As tensões discursivas sobre o ensino de Língua Portuguesa a partir do texto e/ou da gramática no campo educacional

Abstract

This study aims to understand the discursive tensions that permeate the teaching of Portuguese Language, especially regarding the dispute between the traditional grammar-based approach and the perspective that emphasizes teaching through language use, within the context of teacher education at the State University of Maranhão – Bacabal Campus. The research is based on the understanding that language is a social practice and that discourses on language teaching are argumentative positions constructed within a field of ideological disputes, where school memories, institutional values, and educational policies intertwine. The study is grounded in the theory of socio-discursive interactionism, the concept of interdiscourse (Maingueneau), Bakhtin’s dialogism, the notion of argumentation in discourse (Fiorin), and the Applied Linguistics (Moita Lopes). The adopted methodology is qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative in nature, with interviews conducted with two groups of participants: undergraduate students in the early semesters of the Language and Literature program, representing beginners, and those in the final semesters, representing prospective graduates. The interviews were analyzed based on the Analysis of Verbal Interaction, considering markers of positioning, dialogic relations, and the effects of meaning present in the utterances. The results reveal that beginner students tend to reproduce the traditional discourse of normative grammar, while graduating students show greater openness to text-based approaches, although grammar remains a reference point. The study highlights the strength of grammatical discourse in the teaching imaginary, the resistance to changes proposed by curricular guidelines, and the contradictions that permeate the educational field. By analyzing the tensions between these perspectives, the study emphasizes the argumentative nature of discourses, contributing to the understanding of the challenges faced in teacher education and to reflections on more dialogic and meaningful pedagogical practices in language studies and the teaching of Portuguese Language.