Formação continuada do professor de língua inglesa: contribuições de um curso preparatório para o Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT)

Abstract

There are numerous studies that have dealt with the continuing education of English teachers, in the sense of making it possible to critically reflect on pedagogical practice, contributing to the improvement of the quality of education. Nonetheless, many teachers complain about the lack of spaces to practice the language outside the classroom where they work, even though the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (the law and guidelines of the Brazilian Educational System), from 1996, determines the maintenance of continuing education and the valorization of education professionals, including workload reserved for studies. In addition, the numerous beliefs about the poor quality of language teaching – such as that it is not possible to learn English in public schools – coming from the most diverse social segments, makes the blame now fall on the conditions of the school and on the lack of commitment of the State/states, sometimes in the demotivation of the student, and time and again, and more strongly, in the teacher’s education. Given this scenario, we proposed a continuing education (CE) course to work on language issues and the fundamentals of learning and teaching, coupled with a preparation for the international Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) from the University of Cambridge. This test was chosen because it is the only one for teachers in the Brazilian territory that does not require prior qualification, completion work, tutoring or participation in a course, and that can be done by teachers with or without teaching experience, it can be taken in pre-service, involves all educational age groups, and presents relevant content for English teachers. We defend the thesis that a CE preparatory course to the TKT can entail contributions for English teachers of Basic Education. Thus, the following question guided this research: what are the contributions of a preparation course for the TKT for Basic Education English teachers? Ergo, our general objective of the research was to verify if and how this preparation contributes to the continuing education of these teachers. To do so, this work considered the theoretical (Applied Linguistics) and methodological perspectives (case study, and action research); and the type of research (qualitative/interpretivist). The research agents were seven English teachers from the Núcleo de Educação (Education Center) of Toledo-PR and the data generation instruments included questionnaires, field notes, and mocks. The research results showed that the TKT preparation helped teachers to develop a better understanding of the concepts and terminology for describing language and language skills, and the background to language teaching and learning – meeting many themes addressed by the current English guiding documents of Basic Education –, as well as it enabled a space for reflection that made it possible to revisit certain beliefs that impact the English teaching and learning.