Estudos sobre textos do livro didático público de língua inglesa: aspectos socioculturais e pragmáticos.

Abstract

The present work has as the object of study the English Language Public Textbook, provided by the state of Parana to High School students and teachers. This textbook, created during a Teachers´ Continuing Education Project which motivated them to develop lesson plans according to the directions given by the Paraná Curriculum Guidelines for Foreign Language, is innovative and intends to be an extra aid for lesson planning, but not the only one. In the absence of a teachers´ book and a grammatical progression, it has been verified that teachers have found it difficult to use this textbook because they are not sure how it should be used, in fact. By analyzing the official documents for foreign language teaching in Brazil, the methods and approaches that have been used and which concepts of language underlie them, we understand the importance of textbooks in general, and of the Public Textbook in particular, in the development of the basic education objectives for foreign language, which go beyond the linguistic-grammatical matters. Considering the English language as a lingua franca, as put by Graddol (2006), Rajagopalan (1998) Siqueira (2008), amongst others, and realizing that the methods and approaches are not enough to cater for the learning needs, it seems clear that a study that takes into consideration the socio-cultural language diversity must be prioritized when working with the English Language Public Textbook. Observing the relation between language and culture as studied by Kramsch (1993, 1996, 1998) and the relation between teaching English and pragmatic as studied by Hymes (1968) and Widdowson (1978), socio-cultural and pragmatic aspects which can be explored in English language lesson were analysed in texts from the English Language Public Textbook. Thus, the English language lessons can be a space of formation and transformation, which does not privilege only the formal (grammatical) aspects of the language.