PNLD English Textbooks into teachers’ hands: Interfaces and Issues
Paula Eduarda Michels | 2014
Very recently, foreign language textbooks began to be distributed free of charge for public schools in Brazil (in 2011 for grades 6 through to 9; and in 2012, for secondary school) through the government program called Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD). This event suggests a potentially significant change in the public schools’ English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom dynamics. Bearing this in mind, this paper investigates how public school teachers, with focus on secondary school teachers working for the state of Santa Catarina, in Florianópolis, incorporate the EFL textbooks selected by the PNLD into their classrooms. This qualitative study was conducted with the participation of three public school teachers, each from a different state school, and the instruments for data collection were semi-structured interviews and classroom observation. The investigation attempted to unveil aspects involved within the textbook selection process; the relation between the textbook’s theoretical-methodological assumptions and the teacher’s own practice and orientations; and in what manner issues related to the cross-curricular themes proposed by the National Curriculum Guidelines (PCN, 1998) were approached in class. In general terms, the availability of the PNLD textbooks was viewed as positive by the teachers at least in two of the cases investigated, but some common shortcomings going beyond the textbook were salient, such as the extensive workload, the lack of familiarity with official educational guidelines, the absence of specific teaching education for the teachers and the lack of opportunities to share experiences among colleagues, all of them having impact on the incorporation of the textbook and on the teacher’s performance in class.