Keywords

6.1 Introduction

This study was developed within the scope of the Teletandem Brasil projectFootnote 1 (Telles & Vassalo, 2006) and based on the initial results of the master’s research of one of the authors. One of the central objectives of the research in question is to verify the contributions of reading and discussion of literary texts, in teletandem interactions, for the development of an intercultural teaching of the Portuguese language that emphasizes the symbolic dimension of intercultural exchanges. Thus, the reflections that we will present here are fundamental to achieve this goal and seek to demonstrate the relevance of the literature to potentiate discussions in teletandem.

Following the principles of language separation, autonomy, and reciprocity, the teletandem is a virtual modality of the tandem learning method, which, at first, was carried out only in person and, mainly, in places where foreign-language speakers were in frequent contact, such as in tourist cities, border regions, and universities (Telles & Vassalo, 2006).

According to Telles and Vassalo (2006), while in Europe, face-to-face tandem activities are common and easy to perform; in Brazil, this face-to-face activity is little practiced, especially due to the geographical conditions of the country and the high cost of international travel. However, with technological and Internet advances, tandem practices have become possible in countries such as Brazil through e-tandem – a tandem mode by e-mail, restricted to writing and reading – and Teletandem, a computer-mediated virtual tandem, whose idealization and creation are the responsibility of Dr. João Antonio Telles, retired professor at the São Paulo State University (UNESP).

Telles (2009) states that the teletandem came about with the purpose of conducting an extensive distance tandem program that could be useful to undergraduate students and future language teachers at UNESP. The project Teletandem Brasil: Foreign Languages for All (TTB) – implemented on the campuses of Assis and São José do Rio Preto, with the construction of two laboratories, from March 2006 – made this possible, and since then, the activities of teletandem have been intensified and expanded to other campuses of UNESP and universities in different Brazilian states.

In teletandem, Brazilian students and students from foreign universities meet regularly, through online applications with reading, writing, and audio and video resources, to learn each the language of the other and also to teach the language in which they are proficient. From this contact, teletandem participants can not only learn and practice another language but also know the culture of the other, share experiences, and develop an intercultural perspective that encompasses the ways of being and acting socially in the language (Kramsch, 2017; Mendes, 2011).

Moreover, in the teletandem, the Portuguese language occupies a prominent place, and its teaching as a foreign language has been widely disseminated. Portuguese learners from different parts of the world, for example, may experience situations of real language use; and Portuguese language teachers in training may have the experience of teaching their mother tongue, in a different context from the traditional classroom (Ramos, 2012).

The numerous partnerships maintained with universities from different countries – the project’s official website, Teletandem Brasil, presents a list of 23 partner institutions, including the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Georgetown University, and the University of Miami – highlight the expansion of this project and also the importance that the teaching of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) has acquired worldwide.

Currently, the teletandem project is in a new phase, called Teletandem and Transculturality in online interaction in foreign languages by webcam (Telles, 2015a, b), and is configured as a continuity of the TTB project. According to Zakir (2015), the several studies developed during the initial phase of the project brought important contributions to the area of Applied Linguistics. Most of these studies did not focus on the cultural dimension of interactions, dealing with topics related, for example, to the characteristics of interactions and the autonomy of learners (Zakir, 2015). In the current phase, it is precisely the cultural aspect that is at the center of research so that one of the objectives of this project is “[...] to obtain an in-depth description of the cultural dimension of online interactions in foreign languages through the voice and image capabilities of instant messaging applications with webcam” (Telles, 2015a, b apud Zakir, 2015, p. 34).

The recent focus on the cultural aspect of teletandem interactions shows, in a certain way, the differential of this process that consists of promoting to the participants, in addition to learning another language, a rich, productive, and complex intercultural contact, whose cultural aspects need to be further studied, understood, and discussed, since in this environment, although “culture” presents a multiplicity of meanings, often, its conception is still associated only with the idea of “nation,” that is, related and limited to geographical boundaries (Zakir, 2015).

Therefore, this study aims to reflect on practices of reading and discussion of literary texts in teletandem, observing, in general, how literature can contribute to potentiate discussions. Thus, in Sect. 6.1, we will explain how it is the dissemination of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) in the Mexican university and the relevance of teletandem to this. In Sect. 6.2, we will present some considerations about the circulation of literary texts in the teletandem context, relating the importance of literature in this context to the theoretical framework that underlies this investigation. In Sect. 6.3, we will present the methodology used in this study. And in the last section, we will do a data analysis in order to demonstrate the relevance of the literature for this context.

