Questão 3171736

Leia o texto para responder às questões de 31 a 34.

Is teaching language an art, then, or is it a science? There are good grounds for focusing on its almost-scientific attributes. Understanding the language system and finding the best ways to explain it is some kind of a scientific endeavor, especially when we continue to research its changes and evolution. In the same way, some of the technical skills that are required of teachers (procedures for how to do things, a constant attention to innovation in educational technology and materials design) need to be almost scientific in their rigor.

Yet, teaching is an art, too. It works when the relationship that is created between teacher and students, and between the students in a group, is at its best. If we have managed to establish a good rapport with a group, almost anything is possible. There are some key requirements in creating such a rapport, yet behind everything lurks the possibility of magic - or a lack of it. Instant decision-making can happen on supposedly scientific grounds, but its success, and the creativity that can be unleashed, is often the result of the teacher’s feelings or judgment at that very moment. For good teachers listen and watch and use both professional and personal skills to respond to what they see and hear. Good teachers have a knack of responding by doing things ‘right’, and that is most definitely an art.

(HARMER, Jeremy. How to teach English. Longman, 1998.pp 32, 33. Adaptado)

According to the author, the answer to the question “Is teaching language an art, then, or is it a science?”, is that teaching language is