A proximidade na interação professor-aluno(s): um olhar para as estratégias discursivas

Abstract

This paper has as theme the discourse strategies used by the teacher in search for closeness with the students in expository High School classes. Based on the analysis of interactions in a singular and natural setting, on Conversational Analysis and Bakhtin’s Circle, this research focuses on the interactions between teachers and students from the first year of High School. These theories support the observation of the conversation and the interaction surroundings in which the discourse exchange relations take place, which demands the researcher’s presence in the field and work with data from the school environment. This research’s main objective is to analyze the discourse strategies used by the teacher in search for closeness with the students in the interaction during expository classes in High School. As specific objectives, this paper tries to: observe and describe the teacher-student interaction in the classroom’s context; analyze the discourse behavior of the people involved from the closeness effects on the teacher-student interaction; analyze to what extent the teacher’s formal utterance can bring the student’s attention; see how the effects of the built closeness by the teacher’s discourse strategies during the interactions with the students happen. In order to do so, the investigation is descriptive and qualitative. The analysis allows some considerations to be made: during the interaction the teacher maintains the formal topic and as this topic continues there are some conversation transactions that refer to the turn shift given by the teacher to the students, because it gives the space in the teacher’s discourse so they can collaborate with their own discourse with the class. This turn shift develops moments of closeness between teacher and students. The formal topic is maintained by the teacher for long periods of time and concurrently there are attempts or mobilizations of parallel topics. With that, even if there are discrepancies in the teacher’s goals regarding the students, the teacher develops discourse strategies to make them return to the main topic, using question-answer and also using paralinguistic tools, calling, politeness, to drawn the students’ attention and, therefore, being closer to their discourse, directing them to the main objective. This leads to the comprehension that classroom’s discourse situation is motivated by the teacher and he/she uses the main goal to keep the students involved and motivated to participate in the interaction, developing concepts and, so that can happen, discourse strategies that guarantee the closeness on the interaction are necessary.