6.2 The Dissemination of the Teaching of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) at the Partner University: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Today, the Portuguese is one of the most requested languages in Mexico’s foreign-language teaching centers. The Escuela Nacional de Lenguas Lingüística y Traducción (ENALLT) of UNAM, campus of the University City, concentrates a large part of those interested in learning the Portuguese language. In the first semester of 2022, there were 588 students enrolled in regular Portuguese courses, and in the second semester, 623 enrolled.

The Portuguese courses at ENALLT are semiannual with a workload of 70 h and are divided into six levels. Every year, approximately 10 first-level groups with 30 students are opened. In addition, students are offered complementary courses, such as reading comprehension, and different workshops in order to assist them in their learning of Portuguese.

The profile of the learner who studies Portuguese as a foreign language at ENALLT is varied and covers the different audiences, such as undergraduate and graduate university students, usually between 18 and 26 years old, workers of the institution, and people from the external community who have completed high school from the age of 18.

In particular, UNAM’s Portuguese learners come from different careers and areas: Latin American Studies, Biology, Communication Sciences, International Relations, Architecture, Hispanic Language and Literature, and Economics, among others. It is worth mentioning that, in general terms, Portuguese is the third or fourth foreign language they study, the second being English or French.

The main purposes for interest in learning Portuguese are academic exchange in Brazil or Portugal, tourism to Portuguese-speaking countries, cultural interests, and the search for job and graduate opportunities (González & Galicia, 2014).

ENALLT students have the services of the Camões Institute, the library, and the Mediateca, a center with resources to learn and practice languages autonomously. The Mediateca is responsible for performing the interactions of teletandem and thus allows independent Portuguese learners and students of regular courses of ENALLT to practice the Portuguese language in a context of real use of the language. Since 2012, every semester of the year, a teletandem group is opened with approximately 15 students, in partnership with São Paulo State University (UNESP), campus of Assis.

Students who participate in the teletandem are always very involved with interactions and regularly ask to repeat practices. However, due to the high demand each semester, often, these students cannot repeat the interactions in teletandem. Thus, the teletandem practices have contributed greatly to the students’ Portuguese learning, as well as to a growing interest in the Portuguese language and its literature.

6.3 Literary Genres, Teletandem, and Interculturality

In teletandem interactions, the reading and discussion of literary texts are not so frequent and common practices. The study by Telles (2015b), conducted with 134 teletandem participants, showed that only 10.44% of the students, when asked about what activities they performed during the interactions, answered having practiced, for example, the “poetry reading.” Also according to this study, the conversation about themes that emerge spontaneously in the interactions was pointed out as the favorite activity of the participants (86% of the answers) (Telles, 2015b).

We consider some recurring characteristics presented by the teletandem conversations as a possible explanation for the occurrence of few practices of reading and discussion of literary genres in this context. According to Telles (2015a, p. 4), conversations in teletandem sessions are often focused on contrasting cultural aspects, daily lives in partners’ countries and grammar discussions as well as marked by differences, often configuring themselves as generalizations

.

For Telles (2015a), although the positive aspects of intercultural contact in tandem are recognizable, these characteristics can be seen as problematic for language teaching and learning projects that aim to promote intercultural communication and intercultural citizenship of students, mainly because they are marked by a certain “essentialism” or, as we can perceive, because they are linked to a static notion of culture as belonging to a specific nation. Therefore, Telles (2015a) states that in order to promote deeper and more critical understandings of intercultural interactions and differences, critical approaches to intercultural communication must be adopted.

In this direction, we believe that the circulation of literary texts in teletandem interactions can ensure participants constructive, reflexive, and critical intercultural experiences, as well as foster the emergence of more diverse and broad themes, which are not just restricted to “generalizing” comparisons between cultural aspects and daily life in the countries of the participants. Thus, we assume a discursive intercultural perspective for language teaching and emphasize the humanizing function of literature (Candido, 1972, 2011).

In the discursive approach, intercultural communication and culture are seen as “discourse.” Thus, culture is understood as historical and discursive processes, constructed in the interaction between subjects who can identify themselves not only by their nationalities but also by their gender, age, race, or ethnicity, consequently affecting their ways of using language and constructing meaning (Kramsch & Hua, 2016). In this way, intercultural communication is considered as an “interdiscourse” communication, that is, the interaction of multiple discourse systems, such as gender, profession, ethnicity, and age, which “[…] intersect with each other and sometimes contradict each other, as a reflection of the multiplicity and scope of identities that people bring along to or bring about through interactions” (Kramsch & Hua, 2016, p. 44).

