Imagery of German as a foreign language learners and the disciplinary knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the construction of learners’ discoursive images by mapping the summaries presented in textbooks of German as a Foreign Language (ALE). Therefore, we aim to investigate how these constructions anticipate the kind of insertion that this learner would have / could occupy in this community of production / circulation of texts in the target language. Seen in these terms, the theoretical framework is constructed from the articulation between the polyphonic perspective of language (BAKHTIN, 2011), the notion of discursive practices (FOUCAULT, 2004, MAINGUENEAU, 2008), the disciplining of knowledge (FOUCAULT, 2002) and the relevance of such articulation for a critique of Applied Linguistics from Rocha and Daher (2015). Through the analysis of German as a foreign language textbooks, we observe the construction of a learner image that seems to draw him/her out of situations of interaction, considering him/her as a spectator, who will be responsible for repeating sentences and structures determined by an artificial simulation of communicative situations, rather than allowing him/her spaces of interaction and insertion in these situations. In addition, the materials communicate an image of a learner-consumer-tourist, interested in learning German to make trips, a reality that is distant from the majority of Brazilian learners.

Keywords

• Textbooks
• Applied Linguistics
• foreign language learning
• disciplining of knowledge.