FROM SPEECH TO WRITING: THE INFLUENCE OF ORALITY ON THE TEXTUAL PRODUCTION OF 6TH GRADE STUDENTS
Orality. Textual production. Linguistic variation. Teaching.
This study explores how orality influences school writing, with a specific focus on spoken language features that emerge in the written texts of 6th grade students in elementary school. The research was motivated by a diagnostic activity conducted at the beginning of the academic year, which revealed strong traces of orality in students’ writing, particularly phonological variations such as the omission of phonemes, substitutions between /r/ and /l/, and phonetic spelling. The main objective is to examine how orality affects students’ formal writing and to propose pedagogical strategies that foster the teaching and learning of standard language without devaluing their everyday forms of expression. The theoretical foundation draws on key authors, including Bagno (1999), Bortoni-Ricardo (2004), Marcuschi (2001), Faraco (2008), Rojo (2009), Soares (2002), and Cagliari (2002), who address topics such as orality, linguistic variation, literacy, and the teaching of standard grammar. The methodology is based on action research with a qualitative, interpretative approach focused on everyday classroom practices. The study will be carried out in a public school in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, analyzing texts written by a group of 16 students aged 11 to 13, as part of a didactic sequence centered on the complaint letter genre. Data collection will involve written texts, field notes, photographs, conversation circles, and questionnaires. The expected outcomes include fostering students’ linguistic awareness, valuing the linguistic diversity present in the school environment, improving pedagogical practices related to writing instruction, and enhancing the teaching practice of the teacher-researcher.