In view of this, for Kramsch (2011), communicating interculturally demands of students an intercultural competence that cannot be understood only as the ability to put oneself in the place of the other, being tolerant and empathetic, but also “[…] as a matter of looking beyond words and actions and embracing multiple, changing and conflicting discourse worlds […]” (Kramsch, 2011, p. 356).

This being said, Kramsch (2011) proposes the development of an intercultural competence that considers the subjectivity and historicity of the subjects with the purpose of leading them to the understanding of the symbolic and historical components behind intercultural exchanges. According to the scholar, this understanding is only possible if we consider symbolic competence as a dimension of intercultural competence, which focuses on the process of meaning itself. In this perspective, the interculturally engaged and competent individual is understood as “[…] a symbolic self that is constituted by symbolic systems like language, as well as by systems of thought and their symbolic power” (Kramsch, 2011, p. 356).

According to Kramsch (2006), literature, by allowing the understanding of “the full meaning making potential of language,” can foster the development of this symbolic competence, and through it, “[…] learners can communicate not only with living others, but also with imagined others and with the other selves they might want to become” (Kramsch, 2006, pp. 250–251). In addition, Kramsch (2006) states that literature can act on the three major components of symbolic competence, that is, the production of complexity, which is related to engagement in productions that enable the construction of meanings; the tolerance of ambiguity, related to the multiple, conflicting, and diverse realities and discourses of societies; and the form as meaning, which “[…] focuses on the meaning of form in all its manifestations (e.g., linguistic, textual, visual, acoustic, poetic) […]” (Kramsch, 2006, p. 251) and is related to how learners become sensitized to the sounds and rhythms of a foreign language.

In relation to the first component, literature makes possible the perception that human communication is more complex than simply knowing how to use words and knowing their meanings. Moreover, by the symbolic use of the language, a literary work also allows learners to find “[...] alternative scenarios of possibility for life in the real world, other ways of desiring and belonging” (Kramsch, 2006, p. 251). As for the second component, literature can stimulate discussions about contradictions, for example, between words and deeds, as well as can provide the understanding that the “[…] language can be used to support conflicting and historically contingent truths” (Kramsch, 2006, p. 251). In relation to the third component, literary works, by means of their highly meaningful linguistic forms, can motivate the expression into words of emotional experiences that can be recalled later in the various situations of life.

Thus, in general, for Kramsch (2006), literature can contribute to the development of a symbolic competence by providing a greater perception of “the full meaning making potential of language” and the understanding that “[…] communicative competence does not derive from information alone, but from the symbolic power that comes with the interpretation of signs and their multiple relations to other signs” (Kramsch, 2006, p. 252).

Kramsch’s (2006) considerations about the contributions of literature to the development of a symbolic competence and, mainly, the idea that literature makes a symbolic use of language, lead us to understand the literary text, above all, from the concept of “literariness,”Footnote 2 that is, based on certain qualities and characteristics that distinguish literature from other texts. More specifically, we believe that the poetic function of languageFootnote 3 – defined by Jakobson (1987, p. 69) as the “[...] focus on the message for its own sake […]” – presents itself as an important attribute for the construction of the “literariness” of a literary text and, thus, for the elaboration of a “[...] complex and intense organization of language” (Culler, 1995, p. 58, our translation).Footnote 4

We consider that this understanding of literature allows us to recognize the specificities and the great potential for meaning of literary texts. Thus, in order to better understand the specificities of literary works and also their characteristic of acting in the formation of the subject, we can resort to the studies of Candido (2006, 2011) about the relationship of literature with the social environment and its humanizing role. According to Candido (2011, pp. 178–179), in the complex nature of the literary work, it is possible to identify three determining aspects to explain the function of literature: “[…] (1) it is a construction of autonomous objects with structure and meaning; (2) it is a form of expression, that is, it manifests emotions and the worldview of individuals and groups; (3) it is a form of knowledge, including as a diffuse and unconscious incorporation.”Footnote 5

As pointed out by Candido, it is common to think that literature acts on readers because of the third aspect by transmitting, in a certain way, a knowledge that would result in learning. However, he states that the effect of literary productions occurs due to the simultaneous performance of these three aspects. For the scholar, the first aspect, although we usually reflect little on it, is crucial for literature to play its role, since it determines whether communication is literary or not.

