Multiletramentos e interculturalidade no ensino de inglês na escola pública: posicionamentos de professores sobre os cadernos didáticos utilizados

Abstract

This dissertation focuses in a theoretical comparison between the text of São Paulo State’s Curriculum and interviews with three teachers from public school. This is done concerning their realization of the concept of literacies and culture, topics that are covered in the Curriculum text. The most recent State’s Curriculum for Modern Language Teaching was introduced in the year of 2008 and seeks to influence the pedagogical practice of teachers in service. This document has been object of study of many Applied Linguistics researches. The teaching of English as a foreign language in public schools can always be investigated regarding the epistemological and pedagogical influences of our post-modern contemporary social condition. This means the processes of globalization and of constant technological media innovation influence the way of thinking of teachers and students in public school. Because of that, we consider it fundamental that agents in this language teaching scene be given voice and that their positions be analyzed, so a comprehension of the purposes of the State and its relation with some teachers’ views can be reached. In this research, we had a theoretical grounding on the concepts of intercultural relations and literacies. These concepts are intrinsically correlated, specially if we consider public school’s foreign language teaching goals of providing support in the formation of critical and reflexive citizens. We do the observation of how a didactic material presents cultural data, and how is it important for literate practices in a foreign language. Inserted in a qualitative research paradigm, the process of collecting data was divided into two parts: the first is related to a documental research, in which we investigate what is proposed pedagogically in the text of the Curriculum, specially in regard to cultural issues in the teaching process, the conception of the term “culture” in the document and its approach of a literacies-based pedagogy. The second part consists of semi-structured interviews with three public school teachers, discussing their vision on culture and if they look for promoting literacy practices as it is proposed by the Curriculum. It was possible, through analysis, to recognize aspects of the relationship between what the text proposes and what the teachers say they do, or intend to do in class.