Name: RAFAEL TRINDADE DOS SANTOS
Publication date: 28/06/2024
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| FÁBIO DA SILVA FORTES | Examinador Externo |
| GUILHERME HORST DUQUE | Examinador Externo |
| MARIA AMELIA DALVI SALGUEIRO | Presidente |
| MARIHÁ BARBOSA E CASTRO | Examinador Externo |
| VIVIAN GREGORES CARNEIRO LEÃO SIMÕES | Examinador Externo |
Summary: In this thesis we discuss the possibilities of extensive reading programs in the specific context of Latin language teaching in Brazil, and how necessary would these programs be. Here we understand extensive reading as a useful tool for teachers and students alike, since it adapts itself well to different pedagogical situations, goals, and methods. We assume the importance of this kind of reading based on evidence from second language acquisition studies (SLA), which generally favor the hypothesis that languages are acquired through comprehensible input. Such hypothesis may come in both strong versions—under which language acquisition would depend exclusively on sufficient exposition to comprehensible input—, and weaker ones—which compromise, acknowledging the importance of combining extensive reading with other sources of language acquisition. In this thesis, we come to the conclusion that input exposition is still fundamental no matter what stance one might take in the debate. In the case of classical languages, reading remains the main form of input, as well as the main goal of the students who strive for proficiency. However, extensive reading takes time, and there is not a lot of time available for it in most forms of the Latin syllabus in Brazilian universities, the context in which almost all Latin learning takes place in the country. We investigated what could be done about this situation, considering the historical and present context, the general interests of the people involved, and the general strategies employed to overcome its usual challenges. We accessed the history of Latin language teaching in the country, along with its relation to politics and educational policies, in order to properly address the present scenario in Brazilian universities. Finally, suggesting extensive reading as a tool, we point out ways to promote it while minimizing the lack of proper time to read and creating the best Latin library as possible, in terms of extension and interest to the readers in each case. In our conclusion, we affirm that, if one desires to increase Latin reading fluency in Brazil, one needs to work towards out-of-class spaces and meetings that are integrated to the universities, such as research teams, in which reading circles might be organized and reading time would not be restrained by class hours. It’s also important for extensive reading libraries to include modern works—as graded readers—in addition to older books, as Renaissance colloquies and simplified editions of classical works. In order to get used to the syntax, the registers, and the rhetorical and poetic uses of the ancient authors which came to be emulated by so many others along the centuries, we conclude that we need a definition of extensive reading that includes rereading. Therefore, our understanding of extensive reading not only doesn’t reject reading the same text more than once (or reading its paraphrases), but also require it as a habit to achieve fluency in the reading of Latin texts.