Still according to the author, a literary work is a construction in which words are articulated in such a particular way that they become more than the presence of a code and communicate something that touches us because it represents a model of coherence proposed by the writer. Candido (2011, p. 179) states that even if we do not realize this organization of words in a text, through it, we can become “[...] more able to ordain our own mind and feelings; and, consequently, better able to organize the vision we have of the world.”Footnote 6

Thus, according to Candido (2011), the content of a literary text only acts on the subject due to the form, which attributes its greater meaning. Hence, the impact that a literary production can generate on the individual results from the fusion of the message with his organization. Therefore, the formal and content aspects of literary texts maintain a constant relationship, and together, they can increase the ability of individuals to see and feel, since they elaborate a symbolic system that conveys a certain worldview through expressive instruments (Candido, 2006, 2011).

Considering the above, we understand that the contributions of literature to the teletandem context are linked to the potentiality of literary texts to act on subjects, mainly through the highly meaningful poetic language of literature.

It is worth mentioning that in our research, we do not aim to define “levels of intercultural competence” of the students but rather to present evidence that demonstrates the importance of literature for the construction of teaching and learning processes of foreign languages, which provide the learners with broader and more reflective understandings about intercultural communication.

6.4 Data Collection Methodology

As already mentioned, the actions of this study were developed between a Brazilian university and a Mexican university. Thus, the data were collected from teletandem interactions between Spanish students, from the Brazilian side, and Portuguese students, from the Mexican side. In both universities, interactions are configured in the modality of Non-Integrated Institutional Teletadem (Aranha & Cavalari, 2014), that is, they are agreed between two universities, have a certain pedagogical control and the mediation of a teacher-counselor, and constitute themselves as a voluntary activity, not linked to any discipline and not formally inserted in the curriculum of a course.

In this partnership, there are always eight interactions every semester of the year. The sessions take place once a week, last 1 h, and are followed by a mediation session lasting approximately 30 min. From 2020 to the first semester of 2022, due to the pandemic situation experienced worldwide, the interactions between Sao Paulo State University and National Autonomous University of Mexico were conducted entirely virtually through the Zoom videoconferencing application. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, students and mediators used to meet in the universities’ language laboratories to carry out the interactions. In this new configuration, the teletandem participants, together with the project mediators, meet in a main virtual room at the appointed time and are then directed to breakout rooms, virtual rooms restricted to each pair of students. After the end of the session, all participants return to the main virtual room where the mediation session is held, in which participants are invited to reflect on the important points of the conversation held.

Through mediation – understood as a complex process that is developed before, during and after interactions, which is not limited, thus, to mediation sessions (Ramos & Carvalho, 2018) – we helped the participants in the action of integrating literature into the content of interactions, encouraging them to reflect on literary issues and also share their interpretations and reading impressions with their partners.

The process of inserting literature in teletandem interactions took place as follows: we selected some literary texts (short stories and poems), in Portuguese and Spanish, from different authors, and made them available to participants in a Google Drive folder, as reading suggestions. Thus, they could choose some of these texts to discuss in interactions with their partners or even share other literary texts according to their preferences.

All teletandem participants were aware of the proposal for discussion of literature during interactions and signed a consent form, authorizing or not the use of recordings and questionnaires for the development of our study. The students of UNAM were undergraduate and graduate students, from different courses and areas, who sought in teletandem practices a way to facilitate and enhance the learning of the Portuguese, and most of the Brazilian students, in this particular case, were students of Letras (Languages and Literature).

The data that we will analyze below were collected in the mediation sessions and teletandem interactions of the second semester of 2022 and are thus configured as a sample of the initial results of the master’s research already mentioned here. The data were collected and registered through recordings of interactions and mediation sessions and transcripts of these recordings.

6.5 Data Analysis

We chose to analyze here two reports of participants about their experiences of reading and discussing literary texts and excerpts from the interaction of a pair of students. As this study is aimed at teaching Portuguese as a foreign language in the teletandem, the analysis will focus on the considerations of participants about literary texts in Portuguese.

