Epistemological challenges in Applied Linguistics: corporeality, discourses and identities of a teacher in a demonstration class

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, we aim to shed light on the theoretical-analytical contributions obtained from the articulation of the dialogical perspective of language (BAKHTIN, 2000) and its performative view (BUTLER, 2003; BAUMAN; BRIGGS, 2008). The investigation is informed by a socioconstructionist epistemology of discourse and social identities (MOITA LOPES; 2006), and guided by the applied studies of language in situated contexts (RAMPTON, 2006) with a view to establishing a dialogue between local interaction and translocal/transhistorical dimensions. We begin by problematising the constructs of language, subject, reality and knowledge, key to any politically engaged research aimed at inventing alternatives for issues of contemporary life. We then present an analysis of the corporeal-discursive identitary performance of a teacher giving her demonstration class in a public selection as a way of illustrating our theoretical framework.

Keywords

• corporeal-discursive performances
• socioconstructionism
• demonstration class