Textual Genres and Argumentation: Proposal of Teaching of Opinion Paper in Textbooks

Abstract

The teaching of textual genre of arguing sphere has become a challenge in Basic Education context. Before such a find-ing, we intend to analyze the textbooks – TBs – of Portuguese Language: “Portuguese Languages”, by William Roberto Cereja and Thereza Cochar Magalhães (TB1) e “Portuguese Voices of the world: literature, language and text production”, de Lília Santos Abreu-Tardelli, Lucas Sanches Oda, Maria Tereza Arruda Campos and Salete Toledo (TB2), observing the treatment given to the teaching of opinion paper genre, which are adopted in the first year of High School. The study consists in a bibliographical research of analytical and descriptive nature. We also aim to discuss the theories concerned to textual genres, to argumentation, and to opinion paper genre. This research also seeks to see the treatmentgiven to opinion paper genre in which concerns the curriculum referential proposals and the teacher’s manual. As theoretical support, we based our research, mainly, in Bakhtin (1997), Adam (2008), Marcuschi (2002), Bronckart (1999), Leal; Morais (2006), Reboul (2004), Antunes (2009), Rojo (2000). We verified that TBs present few genres in the arguing sphere. However, TB2 presented a proposal more suitable to the theoretical-methodological proposals of the present time, for, compared to TB1, we noticed that the didactical proposals provide a better understanding about opinion paper. Finally, we reiterate that the instrument Textbook is just a means or a tool used to mediate the process of knowledge appropriation, for the relations of learning teacher/student/learning object go much farther than what is explicit in didactic manuals.