Teachers thinking together: novas tecnologias aplicadas à formação continuada de professores de língua inglesa

Abstract

Teaching a foreign language, like any other subject of the school curriculum requires pedagogical training and theoretical knowledge. Nowadays, it is noted that English teaching in kindergarten and in the first years of Elementary School need guiding elements that will meet the teaching-learning specificities of this age group. The AMOP, Association of counties from the west of Paraná, organizes occasional meetings of continuing education throughout the year for different areas of knowledge, providing the interaction between the professionals involved in teaching – including the English teachers – from the affiliated counties. However, since the English language teaching for this age is relatively new, these meetings are not enough, because they happen only during specific times throughout the school year, so they do not correspond to the demands related to the implementation of the language in schools, nor the aspirations and anxieties of teachers. Thus, the objective of this research was to expand this proposal of post graduate education offered by AMOP, through the development of a virtual environment of teaching and learning for access and use of English teachers who work in kindergarten and in the first years of the Elementary School. Also, it aimed to understand the research participants’ profile, to evaluate their interaction with the AVEA -Teachers Thinking Together, and to investigate the functionality of this tool. The studies methodological approach was based on a qualitative research, combining bibliographic, analytical and applied characteristics, it is also considered an action research by supposing that it is able to highlight and interpret the nature that is socially constructed from a certain reality. Served as theoretical basis the studies of Krashen (1982); Brown (1994); Lévy (1999/2006); Cameron (2001); Kenski (2002/2003); Marcuschi and Xavier (2010); Tonelli and Christopher (2010); Roncarelli (2007); Castells (2005); Hack (2011); Moran, Masetto and Behrens (2000), among others. As a result, it was verified that the AVEA Teachers Thinking Together enabled the interaction between the participating teachers, providing the exchange of educational experience and the opportunity of teaching and learning in the same place. Also, it was found that, eventually, it would be interesting to offer some teachers an instrumental training in digital technologies, as this may have been the reason for the low interaction of these teachers with the AVEA. But, despite of this difficulty, it was a significant post graduate education experience for the teachers who are gradually being closer and closer to the digital technologies.