A literatura em um livro didático de língua inglesa como língua estrangeira no Ensino Fundamental Anos Finais do contexto escolar brasileiro.

Abstract

This study aims to analyze a coursebook approved under the 2024–2027 National Coursebook and Teaching Material Plan, designed for teaching English as a foreign language to students in the final years of Brazilian public middle school (grades 6 through 9). More specifically, the research investigates the presence of literary texts and how they are explored throughout the material. To this end, the study adopts Applied Linguistics as its theoretical perspective and draws upon Tilio (2008) and Bezerra (2020) to understand the coursebook's importance in the educational landscape and relevant Brazilian educational guidelines, such as the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC); Candido (2004) and Eagleton (1985) to advocate for an approach to literature that fosters the student's humanity; Brito and Ribeiro (2021) and Cosson (2021) to explore the concept of the literary canon, literature as a source of aesthetic enjoyment, and its classroom function; and Marcuschi (2020)—specifically his proposed typology of comprehension questions—to analyze the questions accompanying the literary texts found in the book. The analysis involved identifying the literary genres and related activities present in the corpus. The research findings indicate that the material includes English-language literature from diverse cultures; however, various non-literary text genres share the space allocated to literary texts. Furthermore, there is an absence of verse texts and a predominance of texts with a narrative structure. The activities and comprehension questions associated with these texts are objective, metalinguistic, and grammatical in nature, as their prompts require information explicitly stated in the text or focus on the form or grammar of specific linguistic segments.