Os recursos visuais no ensino-aprendizagem de vocabulário em língua estrangeira

Abstract

The present paper aims at investigating the use of visual resources in the teaching and learning of vocabulary in a foreign language, based on a pedagogical orientation which explores the reading of visuals, aiming at better comprehension of the meanings and usages of vocabulary. Initially, it presents a theoretical reflection which contextualizes the debate about visual literacy. Continuing in the theoretical arena, it discusses approaches to the teaching and learning of vocabulary, as well as the relationship between visual resources and the learning of vocabulary, emphasizing the relevance of such resources for the inference and retention of lexical knowledge. To follow, it analyses the vocabulary exercises contained within contemporary textbooks of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in order to identify, in particular, the treatment given to visuals in the teaching and learning of vocabulary. This paper points out that the selection and use of the visual resources in the textbooks analyzed, rarely contribute to a more meaningful learning of vocabulary. Nor do they consider the interaction between visual and verbal resources, which are an important support in the construction of lexical knowledge. Based on this result, I selected a vocabulary activity from an EFL textbook which contains visual resources for the empirical experiment. This activity was used in the data collection which involved two groups of students. The first group carried out the activity proposed by the book without any alteration. The second group was treated differently. These students carried out the same activity, however, with some additional questions, which explore the visual resources and their relation to the verbal ones, elaborated according to the literacy theories discussed in the theoretical section. The results obtained in vocabulary tests show that the second group presented comparatively more learning of the target vocabulary, providing evidence of the importance of enabling the student to explore the visual resources, in order that they actually become a supportive element in the teaching and learning of vocabulary.