Processes of developing materials for foreign language classes in a language center and teacher development

Abstract

The elaboration of teaching materials is a very important issue in the processes of initial teacher education. Based on the concept of didactic material proposed by Tomlinson, in the present research, we intend to focus on the processes of elaboration of materials for foreign language classes in a Center of Languages and Teacher Development (CLDP), founded in 2010, in the campus of Unesp de Assis. Set up as an extension activity, the CLDP is a space articulated for teaching and research, focused on teaching foreign languages to the external and internal community of the university. The teachers are students from the Language course who are living their first experiences as teachers. The project has a team of coordinators, and supervisors for each language who guide the classes (German, Italian, Japanese, English, Spanish, and French) taught by these undergraduate students. In this context, we will observe how the teachers prepare their classes since the project does not have material to be followed. To develop this research we will follow the precepts of qualitative research, since qualitative research involves an interpretive approach to the world, which means that its researchers study things in their natural settings, trying to understand phenomena in terms of the meanings people give to them. (Denzin and Lincoln, 2006). In the end, we hope to answer the following research question: How do teachers, in the process of initial formation, organize themselves in practices of elaboration of materials for their classes in the CLDP of Unesp/Assis?(AU)