Experiências de produção textual e apropriação do letramento acadêmico por estudantes universitários em Moçambique

Abstract

The widespread argument that university students from Mozambique have difficulties in academic textual production due to the linguistic limitations caused by the acquisition of Portuguese/L2, is the problem that raises the realization of this investigation. It is argued in this research that the difficulties expressed by Mozambican students in academic writing are the result of limited experiences with this type of literacy practice, especially from a socially and culturally sensitive perspective, both in secondary school and at university. Supported by two theoretical approaches: sociocultural approach of literacy Street (2014 2003); Gee (1991); Kleiman (2008); Barton and Hamilton (2004) and, in particular, of Academic Literacy (Lea; Street, 1998 2014; Lillis; Scott, 2007; Fischer, 2007); and in the socio-historical-ideological perspective of the language of the Circle (Bakhtin, 1997 [2006]), with regard to the theory of discourse genres, this study has the general objective: to understand how the experiences of textual production of students of the 3rd year of the Degree course in Portuguese Teaching, Licungo University, contribute to the appropriation of academic literacy. Methodologically, it is a qualitative-interpretative research, carried out with 18 students enrolled in the 3º year of the course and in the aforementioned university, in Mozambique. For the construction of information in the field, two devices were used: online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, as well as the consultation of official documents, such as the Curriculum Plan of the Degree Course in Portuguese Teaching (CPDCPT). For the analysis of information in the field, Bardin's Categorical Content Analysis (ACC) was elected (2016), which enabled the creation of two categories a) technical-instrumental perspectives of students on textual production in their own academic trajectory; and b) critical perspectives of students on the experiences of textual production during their own academic trajectory, from the recording units emerged from the responses to the questionnaires and interviews with the participants. The results of the research showed that, through the experiences of textual production, students were able to appropriate more technical-instrumental skills, such as the correct use of discursive connectors, the application of grammatical rules: accentuation and punctuation, in addition to the use of APA technical standards and the selection of reliable sources for research, in databases. However, although these skills are important for the development of academic literacy, there was an excessive focus on these aspects to the detriment of the skills of communicative skills, such as the development of critical thinking, the ability to produce texts according to disciplinary specificities and the construction of argumentative skills according to discursive genres, which demonstrates the need to carry out text production activities that consider these situational aspects and greater support for teachers, as literacy agents, for academic writing.