A modalidade deôntica na aula de inglês ministrada em português

Abstract

This research, developed under the light of Functionalism and guided by the works of Lyons (1977), Almeida (1988), Palmer (1986), Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca (1994), Bybee & Fleischman (1995) and Verstraete (2004), aims at discussing the deontic modality markers conveyed in the discourse of teachers and students in the interactional context of English as a foreign language (EFL) in three public schools in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará. It is important to mention that in the instructional context taken into consideration for purposes of this research, the EFL classes are given in Portuguese by teachers with very little or no foreign-language immersion, in accordance with the Teacher-profile questionnaire. Having as major guideline the fact that the language is as verbal interactional means, aspects such as a syntactic, semantic and pragmatic-discursive ones were considered. For corpus constitution, three (03) 90-minute classes were observed and recorded for each of a total of six (06) teachers who accepted to take part in this research, amounting to a total of 1.620 minutes of class. The study revealed that during the interactional process considered for the purpose of this research, teachers and students made use of various types of deontic markers such as modals (poder) , expressions (ter que), imperatives and others, to convey shades of semantic load dependent on the situational context of use and/or speaker´s intention. The research also revealed during the asymmetric interaction which is established between the participants of the process here focused on, the teacher is the source and the student, the most frequent deontic target. In addition, the study also showed that the teacher plays a non-inclusive role in the instauration of deontic value. The above listed results would lead to the conclusion that teachers adopt authoritarian postures in class. However, the use of markers of mitigation of deontic value in the discourse of teachers-subjects (by means of verbs of low deontic semantic load or the manifestation of illocucionary force expressed by (por favor) reveals another reality: the softening of the semantic load of deontic modality markers can be considered a strategic means used by the EFL teacher to, among other things, involve students, invite them to actively participate in the activities, ease their learning, instruct them in the use of the foreign language. Thus, it was possible to conclude that despite the teachers’ little or no immersion in the English language natural environment, they manage to use the deontic modality markers in Portuguese adequately in order to guarantee the effectiveness of their instructions and explanations about the English language. Moreover, the study revealed itself productive in the elaboration of a typology of deontic modality in the field of teaching