Analysis of writing activities in PNLD English coursebooks under the transitivity system: which approach predominates?

Abstract

This article aims at pointing out which teaching approach to writing predominates in PNLD English coursebooks for the last year of Elementary school. It starts from ideas about three main approaches to the teaching of writing - writing as product, as process and as social practice - and the assumptions of Transitivity within Systemic-Functional Grammar to analyze the linguistic choices present in the proposals for written production activities. It is assumed the analysis of these verbal choices in the instructions of the activities evidences the approach for the teaching of writing adopted to engage the student in social activities of textual production. It is justified that the teacher’s awareness of this approach can help him /her in accepting, rejecting or adapting the proposal. Activities of three books from different editions of the PNLD are analyzed, and the data show the predominance of writing as process, and of material actions required from students in the analyzed proposals. The implications are: evident relevance of the Transitivity System for the analysis of textbook activities, consequently the need to disseminate the supporting theory in teacher education, the vision of writing as a creative and transforming action, and the importance of teachers’ and students’ actions of in pedagogical practice.

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).