Questões de Concursos

Digital technologies have revolutionized language teaching by providing access to diverse textual genres and authentic communication contexts. Through virtual environments, learners engage with real-world language use while developing both language skills and genre awareness. This approach aligns with contemporary educational principles that emphasize contextualized, communicative learning while maintaining the crucial role of the teacher in guiding the process.

Adapted from: DOS SANTOS, Roberto-Márcio; COURA-SOBRINHO, Jerônimo. Computers in the teaching of English as a foreign language: access to diversity of textual genres and language skills. Available at: https://dl.ifip.org/db/conf/wcce/wcce2009/SantosS09.pdf.

The strategy of inferencing is defined as the process of using available information (linguistic or nonlinguistic) to guess the meanings of unfamiliar target language elements to predict outcomes or to fill in missing information. Inferencing is also commonly referred to as educated guessing. It regards guessing as a special way of processing new information for it decodes texts through the use of contextual clues and the reader's own background. It is believed that guessing is an essential skill for reading, as it enables the learner to cope with gaps in understanding. Systematic guessing helps learners accept the idea that it is not essential to understand every single word of the text to derive its overall meaning.

Adapted from: ABSY, Conceição A. The use of inference in EFL text comprehension. Available at: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/tla/article/view/8639246/6842.

Genre based teaching sees text as discourse, or as the way we use language to communicate, to achieve purposes in particular situations. It is anchored on the idea that one needs to understand and use language to achieve social purposes in a given context. [...] Teaching learners to recognize, analyze and produce written genres will help them participate in academic, occupational and social context in the real world. A genre-based approach to the teaching of writing should focus on identifying how texts work as communication, regarding forms of language as located in social action. This focus on language forms does not imply a focus on grammar, which is detached from meaning and use, but knowledge of grammar that would allow learners to manipulate language in an effective way.

Adapted from: CARNEIRO, Marisa Mendonça; OLIVEIRA, Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto. Writing as a social enterprise: sample in-class activities of a genre-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language. Available at: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/tla/article/view/8650768.

“The reactions against people who speak Spanish are probably not new," says Heidi Beirich, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC monitors hate groups in the US, which they define as any organisation that - based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities - has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. In this sense, the SPLC qualifies as hate groups several organisations that it considers anti-immigrant, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Washington DC-based Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

Also on their list is ProEnglish, which advocates for English to be designated as the official language of the United States. All of them were created in recent decades by John Tanton, a white American far-right nationalist, who died in July of this year. Mr. Tanton founded at least 12 anti-immigrant organisations, six of which have been designated hate groups by the SPLC. The aforementioned ProEnglish is one of the main organisations pushing the "English Only" movement, also known as "English First" or "Official English" movement. Part of ProEnglish's official platform states: "In a pluralistic nation such as ours, the function of government should be to foster and support the similarities that unite us, rather than institutionalise the differences that divide us." The organisation focuses its efforts on lobbying to convince legislators and public opinion of the need to adopt English as an official language at all levels of government.

While ProEnglish establishes on its website that "the right to use other languages must be respected", the group has been criticised by those who consider their agenda to be discriminatory. “They are careful to be called ProEnglish and not ‘antiSpanish’. But it is clear that their ideology is supremacist, referring to English as a symbol of US cultural heritage when this country has never been a project only in English, says SPLC researcher Heidi Beirich.

Adapted from: DIÉZ, Beatriz. “‘English Only': The movement to limit Spanish speaking in US’”. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50550742

by Amanda Gorman

[…]

"When the day comes we step out of the shade,

aflame and unafraid.

The new dawn blooms as we free it.

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it,

if only we’re brave enough to be it."

Adapted from: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem-the-hill-we-climb-fulltext.html.

The integration of technology into English language teaching presents a variety of challenges that must be carefully considered. These challenges can range from technical difficulties, such as unreliable internet connections, to pedagogical issues, including the need for teachers to develop new skills and adjust their teaching methods. Furthermore, there are logistical hurdles such as ensuring that all students have access to the necessary devices. As technology becomes an increasingly important tool in education, teachers must adapt to these challenges in order to make the most of the potential benefits.

Adapted from: BOWER, Matt. Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating Research and Practice. Emerald Group Publishing, 2017.