LINGUIST List 19.2433

Tue Aug 05 2008

Diss: Cognitive Sci/Semantics: Rodrigues: 'Public Construction of ...'

Editor for this issue: Evelyn Richter <evelynlinguistlist.org>


        1.    Jan Rodrigues, Public Construction of Knowledge: Language and interaction in social cognition


Message 1: Public Construction of Knowledge: Language and interaction in social cognition
Date: 05-Aug-2008
From: Jan Rodrigues <edson123gmail.com>
Subject: Public Construction of Knowledge: Language and interaction in social cognition
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Institution: Federal University of Pernambuco Program: Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2005

Author: Jan Edson Rodrigues

Dissertation Title: Public Construction of Knowledge: Language and interaction in social cognition

Dissertation URL: http://intercog.googlepages.com/Tese.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science                             Semantics
Dissertation Director:
Luiz Antonio Marcuschi Monica Magalhães Cavalcante Abuêndia Padilha Pinto Kazue Saito de Barros Marianne Bezerra Cavalcante
Dissertation Abstract:

The subject-matter of this study is the investigation of knowledgeconstruction processes, carried out in school institutions through theobservation of face to face interaction among classroom participants in thelesson environment. We aim at demonstrating that the construction ofknowledge is not something individually performed by one subject, nor is itconsequence of pure internalization of information, which is received,treated and stored in the student's mind. On the contrary, it has, in fact,essentially public nature and occurs due to contextually situatedsocial-interactive activity, by the negotiation of versions of reality, andby the sharing of common grounds. We have made use of selected excerptsfrom lessons on several subjects, which have been collected throughfieldwork in fourth and fifth grade public school classrooms as part of aresearch of ethnographic interests, and we have proceeded to the analysisof these data according to an interpretive method, which seeks to answerthe query on what is happening in classroom regarding knowledgeconstruction. This analysis is founded on the theoretical assumptions ofcognitive linguistics - mainly on the social-cognitive hypothesis oflanguage; on categorization studies and processes of conceptualizationverified in the development of discourse; as well as on the interactivepostulates of modern linguistics and ethnography of communication. Ourresults prove the productivity of varied processes of collective categoriesconstruction, undertook within face to face interaction; the prominent roleof collaborative action to the construction of ways of acting interactivelyin classroom contexts; and the broad participation of the subjects engagedin the lessons in the elaboration and negotiation of discourse-objects,which are the touchstone of knowledge construction.