Literacy and foreign language teaching at a language course: from linguistic knowledge to linguistic education

This paper aims at discussing the concept of literacy considering how to apply it in foreign language classes at language courses, and describing literacy events achieved by students from an English basic level group from a language course. The underlying theoretical basis of this analysis derives from the New Literacy Studies (HEATH, 2001; STREET, 1984; BARTON, 2007), which define literacy as “a set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and disseminating it” (SCRIBNER; COLE, 1982, p. 236). This paper proposes to analyze the literacy events mentioned above as a means of considering the possibility of developing a teaching practice at language courses that is based on literacy practices and discursive genres. The data were collected during two three-hour classes through the observation of the teacher/researcher, the observation of another researcher and the audio recording of both classes. The analysis of the data showed that it is possible to put in practice a proposal of foreign language teaching at free courses through the theoretical concepts discussed, getting acceptable results in relation to students’ participation, learning and development of the classes.