Social Justice, vulnerability and English Language teaching: the use of Didactic Sequences and possibilities of articulation with Socio-Discursive Interactionism

Abstract

Socio-discursive Interactionism (SDI) has offered a solid ground for inquiry in Applied Linguistics over the past decades, and it has enabled researchers to investigate different aspects of language teaching (BRONCKART, 2003; 2006; 2010; CRISTOVÃO; STUTZ, 2011; MAGALHÃES, CRISTOVÃO, 2018; among others). As English teachers, we claim that teaching this language can maintain or interrupt deeply forged social injustices (BRAGA; VÓVIO, 2015). Therefore, working from an SDI perspective implies the incentive to develop a critical conscience and awareness of textual and contextual features of the uses of language in a text. Therefore, this paper aims to present three studies from an SDI perspective that embraced similar themes and discuss how they converge in terms of their discussion on social vulnerability, social justice, and English teaching. We present some of the possibilities the SDI perspective poses for a language education that is socially responsible and encourages students to speak up. The results of the analysis show that there is fertile terrain for the development of Language Capacities (DOLZ; NOVERRAZ; SCHENEUWLY, 2004) when controversial issues such as social justice and social vulnerability are part of the activities designed for English teaching. Keywords: Social justice; social vulnerability; social projects; socio-discursive interactionism, English teaching.