Abordagem comunicativa e estudo do léxico: o vocabulário em livros didáticos de Português como língua estrangeira

Abstract

The question faced by teachers of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL) is: What vocabular should we teach? The conventional answer, teaching vocabular from textbooks, seems inadequate. Research conducted by the Center for Applied Second Language Studies (2010) indicates that despite four years of learning the same language in American high schools, most students achieve the proficiency of an upper beginner (novice high according to the ACTFL, with only a small fraction reaching low intermediate level as defined by ACTFL. This suggests that the lengthy word lists and vocabular teaching activities in textbooks do not promote lexical learning. This thesis aims to analyze vocabular instruction in three textbooks for teaching Portuguese as a Foreign Language in American schools and universities. The selected corpus includes “Muito Prazer: Fale o Português do Brasil,” “Ponto de Encontro: Portuguese as a World Language,” and “Bate-Papo: na introduction to Portuguese” targeting beginner and intermediate levels. The theoretical framework draws from communicative approach introduced by Hymes (1970), Canale & Swain (1980), Richards & Rogers (1986), and Almeida Filho (2009). The role of textbooks in language learning is analyzed based on studies by Cunningsworth (1995), Scaramucci, Diniz & Stradiotti (2009), Baião (2018), and Azevedo & Tomitch (2019). The theoretical foundation for vocabular instruction comes from the works of Leffa (2000), Nation (2006), Nation &Webb (2017), and Folse (2020). The analysis reveals a predominant structural approach with a communicative façade in the textbooks, despite authors claiming a communicative focus. Vocabulary remains peripheral, and word lists based on unit themes continue to follow subjective criteria