Quando aprender uma segunda língua é olhar para uma nova cultura e suas possibilidades para a construção do sujeito

Abstract

Currently, discussions and studies about second language learning in a school setting have gained increasing attention in Brazil. In this sense, the following question arose: how does learning a second language contribute to the child's cultural development? Thus, the present work aims to collect data on the view of teachers in Early Childhood Education facing a second language, as well as their conceptions about the cultural elements brought with the targeted language. The hypothesis defended in this work is that learning a second language and its cultural elements can contribute to the cultural development of a child. As objectives, it was also intended to discuss about the cultural nature of language as a symbolic instrument of mediation between human beings, the others and the world by interrelating language and culture; relate child’s thought and language development to the mental processes involved in the acquisition of a second language; and identify the contributions of learning a second language in childhood from the perspective of teachers working in Early Childhood Education. For that, a qualitative research was carried out in which a questionnaire was used as an instrument of data collection. The mentioned instrument was chosen due to the current context of social isolation because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This way, the data collected in this research took place remotely through digital communication platforms such as WhatsApp and Google forms. The construction of the questionnaire was based on the conceptions of Vygotsky's historical-cultural theory (1997; 1998; 2001; 2004; 2010), as well as in the perspectives of second language acquisition theories proposed by Krashen (1985); Lantolf and Thorne (2006); Ellis (2007); Mahn (2013), among others. The analyzed data showed that, in the view of the teachers who participated in this research, learning a second language when combined with the cultural elements related to the culture of the targeted language contributes to the expansion of the child's communicative ability, as well as his/her cultural repertoire. It was also inferred that in the view of the teachers, the sooner children start learning a second language, the better. Thus, Early Childhood Education can be seen as a favorable stage for the beginning of the referred learning according to teachers participating in this research.