O uso de sequência didática funcional para o ensino das categorias verbais tempo, aspecto e modalidade a futuros professores de língua espanhola

Abstract

The study aims to analyze, under functionalist assumptions, the contributions of a proposal for a functional genre didactic sequence (FGDS) based on the biographical genre, with a focus on teaching the complex system of Tense, Aspect, and Modality (TAM) of Spanish verbs in the past (Simple Past (SP), Present Perfect (PP), and Past Imperfect (PI)) to teachers in training. The specific objectives guiding our research are: (i) to propose a functional didactic sequence for the genre, based on the biographical genre, for teaching and learning SP, PP, and PI in Spanish, considering the complex TAM; (ii) to examine linguistic factors at the morphological level: aspectual modifiers (presence or absence) and functions of verb tenses; (iii) to analyze linguistic factors at the semantic level (types of verbs - activity, culminated process, culmination, and state, according to Vendler (1967), aspectual values, modal values of past indicative forms; (iv) to examine factors of textual-discursive level (figure and ground relationship 1 and 2, according to Chedier (2007)); (v) to investigate the semester and linguistic zones variables, and (vi) to investigate how the FGDS can contribute to the teaching of verbal categories to Brazilian learners of Spanish as a foreign language. Therefore, this proposal is based on the classic North American Functional Theory, considering the studies of Vendler (1967), Hopper and Thompson (1980), Chedier (2007), and Givón (1984, 1990, 1995, 2001, and 2005), on the German approach to Functional Translation, from the perspective of Reiss and Vermeer ([1984] 1996), Vermeer (2004), Nord (1991, 1994, 2009, 2012, 2016), in addition to research on the SD procedure, from the Geneva school, such as: Dolz, Pasquier, and Bronckart (1993), Dolz, Noverraz, and Schneuwly (2004), Noverraz and Schneuwly (2017), Dolz, Noverraz, and Schneuwly (2020), Dolz, and Schneuwly (2021), Machado and Cristóvão (2006), Barros (2012, 2020), and Belinelli and Barros (2022). Regarding the theoretical assumptions of the study of the uses and values of past indicative verb forms (SD, PP, and PI), we selected the works of García Fernández (2000, 2004, and 2006), Pontes (2009, 2012, 2016), Travaglia (2014), Comrie (1990), Cunha and Cintra (1985), Oliveira (2007, 2010) and Araújo (2017), as well as studies on the acquisition of the verb categories, such as: Andersen (1991), Bardovi-Harlig and Reynolds (1995), Bergstrom (1995), Lafford (2000), Laguna (2008), Pontes (2012), and Mendonça (2021). With this theoretical framework, the methodology follows the procedures of action research, with a qualitative and interpretive approach. Thus, our methodological path consisted of the following stages: a) conducting a diagnostic test; b) recognizing the biographical narrative genre through the presentation of the interaction situation; c) initial production; d) diagnosing students' difficulties and problems in studying PS, PP, and PI, considering the complex TAM; e) proposing a functional genre didactic sequence based on the diagnosis of difficulties; f) analyzing verb forms from the functionalist perspective, regarding their uses and values, encompassing the three levels of analysis (morphological, semantic-lexical and textual-discursive); and g) Contrast of the 1st and 2nd productions from the analyzed groups. This research was implemented with students from the Modern Languages Degree – Spanish at the Federal University of Ceará, two groups from the seventh semester and two from the ninth, totaling 17 students, in the academic discipline Introduction to Translation Studies in Spanish, optionally offered. Amongst the results obtained during the FGDS process, we list the following: 1. Recognition of the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that influenced the uses and values of the SP, PP, and PI, as for the linguistic factors: (i) at the morphological level, temporal modifiers (presence or absence); (ii) at the semantic-lexical level, the types of

verbs (states, activities, culminated processes and culminations), the aspectual values (durativity, dynamicity and telicity) and the modal values (realis and irrealis); (iii) at the textual-discursive level, the discursive plans (figure, background 1 and 2). Regarding extralinguistic factors, the semester of academic training (seventh and ninth) and the linguistic zones of the biographies to be translated into Brazilian Portuguese (Castilian Zone, Mexico, Rio de la Plata, and Andean) were investigated; 2. Perception of the importance of FGDS, based on the contrast between the first and second translation, because there were knowledge progress and overcoming difficulties over students concerning the verbal categories Tense, Aspect, and Modality, in the contexts of use of SP, PP, and PI; 3. Appropriation of the biography narrative genre, with the development of language skills, mainly linguistic-discursive capacity in a functional context. We concluded that the students’ usage of SP and PI was conditioned by the presence of modifiers as the PP did by the modifier’s absence, in addition to the predominance of SP in Brazilian Portuguese in PP contexts in Spanish. We also verified that the SP and the PP were initially associated to telic events amongst the students. However, they could evolve into atelic events as the PI goes to the opposite due to the usual reading, which grants this flexibility to the PI. Furthermore, amongst the participants' productions, the SP and PI tended to take on modal values of realis and PP of irrealis. It is worth mentioning that the PI took on

a value of irrealis, which also demonstrates flexibility in this field. Regarding the textual- discursive level, PI tended to occur in the background 1 and 2 and SP and PP in the figure,

which corroborates the studies on the acquisition/learning of the verbal categories Tense and Aspect asserted by learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language, by Bardovi-Harling and Reynolds (1995), Bergstrom (1995), Lafford (2000), Laguna (2008) and Pontes (2009). In addition to these considerations over the levels of analysis, the interaction between aspectual values and types of verbs and the interaction of discursive plans with aspectual values made the acquisition/learning of the distinctions in the usage of Past Tense verbs clearer amongst the students. As for the extralinguistic factors, the ninth-semester groups demonstrated deep knowledge in distinguishing between the aspectual values of past tenses, especially between SP and PI. However, the seventh-semester groups overcame this difficulty in the final production.