Resumen

BLANCO, Carlos Eduardo. Bolivarian English? Structuralist or Communicative?: A study using High School Textbooks from Venezuela. Cuad. Investig. Educ. [online]. 2016, vol.7, n.2, pp.63-81. ISSN 1510-2432.

The analysis of school texts can reveal conceptions about language skills and educational innovations, among other phenomena. For such reason, an empirical study was conducted using books of Venezuela’s state-edited collection Bicentenario. The objectives of the study were to analyze the writing activities promoted in upper high school English books (fourth and fifth grades specifically), to relate such activities with current theories about the learning process of English as a foreign language and to find out what kind of support these books might provide to students. The criteria for book selection were as follows: to belong to the last two years of high school, to be edited by the Ministry of Education, and to be currently under use at high school institutions. The writing activities in two books were analyzed. The strategy of analysis was emergent for the categories were provided by the texts as the researcher interacted with them. The 317 clauses along with 30 verbs (write, answer, complete, and fill in, among others) leading the activities were approached. Results show, in the first place, that both books considered writing to be an important skill. The second conclusion is that, despite books do not depart completely from the structuralist-behaviorist paradigm, they do try to promote communicative writing, with balanced activities and in this way, less traditional class work would be supported.

Palabras clave : textbooks; English; writing; secondary school; Venezuela.

        · resumen en Español     · texto en Español     · Español ( pdf )