Desmascarando as fake news no ensino fundamental: reflexão linguística a favor da formação cidadã

Abstract

The present work deals with the importance of developing, in the school space, together with students, new skills that are necessary due to the advance in the use of the Internet and new technologies, aiming to contribute to the student to exercise a critical and full citizenship. The research, built within the scope of the Professional Master in Letters, has the goal of verifying discursive aspects of fake news, in addition to explaining the proposal and application of didactic conduction on the subject, contributing to the approach of this textual genre at school (LEGROSKY, 2020). With regard to the teaching of the Portuguese language, as a way of assisting in this process, an approach was developed that aimed to provide students with linguistic and semiotic tools that would help them detect fake news. To this end, an action-research was carried out (THIOLLENT, 1986; TRIPP, 2005), applied to a 6th grade elementary school class in the municipal education system of Rio de Janeiro, in which a pedagogical intervention was carried out. Starting from the application of an initial questionnaire, which had the objective of knowing the profile of the students and their abilities in the recognition of fake news, several activities were created and applied, with the purpose of providing students with different tools that facilitated the detection of fake news by them. Through these activities, several fake news were analyzed, prioritizing the exploration of linguistic and semiotic aspects for understanding and analysis of this genre. Therefore, the social interactionist conception of language (KOCH; ELIAS, 2006) and the perspective of linguistic analysis (GERALDI, 1984; MENDONÇA, 2006) were adopted. From the analysis and diagnosis of frequent linguistic and semiotic issues in fake news and reflection on them, it was believed that the student would develop reading and checking skills that would allow him to be more alert to the type of information he receives and passes on. In order to observe this development, questionnaires were elaborated as instruments of analysis applied at the beginning and at the end of the intervention and a logbook was used to analyze the classes. The results showed significant progress in students’ knowledge of detecting fake news through the recognition of linguistic and semiotic clues and strategies for verifying the veracity of texts.