Aquisição de existenciais em contexto de educação bilíngue português-inglês
Data
2022-02-14
Autores
Verniano, Marina 
Tipo
Dissertação de mestrado
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Resumo
Baseada da Teoria Gerativa, proposta por Noam Chomsky (1981, 1986, 1995), esta pesquisa investiga a aquisição de verbos existenciais na língua inglesa por crianças de 5 e 6 anos de idade falantes de português brasileiro (PB) como primeira língua (L1) e inseridas em um contexto de educação bilíngue com exposição de 5 horas semanais à língua inglesa. Enquanto o PB pode se utilizar dos verbos haver, ter e existir para construções existenciais e manter a posição do sujeito vazia (NASCIMENTO e KATO, 1995; VIOTTI, 1999; KATO, 2019), a língua inglesa necessita da concatenação do expletivo there à copula be (there-to be), o que também é conhecido na literatura como there-insertion (MILSARK, 1979; McCAWLEY, 1998), devido à obrigatoriedade de preenchimento da posição do sujeito para essa língua. Essa diferença estrutural é explicada através do Parâmetro do Sujeito Nulo (PSN) (CHOMSKY, 1981; RIZZI, 1982), no qual o PB é uma língua de sujeito nulo parcial, e o inglês, uma língua marcada negativamente ao PSN, levando a processos de aquisição de linguagem distintos. Dessa forma, a partir da coleta de dados de produção espontânea (DEMUTH, 1998) e de produção eliciada (THORNTON, 1998), esta pesquisa gerou um corpus com dois grupos de crianças e as respectivas professoras de cada grupo. O primeiro (grupo A), composto por 6 crianças, recebeu input enriquecido e direcionado (MARCELINO, 2017, 2019), rico em sentenças existenciais; o segundo (grupo B), composto por 2 crianças, não. Com base em estudos acerca das diferenças paramétricas entre as línguas e em estudos sobre bilinguismo e aquisição de linguagem (HERSCHENSOHN, 2000; GUASTI, 2002; SLABAKOVA, 2016; MARCELINO, 2017, 2018), cabe aqui analisar e descrever a utilização do existencial there to be, pelos sujeitos, com observância a possíveis influências nos processos de aquisição, que possam gerar a produção e/ou representação mental correta e incorreta do verbo. A pesquisa se desenvolveu com base no (i) desenho de um panorama sobre a aquisição de verbos existenciais em segunda língua (L2); (ii) na análise da forma em que esses verbos refletem diferenças na representação mental e nos processos de aquisição de segunda língua (AL2), a partir de suas estruturas, com e sem input direcionado; (iii) na análise e verificação das possíveis influências do ter-existencial (L1) na aquisição do there to be em L2. Na análise de dados, esta dissertação fez a normalização dos dados do corpus, para que possíveis vieses de frequência fossem eliminados, e utilizou o software #LancsBox versão 6.0, através do qual foi possível computar o número de ocorrências de existenciais de ambos os grupos, bem como das professoras. Após a análise dos dados através do software, é perceptível a diferença de produção dos grupos A e B, sendo o primeiro, exposto ao input enriquecido, com maior índice de produção de orações com there to be do que o segundo. Os resultados desta pesquisa apontam para a confirmação do papel do input enriquecido e planejado no processo de aquisição da L2 em contexto de educação bilíngue, corroborando a ideia de que apenas a exposição prematura nesse contexto, não basta.