The first testimony is from Luiza,Footnote 7 a Brazilian student of Languages and Literature (Portuguese and Spanish). Her partner, Isabel, is Mexican and has a degree in Spanish Languages and Literature. Luiza reported her experience in the mediation session that occurred after the fifth teletandem interaction.Footnote 8 At the time, the mediators asked the participants if they had discussed literary texts with their partners, and Luiza shared her testimony in the following terms:

I’m talking to Isabel and we first read a short story about…, in Portuguese, about violence. It is the tale “Maria” that was there in the classroom, and we discussed a lot. We saw some things that are similar between Mexico and Brazil, referring to the issue of urban violence, the issue of racism. It was really cool to have this exchange of, to talk and we are wanting to bring more of these types of topics to our next interactions. And the other short story we read was in Spanish, “La Señorita Julia”, by Amparo Dávila. And it was really cool. It’s a fantastic tale that we read. There was no time for us to finish reading because we had 40 seconds to finish our interaction, but it was a slightly different tale with, than Maria’s, but it was really cool. It was a fantastic tale that we even managed to relate to “La Casa Tomada” by Júlio Cortázar. And that’s what we did today. It was really cool this exchange that we had, especially in Maria’s tale, that we talked about violence and that was it. (Luiza, 5th Mediation Session, April 26, 2022)Footnote 9

In this brief report, Luiza tells details of the interaction with her partner Isabel and shows satisfaction with the experience she had. We found that they read and discussed literary texts in Portuguese and Spanish and that each text referred the discussions to specific topics. From the reading of the short story “Maria,” by the Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, it is possible to notice that Luiza and Isabel talked about different topics, such as racism and urban violence, identifying “similar things” between Brazil and Mexico. According to Luiza, the “exchange” she had with Isabel was very “cool,” so that both intended to talk about more topics “of these types” in future interactions.

We observed, then, that the participants had the common interest of discussing social issues and were engaged in talking about more literary texts and, thus, engaging in productions that would enable the construction of meanings (Kramsch, 2006). We consider that such engagement reveals the possibility of literature acting in the first component of symbolic competence, the production of complexity (Kramsch, 2006), since Luiza and Isabel not only identified social themes present in the short story but also related them to their realities and reflected on them, constructing meanings together from the text.

Thus, Luiza’s report demonstrates the importance of literature in the teletandem context so that discussions acquire a certain complexity and for a diversification in the theme of conversations. The next testimony, now by Isabel, confirms the relevance of the circulation of literary genres in the teletandem sessions, as well as presents more details about their interaction:

Well, it is. I started my interactions last week with Luiza and I’m very happy with these interactions, because… It’s always in the tandens I’ve been in, there have always been cultural exchanges, but now in this focused on literature, it is… I love it, because I can share my passion, that is… what I studied with someone who also likes the same thing. And we can analyze texts by looking at the contexts, it is if very distant, but at the same time, so similar. It is as well, it is said my colleague, we talk about the text of Mary, bringing to the conversation the theme of violence in both countries. And we ended up with a fantastic text, it’s… that also talks about a certain reality of women. Although it is a text of 50 years ago, it can continue to talk about social pressure and how it affects people. Because it is a fantastic text that mak a mixture (correcting), it is… makes a mixture, a mixture of reality and fantasy. So, I don’t know, I was very happy because it’s been a long time since I had a conversation like this, because it’s been a long time since I finished mine, mine... my career. Then well, well nothing. Thank you very, very much for this. (Isabel, 5th Mediation Session, 26 April 2022)Footnote 10

In this excerpt, we noticed that, like her partner, Isabel was also very enthusiastic and content with the teletandem meetings, especially because the interactions focused on literature, which did not happen in “other tandens” that she had participated in. We consider that when Isabel says “other tandens,” she is referring to teletandem sessions that did not have as a proposal the insertion of literature in the content of interactions, since the focus on reading and discussing literary texts in teletandem between partner universities is recent, starting in 2019 and consolidating in 2021.

According to the Mexican student, she “loves” interactions focused on literary discussions, because she can share her “passion,” that is, what she studied (literature), with “someone who also likes the same thing.” We realized, then, that the “passion” for literature brings Isabel and Luiza closer and is responsible for promoting an identification between them. Thus, we can understand that the participants share a common interest, which is fundamental for them, although geographically distant, to feel close and have such significant intercultural exchanges.

Therefore, considering intercultural communication as an interaction of multiple discursive systems, such as profession, ethnicity, and age (Kramsch & Hua, 2016), we find, in the experience of Isabel and Luiza, the example of how subjects manifest in their intercultural exchanges not only identities restricted to their nationalities but also broader and diverse identity factors, such as in the case of Luiza and Isabel, the “passion” for literature and a certain identification by gender, since they also discussed the issue of the reality of women in society.

