Addressing the Textual Genre “Personal Letter” in Youth and Adult Education

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address the personal letter-writing process by students enrolled in Youth and Adult Education. We initially reflect about textual genre as writing-teaching strategy and, then, we specifically address the genre “personal letter”. Our theoretical background was based on Antunes (2003, 2009), Cavalcante (2013), Dolz, Noverraz and Schneuwly (2004), Marcuschi (2002; 2008; 2010) and Oliveira (2014). The research adopted a qualitative approach based on participant observation and on conversation circle. Research collaborators comprised 5 students enrolled in Youth and Adult Education: 4 women and 1 man. Results indicated that the personal letter-writing process, which followed the didactic sequence developed by Dolz, Noverraz, and Schneuwly (2004), enabled participants to acquire the necessary linguisticdiscursive knowledge to construct the textual genre “personal letter”, besides helping them to acknowledge and overcome their main difficulties during the personal letter-writing process.

Keywords

• textual genres
• personal letter
• Youth and Adult Education