Critical Literacy and Communicative Teaching: gaps and intersections

This article aims at promoting reflection on the common points and the differences between Communicative Teaching, so widespread in Brazil, and Critical Literacy recently proposed by the New Curriculum Guidelines for secondary education in this country. First, we present a critical review of the theoretical traditions that give rise to the two modes of teaching by approaching its main concepts. Next, we discuss some of the aspects that are common to both approaches, as well as other aspects than bring them apart. We wish to emphasize that the two conceptions of teaching, though different in many of their proposals are not incompatible, but complementary. Finally, an example of an integrated activity that aims to combine the principles of both approaches is presented. Adapted from the source document