Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Literature /41

and his previous knowledge organized in schemata, which provides
expectations and prediction abilities (Cole_l1981). This does not only
apply to 'phonetic to semantic' aspects of language, but also to
dlscoursal aspects, as the phenomenon of Discourse Transfer suggests
(Lopes,1986). Therefore

The difficulty or not of processing [information in a new
language] depends on the familiarity with the dlscoursal and
cognitive structures. (Lopes,1986:98)

The problem of school literacy in L2 could then be posed in the
following terms:

- what are the cognitive demands imposed on a learner who has to
process imperfectly-mastered L2 discourse structures in order to
comprehend (= make sense of) information?;

- can learning be facilitated by acting on schemata as well as on text,
i.e by using discourse patterns easily predictable (in that they are
those of the learner's LI) for the learning of/in L2?

Discourse structures are already well established when children come to
school to learn literacy: can they be considered an asset on which to
capitalize in a 'learner language approach' (Faerch, Haastrup and
Philllpson,1984)

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