Moreover, according to Isabel, based on the literary discussion, she and her partner were able to analyze texts observing “the contexts,” which she considers very similar, although distant. We understand that “the contexts” mentioned by Isabel refer not only to the contexts of the texts but mainly to the contexts in which both of them are inserted, since they talked about “violence in both countries,” “the reality of women in society,” and “the issue of racism.” Therefore, we notice that Isabel and, in a way, Luiza, realized that in addition to the place and the “walls” of a nation, it is possible to have identifications between people from different nations and also realities in common between countries.

Thus, the analysis of Luiza and Isabel’s reports shows that literature can contribute, especially, to the diversification of themes in teletandem sessions and so that conversations are not limited to cultural comparations marked by differentiation and “essentialism” (Telles, 2015a). Now, with the analysis of an excerpt of the interaction of the participants Miguel and Rosa, we seek to demonstrate the potential of the literature to also stimulate reflections on its symbolic and highly meaningful language.

Miguel is a Brazilian student of Languages and Literature (Portuguese and Spanish), and Rosa is an Early Childhood Teacher and a Mexican student of Portuguese as a foreign language. The two were also very enthusiastic about the interactions and practices of reading and discussing literary texts, so that literature was present in several meetings of the duo. Some of Rosa and Miguel’s interactions were recorded by them and made available to the researchers in a folder in Google Drive.

Miguel was very fond of reading and writing literary texts. In the second interaction of teletandem, he had the initiative to read two poems by the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade to Rosa. The first poem was Mundo Grande (Big World) and the second A Flor e a Náusea (The flower and the Nausea). After reading both poems, Rosa and Miguel commented on the parts they found important and discussed the meaning of a few words. In particular, after reading the poem A Flor e a Náusea, Miguel explained to Rosa that the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade usually have many figures of speech, and therefore, it is necessary to be a little attentive not to be confused with the meaning of some words. To exemplify this characteristic of the poet, he chose a verse from the poem, and they dialogued in the following terms:Footnote 11

  • Miguel: Yea, for example. Here, let me just take an example. Yea, there’s a verse of him, which he talks like…, vomiting, it’s “vomiting that boredom over the city.” It’s…, in this case, it’s, he uses a figure of speech about the question... Yea, in this case, vomiting would be throwing it out, right? Like... he, when he, he. Yea, in this case, vomiting would be vomiting, right? Like you end up vomiting something. But when we talk, we have…, sometimes we have some figures of speech that we can use, which is to talk like, for example, ah I’m going to… (correcting), “vomiting what’s inside you”. I’ve heard, I’ve heard a lot about this from, from my grandfather. Mi abuelo decia (my grandfather used to say): ‘vomit this, vomit, vomit, vomit it out that is inside of you, that is you put out what is hurting you’, you know?

  • Rosa: Estás como, hum, saca lo que traes, lo que te hace daño, lo que::: quieres decir? O algo así?

  • (You’re like, hum, take out what you bring, what hurts you, what do you mean? Or something like that?)

  • Miguel: Yes, it’s something that puede a:::h, that are hurting you, what you’re getting bored of. Then, it’s you, tú puede (you can) pull this out to feel more relieved, para tú ficar más leve (to feel more relieved), para tú ficar mejor (to keep you better), you can say así (so). Entonces (Then), it’s una (a), puede (can), in this case, in this case, it is just a figure of speech. La parte de (The part of) vomiting. But, however, la (the), in this part of “vomiting this boredom over the city”, he’s trying to say something else, right? He’s trying to talk about the question of his feelings about the city, where he’s inserted, there, you know?

  • Rosa: Rosa: Eh, como, como decir expresa tus sentimientos, puedo decirlo? (Huh, how, how to say express your feelings, can I say it?

  • Miguel: Exact, exact (smiling).

  • Rosa: Aunque (Although), aunque we say nausea fades, vomit, like, like si estuvieras enfermo (if you were sick), sick, right?

  • Miguel: Sí, sí, porque cuando guardamos mucho las cosas (because when we keep a lot of things) to ourselves, para nosotros (to ourselves), it’s… we stay, como puedo decir? (How can I say?) It’s… we are mucho (very), mucho, tal vez (sometimes) restrained from the situation. And, and esto es importante para nosotros nos abrirmos con las pessoas, con, con nuestros sentimientos (this is very important for us, we open up with people, with, with our feelings). No sé si estou hablando (I don’t know if I am speaking) correctly, I’m sorry.

