Idiomatic expressions in the context of english language teaching in Take Action: a sociolinguistic study

Abstract

Based on the studies of Educational Sociolinguistics, more specifically with regard to communicative practices as a social phenomenon, this article aims to analyze whether and how idiomatic expressions (IEs) were used in Take Action (Ritcher; Larré, 2020), a textbook approved by the PNLD 2019. The textbook analyzed was chosen on the basis of its use in schools offering secondary education, which are part of the Supervised Curricular Internship in Languages course at the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Jardim Unit. This study is divided into three main parts: “Theoretical Framework: Educational Sociolinguistics”, “English idioms in teaching materials: the importance of understanding them and using them in different contexts” and, finally, “Methodological aspects: focus on Take Action”. We used Bortoni-Ricardo (2005), Labov ([1972] 2008), Gobber and Morani (2010), Muniz et al (2017), Teer and Bevilacqua (2018), Albuquerque and Ferreira (2019) and others as a theoretical framework. In the course of the analysis, based on the readings made, we consider that the work has a well-organized structure and is based on what the BNCC requests, that is, an English language treated as a lingua franca and a student who becomes critical and increasingly autonomous in their learning. However, as far as idioms are concerned, only one chapter of the book deals with this content explicitly, leaving it up to the teacher to present websites, books and various other sources of research, so that the student can seek out this knowledge on their own.