A INFERÊNCIA TEXTUAL DE LEITORES DAS SÉRIES INICIAIS DO 1º GRAU

Abstract

This exploratory paper investigates the strategies of lexical inference used by 6 students in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of a public elementary school of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is essencially concerned with the understanding of written texts and its framework is based on Kleiman (1989), Cavalcanti (1989), McCarrell & Bransford (s.d.), Hopper (1979) and Vygotsky (1991). The analysis of the empirical data, though not conclusive, suggests that the reader’s previous world or encyclopedic knowledge seems to be a crucial factor for the development of the text meaning and that the language input would not be activated in the same way for all readers. Changes in pedagogic practices are recommended on the basis of the results.