  • Rose: Correctamente. Sí, cierto. (Correctly. Yes, right).Footnote 12

We observed, in this excerpt that, in order to explain to Rosa the meaning of the word “vomiting” in the poem, Miguel first presented his partner with a metaphorical sense that the word “vomiting” can also acquire in our daily speech. According to the Brazilian student, his grandfather said a lot to him “vomit it out that is inside of you,” that is, “put out what’s hurting you.” This attitude can be understood as a teaching strategy that Miguel used to lead Rosa to understand the metaphorical meaning of “vomiting” in the literary text of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, also demonstrating that in our daily speech, it is common to use metaphors and, thus, a symbolic language.

It was precisely based on this explanation that Rosa asked Miguel if “vomiting” would have the sense of “taking out” within us what harms us. The Brazilian student confirmed yes and added that “taking out” what hurts us is also a way “to feel more relieved.”

Then, Miguel began to explain to his partner the meaning that “vomiting” would have in the poem. According to him, the expression “vomiting this boredom over the city” referred to the feeling of the “lyrical subject” about the city, that is, about the place where he was inserted. To check if she had understood the meaning, Rosa asked Miguel if she could say that such an expression would have the meaning of “expressing our feelings.” He said yes “smiling,” as if he was glad that his partner had understood.

In asking this question, Rosa not only showed that she was interested in the observations and corresponding to the explanations of her partner but also complemented Miguel’s interpretation and constructed meanings about the poem together with him. Thus, the expression “vomiting this boredom over the city,” from the considerations of the two participants, would have the sense of “expressing feelings,” more specifically, the feeling of boredom that the “lyrical subject” presents about the place in which he was inserted.

For a better understanding of the expression “vomiting this boredom over the city,” it is valid to present some information about the poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The Flower and Nausea portrays the situation of a subject who once, walking along the gray street of a city, feels nauseous. It is what is around the lyrical speaker that seems to cause the nausea and the discomfort he feels. The impression we have is that this individual, during the journey he makes through this city, seems to manifest and express his feelings of dissatisfaction with the world. In his view, society seems to be dirty and sick. However, in the midst of this social context of desolation, the poetic subject witnesses something unexpected, the birth of a flower on the asphalt, which can represent hope in the face of the situation experienced by him.

We note, then, that the expression “vomiting this boredom over the city” is one of several metaphorical meanings present in the poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and only one of the different feelings that the lyrical subject has about society. Even though the participants focused their dialogue, especially in this metaphor, their interpretation of the poem contemplates, in a certain way, the general meaning of this text, since it can be understood as the manifestation and expression of someone’s feelings, as in a situation of “getting something off one’s chest.”

In view of this, we noticed that Miguel and Rosa constructed meanings about the expression in question, from the “isotopies”Footnote 13 of the poem, that is, they made interpretations about the meaning that the word “vomiting” can present in the context of the text, based on the readings (interpretations) inscribed in the text as possibilities (Fiorin, 2008). In this sense, the association between “vomiting” and “expressing” (in this case, feelings), made by them, was only possible because the students perceived in the syntagmatic of the poem something that connected these two words, that is, they noticed that between the meanings of these two terms, there is a relationship of similarity or intersection (Fiorin, 2008), since both express the idea of “throwing out” or “externalizing” something, thus forming a metaphor. Moreover, we understand that, in the construction of this understanding, the word “boredom” associated with the word “vomiting” was of great importance, since “boredom” is a human feeling. Thus, by the interpretation of Miguel e Rosa, the term “vomiting” has the metaphorical sense of “expressing feelings.”

We also consider that this interpretation was fundamental for both to take the initiative in seeking to understand other metaphorical meanings of Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s poem. At the end of the above excerpt, for example, the Mexican student suggests that the issue of nausea, a recurring theme in the poem, could also be related to illness, that is, a characteristic of a sick person. Agreeing with Rosa’s idea, Miguel states that when we “keep our feelings to ourselves,” we can sometimes become too restricted to the situation, so that we avoid opening up to others. This speech adds other meanings to the association between “nausea” and “illness,” made by Rosa, and suggests the idea that often by not “getting something off our chest” and expressing our feelings with others, we can damage our mental health and become ill. Miguel’s speech also suggests that “opening up” with others and expressing what we feel can be a way to avoid illness.

