Práxis e educação linguística : mediações do livro didático do PNLD-LEM

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the potential mediation of a foreign language textbook through a praxis dialogue (LANTOLF & POEHNER, 2014) between sociocultural theory, as a theory that explains human psychological functioning, and cognitive linguistics, an approach that seeks explanations about the nature of linguistic phenomena from its interface with the cognitive sciences. Mediation can be understood as intervention, interference in the way the activity will occur. This central perspective in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (1978, 2005, 2007) suggests that learning and development take place in a mediated way through cultural, material and immaterial (or symbolic) artifacts. For Vygotsky, the key to the development of cognition lies in activity. Thus, his theory, inspired by Marxist dialectical materialism, is based on the notion of praxis (VYGOTSKY, 2004), or practice, which is what causes learning, through interaction with other people and with artifacts, in heterogeneous movements that work towards an internalization of knowledge. Lantolf and Poehner (2014) argue in favor of praxis as a pedagogical imperative to the area of foreign language teaching and learning, arguing that the notion, recommending a theoretically informed practice, contributes to eliminate the dichotomy between theory and practice that has been largely discussed and criticized in applied linguistics. Considering the concepts of praxis and mediation, the research methodology developed consisted of the analysis of the teacher's manual and the student's book for the final four years of elementary education in the English language didactic collection Alive! (MENEZES, et al., 2012), approved for the PNLD of 2014, in the light of principles of sociocultural theory and cognitive linguistics. The analysis points to the presence of praxis in the elaboration of Alive!, since the collection is carefully designed for teacher's continual education and critical learning of students, processes projected in the textbook through interlocutions with different authors, theories and concepts of applied linguistics.