Didactic sequences for English language reading ability development: design and application

Abstract

This paper aims at describing the project Didactic Sequences for  developing   the   reading  skill   in   the   EFL classroom: design and application that is being developed in an EFL Methodology course taught by this researcher at Universidade Federal do Acre with the support of the “Programa de Consolidação de Licenciaturas Prodocência 2006” (MEC/SESU/DEPEM). Based on the conception that EFL Methodology courses in Letras graduation are supposed to prepare the teacher-researcher engaged in a continuous reflective process about his/her own actions and in the search of transformation for traditional pedagogical practices, the project has as its focus the development of didactic sequences to construct the reading comprehension skill in English as a foreign language and the posterior application of these sequences in a reading course given to high school students. The didactic sequences were designed by eighth period graduate students under this researcher`s supervision, having as their theoretical framework the proposals postulated by the official curricular parameters (PCNs) of foreign language and mother tongue as well as theories concerned with the relation between discourse genres and teaching. After contextualizing the project and briefly describing the didactic sequences developed, I present an analysis of excerpts taken from the course plan prepared by the graduate students so as to raise a reflection about the teacher education process that can be visualized in these course plans.