A importância do ensino da pontuação nas séries iniciais: fundamentos para a compreensão e expressão escrita

Abstract

This research investigates teaching methods among Brazilian researchers and teachers when teaching punctuation in the early years of public and private schools. The main objective was to review Brazilian literature on punctuation in the context of initial learning of written language in schools. In order to observe the criteria on which researchers based their research, a temporal cut was made of the last 20 years (2000 to 2020) focusing on the main authors of that period, with theoretical support from authors who trace a historical and conceptual line regarding the emergence of punctuation up to the present day. This investigation is based solely on Brazilian researchers, as we believe that this topic is relevant both for academic research and for teachers in training. This research relied on articles from electronic journals, master's dissertations, and doctoral theses. For theoretical discussions, authors such as Rocha (1997) are considered, highlighting the late emergence of punctuation marks and uncertainties in their historical evolution. In Leal and Guimarães (1999), an attempt is made to understand the main challenges that early years teachers face in teaching punctuation, as the authors clarify that teachers do not master the normative rules and that practice activities are constructed in isolated sentences. As punctuation teaching evolves, authors like Vieira (2012) present in their work the perception that children bring to their texts through questioning and dialogue during writing activities. In Dahlet (2002) and Saleh (2017), enunciative punctuation and the configuration of narratives in children's news are studied, based on discourse in the construction of meaning effects in the language acquisition process. In Chacon (2003), orality and literacy in the construction of punctuation are part of specific textual genres and in the everyday written productions of children. It is expected that this research will contribute to the teaching of punctuation at different school levels in the early years, and that the presented methodologies will contribute to the students' learning, revealing the importance of mastering and reflecting on the uses and functions that punctuation marks have in each specific genre. It is important to emphasize that in the analyses conducted, the authors of this research emphasize that text and punctuation go hand in hand, and their main function is to make visible, through the teachers' teachings in the classroom, punctuation as a visible mark in the text. As society evolves, teaching children to reflect on and construct their own texts and punctuate them will empower students to become their own authors, fostering critical thinking and mastery of the grammar rules learned in the classroom.