t9XQX

O papel dos manuais didáticos e das mídias educativas1 INTRODUCTIONUnderstanding the nature of the coursebook requires understanding it under three distinctangles: (i) as a pedagogical instrument with specific features, (ii) as a product of a cultural industrythat conveys ideologies, and (iii) as a consumption product in the publishing market of a capitalistsociety. Oliveira et al. (1984) distinguish three aspects to be analysed in a coursebook: educational,economic and political (the latter also includes social and cultural aspects). Thus, the purpose of thispaper, as stated in its title, is to discuss the role of coursebooks in language teaching. Although theauthor has in mind coursebooks for language (foreign and native) teaching, the points raised here canbe easily adapted to coursebooks in general.After presenting some features of coursebooks, the text examines its role in education, seekingto understand the nature of their voices and authority, of its contents and pedagogical practices, and itsactivities. Then other issues inherent to this type of book are raised: production and marketing, culturalindustry and ideology, the publishing market and consumer market, and the approach of culturalissues. Next some macro criteria for coursebook evaluation are proposed, on the basis of currentpublic policies for language teaching in Brazil (BRAZIL, 2011, 2006).2 COURSEBOOK FEATURES AND ITS PLACE IN TEACHINGThe coursebook is understood here as being both a genre and a hypergenre. It is a genre in thatit constitutes a whole, with its own features and mode of operation. However, it does not constitute anorganic whole (BAKHTIN, 1952 [2003]), being a collection of several individual genres. In this sense,the coursebook can be understood as a hypergenre, in other words, a structuring genre that consistentlyorganizes several other genres. This is obviously an educational genre / hypergenre, since it turns thegenres it presents into pedagogical materials.As a discourse genre (structuring hypergenre), with its own characteristics of thematic content,compositional structure and style (BAKHTIN, 1952 [2003]), four characteristics can be attributed toforeign language coursebooks (KRAMSCH, 1988): (1) they are guided by principles: basic principlesof knowledge, according to the language theory adopted; (2) they are methodical: knowledge isdivided into items and classified, and learning is sequential and cumulative; (3) they are authoritarian:what the book says is always true; (4) they are literal: they should be followed literally and carry literalmeanings and forms.Originally designed to aid teachers’ work, as it systematically groups and organizes a fairamount of educational resources, the coursebook ends up, quite frequently, outlining and limitingteachers’ work, abandoning its original function of stocking materials, to assume, mistakenly, the roleof curriculum or teaching program. Such deviation of function can occur not just due to poor teacher(in)formation, but also due to publishers’ capitalist interests (both commercial and ideological /cultural interests).The coursebook cannot be seen as the keeper of knowledge. It is just a scaffold that serves toassist students to build relevant knowledge. Teaching materials are just one more element in theexchanges that must occur in the classroom: exchanges between teacher and students, pervaded by thecoursebook, by the situational context, and by different cultural contexts in which everyoneparticipates. The main purpose of education, and the coursebook cannot ever disrupt this goal, is to getstudents to think critically. This is something the teacher must always do – using the coursebookadopted by the institution, or in spite of it. Even though the book may have the aim of perpetuatingcertain values, the teacher can, and should, always work under the critical literacy perspective(BRASIL, 2006; CERVETTI et al., 2001), leading students to think critically and analyse, evaluate,discuss, and even reject the coursebook content, should this be necessary.There is a big discussion about the centrality that confers authority to coursebooks ineducation, which varies according to the theoretical models posed as assumptions. Luke, Castell &Luke (1989) cite Olson (1986) to explain that such authority comes from the linguistic and ideologicalform the books are written, as they are written in a way that makes their meanings absolute, notleaving to the reader any role of interpretation or acceptance, in such a way that what is written seems463