Signum: Estudos da Linguagem (Jun 2014)
LITERARY CLINIC: GLOBAL LITERATURES AND ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION IN BRAZIL
Abstract
Departing from the polyvalent metaphor of the “clinic,” this article discusses the results of the first phase of an English teacher education project, part of the Teaching Initiation Scholarship Program (PIBID/CAPES) at a federal university in Brazil. Given the effects of globalization on language teaching and learning, the English teacher certification program needs to incorporate critical and intercultural perspectives in the reflexive dimension of the teacher education curriculum. One possible approach is the study of global English, or Anglophone, literatures utilizing a cultural studies and postcolonial theoretical framework. In accordance with recent observations by Festino (2011) and Lourenço (2011) about the importance of literatures in English for education in Brazil, I propose a multimodal and critical approach to the study of Anglophone literatures connected to teaching in basic education that also stimulates teacher reflection. This approach also seeks to illuminatethe role of English in Brazil and clarify the notion of content in English classes, as it relates to narrative. My analysis involves a triptych of literary genres from different countries: Kendal Hippolyte (poetry – St. Lucia), Chinua Achebe (novel – Nigeria), and Jhumpa Lahiri (short story – United States and India). Some strategies for transposing literary studies to the middle school English classroom in Brazil are also outlined.
