Fulbright English teaching assistants: joint preparation of classroom activities and codeswitching in a practice community of the Languages without Borders Program

Authors

  • William Kirsch Fundação Universidade de Rio Grande (FURG) – UFRGS
  • Simone Sarmento Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/2178-3640.2017.2.26712

Keywords:

English as an additional language, communities of practice, codeswitching.

Abstract

This article discusses codeswitching in a community of practice generated by the Languages without Borders Program in a large public university in Southern Brazil. The corpus presented in this article consists of a synoptic chart with the description of 15 events involving at least one English Teaching Assistant (ETA) and has codeswitching as an integral feature, as well as the transcription ofone prototypical interactional event in which codeswitching happens. Ourinterpretation of the data suggests that (1) codeswitching is a central resource in these interactions, and that (2) these interactions seem to culminate in: (a) student teachers practicing and learning English and English-speaking culture from the ETAs, (b) ETAs practicing and learning Portuguese and Brazilian culture from the student teachers. In addition to that, codeswitching seems to be a style that demonstrates engagement in the community.

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References

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Published

2017-12-31

How to Cite

Kirsch, W., & Sarmento, S. (2017). Fulbright English teaching assistants: joint preparation of classroom activities and codeswitching in a practice community of the Languages without Borders Program. BELT - Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal, 8(2), 209–219. https://doi.org/10.15448/2178-3640.2017.2.26712

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