Silêncio e aprendizagem em sala de aula de língua adicional: sentidos e funções

Abstract

Studying silence means to consider what is beyond obviously enunciated words and bring up its non-insignificance in additional language (AL) classrooms. Departing from the presupposition that we interact with the world in a mediated way and that we need to learn in order to develop, this study is based on the Vygotskian theory in terms of learning. Therefore, the Sociocultural Theory view is used to associate silence to contexts of AL knowledge building. In this study, of qualitative nature, interactions between students of English as an AL were observed and analysed in a university in the South of Brazil during the realization of collaborative tasks. For data analyses verbal protocols from the sociocultural theory were used. This paper aims to problematize the possible meanings, influence and, especially, the functions of silence in AL learning. Based on the literature, the silence functions were categorized in three major groups: cognitive, interactive and social. The cognitive function of silence is related to intra-relational, internal questions, such as lexical choices and semantic planning; the interactive function of silence is linked with the micro-relational connection between interlocutors, such as proximity and face avoidance; and the social function of silence has to do with macro-relational questions, such as personal style, gender and cultural identity affirmation. It is studied how the participants explain the use of their own silence in the AL classroom context during the realization of a collaborative task; how the participants explain their interlocutor’s silence in interaction in the AL classroom during this same collaborative task; and which functions of silence were observed by the researcher during these interactions. Thus, it is aimed to help language teachers and other Applied Linguistics professionals to reflect about teaching/learning in a broader sense, looking at the interactions in AL classrooms in a different manner, including silence, so that new contributions to the processes of knowledge building can be offered.