on a strategy of transmission and memorization of rules and concepts of the standart language. Concurrently, numerous conceptions were elaborated, in order to provide a direct pedagogical alternative of sociointeracionists theories, practical contributions of study, and language training. The present work aims to systematize, through a state - of - the - art research, contributions to academic teaching, as well as to Portuguese language teaching, more specifically, in working with grammar in the elementary school. In this way, the research carried out in the framework on the Group of Studies and Research on Literacy (GEPALFA in portuguese) in which the teaching of the Portuguese language in this stage of education is articulated. It begins with a study onthe conceptions of grammar, elaborated and taking place on different moments of the history oflanguage training, and on a review which main critics and elaborated proposals on the teaching ofgrammar and on a language reflection in a classroom by authors dedicated to research on such topics, currently, among them: Geraldi (1995; 1999), Travaglia (1997; 2002), Antunes (2003); , Possenti (1996), Franchi (2006). Based on these references, thirty papers - 12 articles, 15 dissertations and 3 theses - produced between 1996 and 2016, extracted from databases available to research of this nature. The description of the corpus were done through the following categories: objectsof study, teaching methodologies and teacher. Through its analysis, it has been observed that thelarge part of the studies analyzed reiterates the observation that, in both teachers' discourses and practices, as well as in textbooks, there is a constant presence of teaching contents identified in the reference literature of the area asusual. Modestly, it recognizes that the teaching work withlanguages in classes of elementary school, arises speeches and attempts of pedagogical actionsoriented to the conception of language in operation and text as basic unit of teaching and instance of social interaction . It is also suggestedto offer proposals that consider a reflection on the language and how its variations are essential to the language skills development. In terms of teaching methodologies, the work identifies a tension between a traditional conception of language and recordings and attempts to articulate between the different axes of teaching and the work centered inthe text. The researches are also evidences of limitations in the initial teacher training, that does not provide to future teachers the content they will have to teach. It is concluded that, notwithstanding the four decades of controversy, the studieson linguistic reflection in the classroom of the elementary school keep the need for a professional training and practice that meet the requirements ofan education based on the analysis of language facts, situated in different significant contexts, a teaching that creates conditions for the speaker to think and act on and with a language in order to explore the broader possibilities of this cultural tool and social interaction.