The teaching of the mother tongue and semiotics: possibilities of reading a fable and its linguistic analysis

Abstract

One of the responsibilities attributed to teachers of the Portuguese language is to form students’ critical reading of different social genres. However, indicative results such as Prova Brasil (Brazil´s test) and SAEB (Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica/Basic Education Assessment System) have pointed out unsatisfactory indexes related to Brazilian students’ reading competence. Thus, it is possible to infer that the educational system needs new theoretical-methodological instruments to contribute with the teacher’s role as a mediator in the process of in-class reading. As French Semiotics focusses on eliciting the mechanisms of meaning production that take place in text reading, it can be a helpful referential to teachers in their approach to the development of students? general reading skills. This study presents a semiotic analysis of the fable O acordo (à maneira dos ... Turcos, The deal... in a Turkish way), by Millôr Fernandes, and discusses how the meaning effects produced by the referred text may be perceived by the students through linguistic analysis and the reading construction process. In conclusion, we present some suggestions of reading procedures as well as for reflection and development of linguistic awareness which might be adopted by the teacher as a possible methodology.