O bazar das línguas: aprendizagem de idiomas e práticas de linguagem num mercado turístico egípcio

Abstract

This thesis presents a research on language learning in the market of the city of Aswan, Egypt, where shop and stall owners speak languages of European, Asian and American countries in daily conversations with tourists. This peculiarity aroused interest in researching this place by troubling the learning process and its apprentices. Its starting point is the following questions: when did the market become a place of language learning/use? What languages are learned the most and why? What does it mean to know languages for the vendors? When, with whom and how do they use the languages they learn? The research aimed to understand the market as a historical-contextual place of language learning/practice and the learning conceptions of the vendors as well as to outline circumstances of learning/use of the learned languages. The methodology followed guidelines of the qualitative approach, oral history and ethnography, consistent with the contours of the investigation and the context studied. The analysis data derived from verbal interactions (conversations and interviews), observation, field notes, documents and bibliography. The main analysis has relied on the interviews transcription with nineteen people (one woman). The analysis considered speeches and conversations with people who were not interviewed but who participated in the research in some way. The methodological framework draws from Lüdke and André (1986), Goldenberg (1997), Minayo (2001) — as to the approach; Alberti (2006), Amado e Ferreiro (2002) and Portelli (1997; 2001) — regarding oral history; Roberts et al. (2001), Rampton (2006), Blommaert e Jie (2010) and Carranza 2013) — regarding ethnography, among others. The theoretical framework deals with geographic-ideological divisions such as West/East and Northern/Southern Hemisphere (SAID, 1997; SANTOS, 2009; 2010) and Western sciences, epistemologies of marginalized peoples and cultures, and knowledge making (SANTOS, 2003; 2004; 2010; 2013; DEMO, 2006; WILTON, NEW A. STEGU, 2011). Besides, it dealt with applied linguistics premises as to research critical and interdisciplinary perspective (LOPES, 2006; RAJAGOPALAN, 2004;) and language practices and the use of language as a social practice (PENNYCOOK, 2010; CANAGARAJAH, 2013). Results indicate that: the use of languages other than Arabic in Aswan is millennial and was stimulated by tourism, at first in hotels, then in the market and on the streets, especially English. In the market, the presence of tourists raised demands on vendors regarding receiving, dealing and negotiating. Interaction would be relevant for those who depend on tourism to survive. Learning a minimum of languages other than Arabic has become a common experience for many. The market has turned out to be a place to learn languages and use them in daily activities. There are those whose learning and user transit between the market and their home, as well as those who seek to learn by observing and imitating models (actors). Vendors build not only linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge on language learning, to the point of using it in attempts to teach Arabic. Some use languages such as English in a thoughtful way. Others with more linguistic skills help mediate conversations between their market peers with fewer verbal resources, creating a sense of solidarity in social practices. The studied context calls into question conceptions such as that one regarding linguistic correction as an elementary condition for commercial practices in more than one language: negotiation, purchase, sale and meeting of social practice needs.