This thesis presents a research on language learning in the market of the city of Aswan,
Egypt, where shop and stall owners speak languages of European, Asian and American
countries in daily conversations with tourists. This peculiarity aroused interest in
researching this place by troubling the learning process and its apprentices. Its starting
point is the following questions: when did the market become a place of language
learning/use? What languages are learned the most and why? What does it mean to know
languages for the vendors? When, with whom and how do they use the languages they
learn? The research aimed to understand the market as a historical-contextual place of
language learning/practice and the learning conceptions of the vendors as well as to
outline circumstances of learning/use of the learned languages. The methodology followed
guidelines of the qualitative approach, oral history and ethnography, consistent with the
contours of the investigation and the context studied. The analysis data derived from
verbal interactions (conversations and interviews), observation, field notes, documents
and bibliography. The main analysis has relied on the interviews transcription with
nineteen people (one woman). The analysis considered speeches and conversations with
people who were not interviewed but who participated in the research in some way. The
methodological framework draws from Lüdke and André (1986), Goldenberg (1997),
Minayo (2001) — as to the approach; Alberti (2006), Amado e Ferreiro (2002) and Portelli
(1997; 2001) — regarding oral history; Roberts et al. (2001), Rampton (2006), Blommaert
e Jie (2010) and Carranza 2013) — regarding ethnography, among others. The theoretical
framework deals with geographic-ideological divisions such as West/East and
Northern/Southern Hemisphere (SAID, 1997; SANTOS, 2009; 2010) and Western
sciences, epistemologies of marginalized peoples and cultures, and knowledge making
(SANTOS, 2003; 2004; 2010; 2013; DEMO, 2006; WILTON, NEW A. STEGU, 2011).
Besides, it dealt with applied linguistics premises as to research critical and
interdisciplinary perspective (LOPES, 2006; RAJAGOPALAN, 2004;) and language
practices and the use of language as a social practice (PENNYCOOK, 2010;
CANAGARAJAH, 2013). Results indicate that: the use of languages other than Arabic in
Aswan is millennial and was stimulated by tourism, at first in hotels, then in the market and
on the streets, especially English. In the market, the presence of tourists raised
demands on vendors regarding receiving, dealing and negotiating. Interaction would
be relevant for those who depend on tourism to survive. Learning a minimum of
languages other than Arabic has become a common experience for many. The
market has turned out to be a place to learn languages and use them in daily
activities. There are those whose learning and user transit between the market and
their home, as well as those who seek to learn by observing and imitating models
(actors). Vendors build not only linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge on
language learning, to the point of using it in attempts to teach Arabic. Some use
languages such as English in a thoughtful way. Others with more linguistic skills help
mediate conversations between their market peers with fewer verbal resources,
creating a sense of solidarity in social practices. The studied context calls into
question conceptions such as that one regarding linguistic correction as an
elementary condition for commercial practices in more than one language:
negotiation, purchase, sale and meeting of social practice needs.
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