Trans, Multi and Interdisciplinarity in organizing the Content of a Syllabus: the study of a Brazilian EAP group of students Cláudia Silva Estima, PhD Professor at Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul – Campus Porto Alegre/ Brazil

OBJECTIVE The objetive of this study is to present and to discuss the experience of trans, multi and interdiscipinarity in organizing a meaningful, relevant and motivating content of a syllabus for EAP students.

Theoretical foundation Complex theory ( Morin, 1995) Language is a complex and dynamic system (interrelationship) identity elements identify how they interact

Disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity ( Nicolescu,1999; Leffa, 2006) object Empty space Discipline Empty space Multidisciplinarity Discipline 1 Discipline 2 Discipline 3 object Disciplinarity

Discipline 1 Discipline 2 Discipline 3 object Transdisciplinarity object Discipline 1 Discipline 2 Discipline 3 Interdisciplinarity

MOTIVATIONS: some background several years teaching ESP for one single course (undergraduate courses) since 2010 for many different courses (technical level and undergraduate courses) In 2011 PROPEL was created

2000 people have participated in Propel´s activities since 2011 from internal and external comunity of IFRS PROPEL A Permanent Program of Languages and Literature

Some of the projects Afrolanguages Project Film: Cinema, Culture and the world of work: an interchange between Brazil/Canada Integrated Practices of Portuguese Language and Sign Language

Some of our courses in 2013 Spanish language do Artisans English Language to artisans Advanced Spanish

Film, Culture and the World of Work: an interchage between Brazil and Canada Coordenação: Profª Cláudia Silva Estima

Afrolanguages Project Coordinators: Profªs Aline Ferraz e Renata Severo

Integrated Practices of Portuguese Language and Sign Language Coordinator: Profª Carolina Sperb

Spanish and English Language Courses for Artisans Coordinators: Profªs Cláudia Estima e Natalia Labella-Sánches

What? Who? Where? What? For how long? an experiment which took place at the IFRS– Campus Porto Alegre/ Brazil, in 2013 a group of Information Technology undergraduate students, the language teacher of the group and other teachers of the same course a 54 hour ESP course teaching of reading strategies use of texts taken from the teachers´s suggestions Questionnaire at the end of the course

The teachers of the group indicated a series of sources for the readings which they considered relevent to their subjects. The texts were selected from a variety of sites available in the internet (different genres, language registers, vocabulary, grammar) At any text presented, it was reenforced the relationship of that text to the students curriculum. Some texts were used in both language and subject matter class.

Results The teacher: texts were intuitively selected under the concepts of the trans, multi and interdisciplinarity approach (systems without stable boundaries between disciplines) from which a learning situation was created specially designed for the needs of that group. The students: “ It´s a lot better to work with texts of our area of interest because it is motivating”. “Because the text were related to our area of study, we feel more willing to learn.” “The topics are related to our course, and because of it they are important.” “And it saves our time!” “.... but if we could have has some more translation.”

Thank you!