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

Setting I 89

suggestion in the Teacher's Manual. There is apparently a range of
different attitudes on the part of the teacher educators and supervisors
about this practice, from ignoring it to considering it an open secret, or
accepting it as the last resort. It remains a controversial issue also in
in-service training courses or workshops, and this may prevent discussion
based on teachers' real experience.

Another reason for concern is point 6, or the dramatization of dialogues.
This is often interpreted by the teachers as rote exercise, so that no
alteration of the text is allowed. On the other hand, it is difficult to
expect children to 'express in creative form the events presented in the
dialogue* (INDEZJfEC,1963 TM 1:17) when the only verbal communicative
means allowed are the few new words they are supposed to learn in steps
1 to 5. Parrot-Iike acts, or silence, are likely even if comprehension
were achieved, because of the limited number of alternatives at hand.

The failure of many children to develop oral and written skills in
Portuguese is the result of a number of interconnected factors, 'the most
important of which are of a material nature and can only be superceded
gradually in accordance with the socio-economical development of the
country* <Meijer,1984:7). Therefore, when considering classroom teaching
strategies, it is essential to retain the overall picture of teachers and
administrators struggling every day to overcome logistic and manpower
hurdles of proportions unknown in the industrialized world.

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