A look at the process of acquisition/learning of second language in a language school: the role of genres, formats and multimodality

Abstract

The objective of this research is to try to understand the acquisition/learning processes of a child who, since 1 year and 3 months old, attends private English lessons in a language school. The case studied differs from the contexts of bilingual schools and language schools, among other factors, including the fact that the interaction between child-teacher always happens in English, that there is only a child in the classroom and there is a proposal of an interaction closer to the child, with games etc. From the dialogic-discursive perspective (BAKHTIN/VOLOSHINOV, 1995; DEL RÉ, DE PAULA, MENDONÇA, 2014) and also considering the speech genres in dialogue with the notion of formats (BRUNER, 1975, among others) and multimodality (CAVALCANTE, 2015,1019), we observed and discussed the elements in the interaction and the constitution of this subject entering the second language. The transcription of the data was made using CHAT standards of the CLAN program, provided for free by the CHILDES database (MACWINNEY, 2000). It was analyzed the data between 2;10 years old and 3.7 years old. The results show presence of elements in this interaction that support the second language acquisition/learning process. The genres and formats support the entry into L2 with an interaction very close to the one seen in family sphere, such as affectivity, proximity between the child and the teacher, freedom to choose, among others. Furthermore, the multimodal elements anchor this interaction, enabling G. to have a responsive attitude since the beginning of the interaction in this school environment.