Resonances of an “Ungenred” Language Conception in the Speech of Foreign Language Student-Teachers

Abstract

This paper discusses the linkage of Bakhtin's theory of genres (BAKHTIN, 2011 [1953/1979]) with foreign language learning and teaching. In order to illustrate our debate, we present, through written productions, speeches produced by students of the discipline Teaching Practice of Spanish of degree course in Language from a public institution of Higher education located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Such productions reflect an “ungenred” treatment (FANJUL, 2012) concerning to the genres approach in the classroom, which ends up promoting an abandonment of verbal materiality, thereby, neglecting the linguistic, grammatical and textual elements. The pedagogical tendency towards this type of approach reveals not only a reductive reading of the Bakhtinian perspective, but also discursive resonances (SERRANI, 2010) that impact the language conception of the teachers in initial education, since they disregard the crossing of the compositional and stylistic dimensions in the reflection on the discourse genres. In addition, we reflect on the way in which the theoretical discourse on genres in the pedagogical field has contributed to the favoring of a zone of proximal development (VIGOTSKI, 1991).