In addition, after the dialogue kept in the excerpt analyzed above, Rosa and Miguel talked more about the poem and made an interpretation about the birth of the flower on asphalt, which we believe is important to mention. Rosa’s attention was drawn to the fact that the flower has pierced the asphalt, because, in her view, for something to pierce the asphalt, it needs to be strong as a machine. Thus, Rosa’s thought indicates that the flower that was born on the street was not an ordinary flower but a flower that would have, for example, the strength of a machine. Miguel, then, agreed with his partner and presented his interpretation of the last verse of the poem:

  • Miguel: And:::: when, it’s when Drummond habla (talks) in this, in this is, in this part here that, it’s, “pierced the asphalt, boredom, disgust and hatred”, it’s, it’s, it’s, he says, I see, I interpret it in this way, as::::

  • Pink: Uhum (confirming).

  • Miguel: I interpret it as if he were saying that the flower took it all away. It not only pierced the asphalt, it also “pierced” the boredom.

  • Rosa: El tedio (the boredom) (nodding in confirmation gesture).

  • Miguel: So, it (the flower) was a novelty. So, because it’s a novelty, it took away the boredom, took away the disgust and hatred that he probably had for the city, there, right? Like, it changed the city’s air for him, right? So, I see a little bit of that from there.

  • Rosa: Sure!

In this excerpt, there is again a reflection of Miguel on an expression of the poem that has a symbolic meaning. For the Brazilian student, when the flower “pierces” the asphalt, boredom, disgust, and hatred, it is as if she “takes away” (puts a stop/makes cease) all these feelings that the lyrical subject probably had about the city, because it is a novelty. This interpretation not only demonstrates how willing Miguel was to share his literary perceptions with Rosa but also shows that his ideas and his partner’s thoughts are strictly related. Thus, considering Rosa’s previous idea, we can understand that the flower, quoted in the poem, is a flower that not only has the “strength” to pierce an asphalt but also to put an end to the negative feelings of the poetic speaker.

It is important to mention that after the conversation transcribed in the excerpts above, Miguel asked Rosa if she wanted to know the meaning of any more words of the poem. Then, the Mexican student asked him to explain the meaning of the word “faded.” At the end of the interaction, at Rosa’s suggestion, the duo translated the poem A Flor e a Nausea into Spanish, in a very productive collaborative practice. This activity shows that both Rosa and Miguel had a great interest in learning the foreign language they were studying, as well as the importance of interactions to enhance the teaching and learning process experienced and developed by them.

Therefore, Rosa and Miguel’s considerations about some metaphorical meanings, present in the poem, once again demonstrate how literature can stimulate reflections and act on the first component of symbolic competence, in the production of complexity, especially, by engaging subjects in situations that provide the construction of meanings (Kramsch, 2006). The data show how the duo interpreted some metaphorical meanings of the poem, as well as created meanings from the highly meaningful poetic language of literary texts, which evidences the importance of the first aspect present in the complex nature of a literary work explained by Candido (2011), that is, the fact that a literary text is “a construction of autonomous objects with structure and meaning” (Candido, 2011, pp. 178–179). This aspect, as seen, is fundamental for the literature to perform its humanizing function and thus become the subjects more able to organize their vision of the world (Candido, 2011).

6.6 Final Remarks

In this study, we present some reflections on reading and discussion practices of literary texts in Teletandem, especially, observing how literature can contribute to potentiate discussions in this context. Data analysis showed that literature can intensely influence language learning, enrich discussions, stimulate the reflection of issues related to participants and human existence, and also contribute to the emergence of more diverse themes.

In general, we noticed that reading and discussing literary texts contributed to the conversations of the two pairs not only focusing on cultural issues marked by differentiation and linked to a static notion of culture but also unfolding into discussions about social issues and literary interpretations.

Data analysis also presented the possibilities of action of the literature in one of the three major components of symbolic competence: in the “production of complexity” (Kramsch, 2006). However, we believe that future analyses of our research will demonstrate that literature can also act on the other two components of symbolic competence: “tolerance of ambiguity” and “form as meaning” (Kramsch, 2006).

In addition, we understand that the contributions of literature to the construction of teaching and learning processes of foreign languages, which provide learners with constructive, critical, and reflective intercultural experiences, are strongly linked to the potentiality of literary works to act on subjects, mainly through their highly meaningful poetic language.

Finally, we emphasize the relevance of the teletandem project for the dissemination of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) and also for Portuguese language teachers in training to have the opportunity to teach their mother tongue in a different context from the traditional classroom. Miguel, for example, was able to share his literary perceptions with Rosa and use pedagogical strategies to explain to his partner the metaphorical meanings of the poem. From the data analyzed, we also noticed Miguel’s concern with Rosa’s learning and his great interest in teaching her Portuguese.