Influências do pomerano na leitura de palavras cognatas em inglês.

Abstract

The main objective of the present work was to investigate the effect of knowledge of Pomeranian on lexical access and on the learning of reading cognate words in English. Thus, it was sought to analyze whether a minority language, such as Pomeranian, can bring some benefit in learning English, a majority and hegemonic language in the world. To this end, a language history questionnaire (SCHOLL; FINGER; FONTES, 2017) and an English lexical decision task, based on Limberger (2018), were applied. In the English lexical decision task the participants were presented with cognates between English and Pomeranian, non-cognates, and pseudowords. The lexical decision task was applied before and after the explicit instruction activities on cognates. Therefore, there was one pre-test session and one post-test session. Three explicit instruction activities on cognates were performed: a) "Language Boxes" based on Busch (2013); b) cross-language cognate recognition task based on Spinassé and Käfer (2017) and Broch (2014) and c) reading of an English text with interpretation questions according to the work of Muilwijk (2014). The participants were adults aged between 20 and 50 years, which had at least completed high school, with a self-assessed proficiency level of A2, and that use the English language in their daily lives. The results showed a facilitation effect of Pomeranian's knowledge on English on the response time during the pre-test and on accuracy during the post-test of the lexical decision task. Thus, they were faster in the first application of the task and more accurate in the second application. The results of the explicit instruction also evidenced that the participants were able to become aware of the lexical relationships between Pomeranian and English. Furthermore, a facilitation of reading in English could be observed in the last activity, since the text had several cognates with Pomeranian. This can be observed as each question was answered correctly by most of them. Thus, this research can contribute to a greater recognition of the Pomeranian minority language, since it can help in the learning of a majority language. In addition, it can support the teaching practices of English language teachers in communities of Pomeranian origin so that they can use Pomeranian to teach English. Finally, the study also strengthens the body of studies on multilingualism, lexical access, and minority languages.