Representations of concepts of language, teaching and learning and of roles in the discourse of English teachers

Abstract

This article discusses the representations of in service teachers of English about their concepts of language, teaching and learning and also about their Brazilian English teacher education course. Representations involve all the knowledge built by individuals and express the control they have over the world (Fairclough, 2003, p. 28). Therefore, I discuss the socio-historically meanings constructed by in service English teachers. To analyze those representations, I use Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2003) and Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). Although we have identified some conceptual contradictions which indicate that the teachers are in a process of “digesting” those concepts, the analysis demonstrates that the participants, as a rule, are capable of construing contemporary concepts of language, teaching and learning.