Based on the Generative Theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky (1981, 1986, 1995), this study investigates the acquisition of existential sentences in English, by 5 and 6-year-old native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in a bilingual education context, where they are exposed to 5 hours of English a week. While BP can use verbs such as haver, ter and existir in order to build existential sentences and maintain the subject position empty (NASCIMENTO e KATO, 1995; VIOTTI, 1999; KATO, 2019), English needs to merge the expletive there and the copula be (there-to be), also known as there-insertion (MILSARK, 1979; McCAWLEY, 1998), as a means to fill the subject position. The difference between these two languages can be explained through the Null Subject Parameter (CHOMSKY, 1981; RIZZI, 1982), marked positively in BP (more precisely, BP is a partial null subject language), but negatively in English, leading to two different acquisition processes. Through spontaneous data collection (DEMUTH, 1998) and elicited data (THORNTON, 1998), a corpus was created out of two groups of children, divided into A and B. A is composed of six children who have received robust input (MARCELINO, 2017, 2019) enriched with existential sentences and B is formed by two children who have not received robust input. Considering studies on parametric variation among languages, bilingualism and language acquisition (HERSCHENSOHN, 2000; GUASTI, 2002; SLABAKOVA, 2016; MARCELINO, 2017, 2018), this study aims to analyze and describe the uses of the existential structure there to be produced by the subjects in groups A and B, in an effort to identify what factors play a role in the acquisition processes of existential sentences and, hence, generate a correct or incorrect mental representation of the structure. This investigation was developed based on (i) an overview of the acquisition of existential verbs in a second language (L2); (ii) the analysis of the way in which these verbs reflect differences in mental representation and in the processes of second language acquisition (L2A), based on their structures, with and without robust child-directed input; (iii) the analysis and verification of the possible influences of ter-existential (L1) in the acquisition of there to be in L2. Methodologically, the #LancsBox 6.0 software was used and the corpus data was normalized to eliminate frequency biases. The number of occurrences of existential structures produced by both groups A and B as well as the teachers was computed. Results show a noticeable difference in the production of groups A and B. The input-enriched group A shows a higher rate of production of clauses with there to be than the regular group B. Such results outline the importance of the role of enriched and planned input to the L2 acquisition process in bilingual education contexts, corroborating the idea that simple premature exposure in such contexts may not be enough.
Based on the Generative Theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky (1981, 1986, 1995), this study investigates the acquisition of existential sentences in English, by 5 and 6-year-old native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in a bilingual education context, where they are exposed to 5 hours of English a week. While BP can use verbs such as haver, ter and existir in order to build existential sentences and maintain the subject position empty (NASCIMENTO e KATO, 1995; VIOTTI, 1999; KATO, 2019), English needs to merge the expletive there and the copula be (there-to be), also known as there-insertion (MILSARK, 1979; McCAWLEY, 1998), as a means to fill the subject position. The difference between these two languages can be explained through the Null Subject Parameter (CHOMSKY, 1981; RIZZI, 1982), marked positively in BP (more precisely, BP is a partial null subject language), but negatively in English, leading to two different acquisition processes. Through spontaneous data collection (DEMUTH, 1998) and elicited data (THORNTON, 1998), a corpus was created out of two groups of children, divided into A and B. A is composed of six children who have received robust input (MARCELINO, 2017, 2019) enriched with existential sentences and B is formed by two children who have not received robust input. Considering studies on parametric variation among languages, bilingualism and language acquisition (HERSCHENSOHN, 2000; GUASTI, 2002; SLABAKOVA, 2016; MARCELINO, 2017, 2018), this study aims to analyze and describe the uses of the existential structure there to be produced by the subjects in groups A and B, in an effort to identify what factors play a role in the acquisition processes of existential sentences and, hence, generate a correct or incorrect mental representation of the structure. This investigation was developed based on (i) an overview of the acquisition of existential verbs in a second language (L2); (ii) the analysis of the way in which these verbs reflect differences in mental representation and in the processes of second language acquisition (L2A), based on their structures, with and without robust child-directed input; (iii) the analysis and verification of the possible influences of ter-existential (L1) in the acquisition of there to be in L2. Methodologically, the #LancsBox 6.0 software was used and the corpus data was normalized to eliminate frequency biases. The number of occurrences of existential structures produced by both groups A and B as well as the teachers was computed. Results show a noticeable difference in the production of groups A and B. The input-enriched group A shows a higher rate of production of clauses with there to be than the regular group B. Such results outline the importance of the role of enriched and planned input to the L2 acquisition process in bilingual education contexts, corroborating the idea that simple premature exposure in such contexts may not be enough.
Descrição
Citação
VERNIANO, Marina. Aquisição de existenciais em contexto de educação bilíngue português-inglês. Unifesp: Dissertação de Mestrado. 2022.