Manuais para o Ensino de Segundas Línguas em Contexto Universitário Europeu: Que Abordagem Metodológica?

Abstract

Starting with a brief review of the literature about language materials development, and questioning, in particular, the presentation, practice and production (PPP) methodology that tends to be adopted in most materials designed for learning English as a second language, the text presents some conclusions derived from an analysis of textbooks designed for learning other languages that aimed to better understand the methodological guidelines that characterize them. With this purpose, we analysed eight textbooks, adopted in European universities for teaching four Romance languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian), using the general framework proposed by Littlejohn (1998, 2011), and highlighting, in particular, how the procedures for materials development are reflected in their methodology, as well as in the roles proposed for teachers, learners and the manual, in the learning process. The analysis reveals, in short, that although the textbooks announce relevant methodological principles, globally, the activities do not reflect these guidelines. On the other hand, the sections in each unit usually follow a sequence of presentation, practice and production, also reflecting the influence of some assumptions supported by the Communicative Language Teaching Approach in its more moderate version, whose principles are currently being questioned by some investigations carried out in the area of Second Acquisition Languages (SLA). These results lead us to conclude that still exists a widespread gap between the area of materials development and SLA, whose interaction could contribute to a greater support of the two domains.