Academic Literacy: history of literacy and expectations about the writing practices of the Languages Course

In this article, I analyze the history of literacy of a student taking up the Languages Course from a private university in the city of São Paulo. Backed up by reflections from the theoretical field of the New Literacy Studies, I investigate how the student’s previous literacy history and her contact with speeches about writing had an impact on the development of expectations about the writing practices in the Languages course. To this end, I refer to stretches in a transcription from a semi-structured interview held in 2009, when the participant in the research was in the first semester of the course. The analysis undertaken herein aims to show that the understanding of the previous literacy history of the public entering university can collaborate so that the academic writing conventions and, in turn, those of the academic genres are not presented to the students as something part of the common sense, rather, as something which can be taught.    

A LITTLE HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC IN BRAZIL: INTERVIEW WITH JOSÉ BORGES NETO

We are pleased to present this edition of the journal Language & Letters, interview courtesy Professor José Borges Neto, researcher recognized for the excellent work that develops in Linguistics with an emphasis in Philosophy of Language. Professor holds a degree in Literature from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (1972), MA in Linguistics from the State University of Campinas (1979) and PhD in Linguistics from the State University of Campinas (1991). Professor of the Federal University of Paraná between 1999 and 2010. Retired in 2010, continues to serve as Senior Lecturer in the Graduate Program in Linguistics UFPR and a senior professor at Unioeste in the period 2012-2016. Has experience in the area of ​​linguistics, with an emphasis on semantics, acting on the following topics: Epistemology of Linguistics, Linguistics Historiography, Formal Semantics and Categorial Grammars.

GLOSSARY HISTORY OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

The project for the History of Brazilian Portuguese (PHPB), in celebration of its fifteen years of activity, intends to publish in 2012 a series of books with the previous studies on the Portuguese of Brazil. Among the projected volumes, the fourth one will be dedicated to the history of Brazilian Portuguese lexicon, made ​​from data corpora collected and organized by the different regional teams of the Project. In this article, we present a brief review on similar lexicographical works, published in Brazil, on some ongoing projects of this nature; we also treat the objectives, the adopted methodology and the first steps towards achieving such a bold undertaking.

A HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE TEACHING MANUALS IN BRAZIL, IN THEIR VARIOUS LANGUAGES

This article aims to study the historical constitution of Portuguese Language Teaching Manuals in Brazil (PLT) in Brazil. To do this, we offer firstly an overview view of research on these Teaching Manuals as used in schools and in Portuguese language classes throughout the whole time they have existed. From this extensive period we draw attention to some historical perspectives that have decisively changed the direction of PLT, its classes and the day to day life in schools. From these we shall single out the public policies regarding quality pertaining to the National Program for Teaching Manuals (NPTM) and to the National Program for Teaching Manuals for High Schools, specifically and for 2015 (NPTMHS 2015). We seek theoretical support in: Comenius (1954), Oliveira et al. (1984), Soares (1986, 1998, 2001), Bittencourt (1993), Freitag et al. (1993), Munakata (1997), Coracini (1999), Batista (2001, 2003, 2004), Batista and Costa Val (2004), Bunzen (2001, 2005, 2009), Bunzen and Rojo (2008) Rojo and Batista (2008), among others. The result of this research will give a history of PLT made up of diverse social and political factors, as well as those continually arising.