Conversation Analysis and Orality in Written Texts

Abstract

Marcuschi (1977) points out that orality is an important topic to be developed in the classroom. Lamentably, however, it has been left aside, because teachers and those responsible for education do not consider it as an important feature to be emphasized in the mother tongue teaching. The main reason is the focus given to the language teaching in Brazilian schools: the school is supposed to teach writing, and how to write well. Despite the advances of Linguistic studies on speaking and writing; despite the contributions of Sociolinguistics and Conversation Analysis; and despite the overcoming of prejudices, especially on the strict distinction between the two modes, there is still a long way to go. Thus, it is beneficial to bring up a discussion on speaking and writing. After several years of Marcuschi´s findings (1977), textbook authors, teachers, researchers and those responsible for the Portuguese language teaching have another theoretical approach. Nonetheless, in practice, there is still a lot to be accomplished since writing continues to be the focus of the Portuguese language teaching in Brazilian schools. It seems that most of the teachers know the theory, but they experience difficulties when it comes to the practices of everyday school life. This paper aims to analyze oral marks or effects of orality in written literary texts, more precisely in dialogues produced. These analyzes will aid us in giving subsidies to a Portuguese teacher, so that he/she can work consistently and productively. To illustrate our observations, we have chosen fragments of chronicles written by Brazilian writer Luís Fernando Verissimo, published in three of his works: Comédias para se ler na escola, Sexo na cabeça e Amor Veríssimo