A aprendizagem do presente do subjuntivo do espanhol por alunos brasileiros: um estudo com foco na forma

Abstract

The teaching of Foreign Languages (FL), specifically Spanish, requires much more than linguistic knowledge from the teacher, it requires knowledge of theoretical issues and pedagogical procedures. To support Brazilian pre-service Spanish teachers, this thesis brings Focus on Form Instruction (FFI) as support to the teaching and learning processes and intends to investigate how Brazilian students develop their learning process regarding the present subjunctive in Spanish language, especially when using the conjunctions cuando, aunque and the relative pronoun donde. In the pilot test, which was conducted a semester before the actual research, errors were detected in the use (or non-use) of the verb form, a phenomenon that was very similar to the Portuguese usage, which end ed upon interfering with the acquisition of the target form. The research was conducted with intermediate level students, future Spanish teachers at a private institution in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The research, under stood as action research, was guided by qualitative and quantitative traits in the choice of principles and criteria for the preparation and procedures for collecting and analyzing data. As a theoretical basis for this research we used the s tudies by Spada (1997, 2008, 2010) and Ellis (2001, 2006, 2009). Students participated in five research stages: pre-test; class-treatment; immediate post-test, delayed post-testandnarrative interview. For oral and written assignments, and class treatment, resources such as the Edmodo Platform and the Programme Team Speak voice recording were used. The tests were developed by following the ideas by Norris and Ortega (2000, 2001) and contemplated the following tasks: filling gaps, multiple choice exercise, controlled questions and answers, description of image, and story creation. In all activities, participants were supposed to use (or not) the present subjunctive in Spanish. During the analysis and discussion of the results, it was possible to realize the existing misconception and how the FFI was beneficial for learning the present subjunctive in Spanish, more specifically, with adverbial conjunctions aunque, cuando and the relative pronoun donde . Thus, this thesis corroborates the idea that a more explicit and focused approach to the teaching of specific grammatical forms can be beneficial for Brazilian students who study Spanish as a foreign language.