Ferramentas da semântica linguística : um fator significativo a ser considerado quando da seleção do livro didático de língua portuguesa

Abstract

The proficiency in reading and understanding texts longed for the Elementary and High School Brazilian senior students of Brazilian Portuguese has not been reached yet, in fact, it seems quite distant of the standards established by the main international organizations like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, WEF (World Economic Forum) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). On this approach, the purpose of this thesis is to check the possible contributions the Linguistic Semantics can offer when it comes to choosing the Portuguese Language textbooks for Elementary School students. It may take into account that the emergence of the Plano Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) and, consequently, the attempt to contribute on creating possible educational tools that favor a significant improvement in the levels of reading and comprehension of Brazilian students. This work is based on the theoretical presuppositions which have outcome from the Theory of the Argumentation in the Language (ANL), proposed by Oswald Ducrot and Marion Carel. For the ANL, the meaning comes from the existent relation between the language signs in the language itself. By observing such process of relation and direction between the signs of the language and in the language itself that the reader will be able to understand suitably the discourses - normally referred as texts in the textbooks. For this research, the Portuguese teacher-based textbooks were analyzed, as well as a chapter of each one of three textbooks chosen for this purpose. The books have already been approved previously by the Plano Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD). The chapters were analyzed under the perspective of the Theory of the Semantic Blocks (TBS), current proposal of the ANL, and of the Polyphonic Theory. Through this analysis, it was brought up that the Theory of the Argumentation in the Language does have practical application in the language teaching process, especially in whatever it refers to the reading and understanding of texts and, by doing so, this theory should be taken into account when the pedagogical team responsible for the textbook of Portuguese language choice intends to carry out such task.