Writing instruction according to public-school Portuguese teachers in Niterói, Brazil: A disparity between theory and practice

Abstract

This article, based on a doctoral thesis, aimed to investigate how Portuguese language teachers from three public schools in Niterói, Brazil, understand their work as writing instructors and how they apply it in the classroom. This was done by listening to their versions of reality and their voices in interaction. It also sought to contribute to the discussion on Portuguese teaching in today’s public schools. We analyzed the teachers’ enunciations based on the theory of enunciation, using devices such as focus groups and individual interviews, which were carried out between 2013 and 2014, respectively. The subject of writing instruction was approached with textual linguistics as a theoretical framework. We concluded that the text still exists in school as a living genre, but, as a teaching-learning unit, it is still used as a product to either pass the time, gain linguistic knowledge or learn a technical metalanguage that only addresses the teacher and whose immediate social goal is the classroom itself. Although advances in academic research on language have been substantial, teachers in general still find themselves clueless as to how to work with groups that show difficulties in the writing process – difficulties that are only further compounded by the teaching conditions in public schools.

Keywords: Portuguese language teaching, written production, public school.