Contributions of Applied Linguistics to the educational psychopedagogue

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the contributions of Applied Linguistics to the pre-service education of educators and educational Psychopedagogue with a teaching degree in Pedagogy, particularly in regard to the work they do that is directed to the appropriation of writing and its social uses and/or to overcome learning difficulties of that nature. The present approach established a connection between Pedagogy and Educational Psychology due to the very context of the investigation: Educational Psychology Education Specialist degree, offered by a private college in the countryside of São Paulo. The present is a qualitative rese[1]arch that employs content analysis to analyze the corpus, which consists of the written record of a meeting between the supervisor for the supervised practice course and her student. The material addresses the student’s report on the peculiarities of a child who was learning to read and write and had been directed to see an educational psychologist. The report revealed mis[1]guided, biased and regressive views regarding the very notion of language and of the process of teaching and learning, considering the human actors involved in them as well as the very social function of schools. The evidence shows that school practices are still detached from life facts, living in community, different cultures and types of knowledge. Moreover, the evidence, at the same time that reveals a tension between the curriculum of the pre-service education in Pedagogy and the need for transdisciplinary approaches demanded by the social context, also signals an urgency for applied studies on language to constitute the curricular basis of the Specialist degree. The analyses and discussions were developed on the grounds of Applied Linguistics, which claims for more contextualized, inclusive and critical pedagogical practices.