A elaboração de tarefas baseadas em materiais autênticos: ampliando possibilidades de práticas sociais em uma aula de inglês para o ensino médio

Abstract

Teaching English as an additional language in Brazil is considered as an access to the world of knowledge, because it is in English classes that students have the opportunity to reflect on the English that surrounds them in the world and to read texts in an additional language they didn't know until then. (SCHLATTER; GARCEZ, 2012). Understanding that in using language, people perform many social practices on a daily basis (CLARK, 2002) and the assumption that these students should use English in order to play other roles in and outside the English language class, this paper aims to analyze the role that pedagogical tasks based on authentic texts play teaching English in a regular school context. In order to analyze the data, I affiliate the definition of authentic material by Schlatter and Garcez (2009) with the concept of task as an invitation to act in the world: an action, a specific purpose for a given interlocutor. (BRAZIL, 2006). Therefore, I analyze the design of pedagogical tasks, from a perspective of project-based learning (BARBOSA, 2004; FRIED-BOOTH, 2002; HERNÁNDEZ, 2004; NOGUEIRA, 2005; STOLLER, 2002), based on authentic texts, used by myself in English classes for the first year of high school groups at a state school. The results of this study show that through tasks based on authentic materials, we enlarge the possibilities for students to recognize English texts from specific contexts, purposes and interlocutors, and to produce their own writing, sharing their English narratives and interacting with others who can read these texts. In addition, exploring these authentic resources through pedagogical tasks enables students to reflect on cultural and social issues shared in English as an additional language, enabling students to learn about other realities, reflect on themselves and the language in use.