The interdisciplinary glossary in the development of lexical competence
Submitted by:
Filomena B. Viegas
Abstract:
Keywords: lexical competence; linguistic awareness; dictionary; language teaching; interdisciplinarity
The Interdisciplinary Glossary project, under development in Portuguese classes of two groups of 6th grade Basic School, in the Grouping of Schools of Paredes, has a support of Associação de Professores de Português (APP). In 2018-2019, the two groups participating in the project, with a total of 48 pupils, were randomly chosen at school.
The project is based on the theoretical framework of Language teaching and educational linguistics, it follows an action-research methodology (Cohen et al., 2000) and is contextualized in the current official framework for basic and secondary education in Portugal, referenced to "Profile of students out of compulsory schooling "and" Essentials learnings ", which involves autonomy and flexibility in curriculum, namely concerning interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinarity promotes the development of concepts associated to disciplinary contents anchored in the learning of the different disciplines of the curriculum (Cosme, 2018).
In this context, the interdisciplinary glossary aims to develop the lexical knowledge (Duarte, 2011) and the linguistic awareness of the pupils, facilitating the understanding of the discourse proper to each discipline. In its construction, the focus is placed on the terms common to the contents of two or more disciplines.
The project also aims to study the impact of the construction of the interdisciplinary glossary in the reflection of the teachers of the class councils on disciplinary and interdisciplinary contents. Almost all teachers in each class council have provided terms at the start of the project and regularly validate the terms chosen by pupils.
The words scrutinized are studied by all the pupils, before integrating the individual glossary, in paper, and the glossary of each class, in digital format, regarding its later divulgation.
The evaluation of the project is based on the application of quantitative and qualitative instruments, designed around the actors, the process and the results and products.
In this communication, we present pupils procedures and outcomes in the construction of the glossary, data of the planning and evaluation instruments of pupils work, and comparative data of evaluation of the pupils in the project and the remaining pupils of the school in the same grade.