Questões de Inglês

    Critical literacies are not new among scholars and researchers in literacy education. However, due to different theoretical bases, there is no unique definition of “critical literacy”. In their broadest sense, critical literacies refer to the ability to read texts going beyond their superficial meaning. That is, it implies approaching texts in a reflective way to understand working ideologies such as power, inequality, and injustice. In the realm of critical literacy, text is understood as a “vehicle through which individuals communicate with one another using the codes and conventions of society” (Robinson & Robinson, 2003, p. 3). Texts, in this sense, can be either songs, novels, poems, conversations, pictures, movies, and so on. […]

    Hence, the critical literacies approach is generally contrasted with functional literacy. The former views literacy as a social practice, while the latter views literacy as the mastery of linguistic skills. In addition, Manning (1999) developed a framework to distinguish critical literacies from functional literacy by establishing the difference between their respective ideology purpose, literacy curriculum, and instruction. On the one hand, the main objective of functional literacy is to produce skilled workers for the marketplace. Consequently, the curriculum is restrictive and the instruction is individualistic and competitive. On the other hand, for critical literacies, texts are not neutral but marked by power messages, dominating interests, and hidden agendas. In order to deconstruct these texts and unveil their ideological messages and power relationships, the curriculum is to employ materials from the everyday world as text and analytic tools.

    Critical scholars have overtly supported the idea that there is not a single procedure for incorporating critical literacies into the classroom, given that the particularities of the context where the foreign language is taught differ from one another. Thus, an approach to critical literacies “needs to be continually redefined in practice” (Comber, 2001, p. 274).

Adapted from: Jiménez, M.C. G. and Gutiérrez, C.P. “Engaging English as a Foreign Language Students in Critical Literacy Practices: The Case of a Teacher at a Private University” available at http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script= sci_arttext&pid=S1657-07902019000100091&lng=en&nrm=iso

Have you ever wondered what keeps a hot air balloon flying? The same principle that keeps food frozen in the open chest freezers at the grocery store allows hot air balloons to fly. It’s a very basic principle: Hot air rises and cold air falls. So while the super-cooled air in the grocery store freezer settles down around the food, the hot air in a hot air balloon pushes up, keeping the balloon floating above the ground. In order to understand more about how this principle works in hot air balloons, it helps to know more about hot air balloons themselves.

A hot air balloon has three major parts: the basket, the burner, and the envelope. The basket is where passengers ride. The basket is usually made of wicker. This ensures that it will be comfortable and add little extra weight. The burner is positioned above the passenger’s heads and produces a huge flame to heat the air inside the envelope. The envelope is the colorful fabric balloon that holds the hot air. When the air inside the envelope is heated, the balloon rises.

The pilot can control the up-and-down movements of the hot air balloon by regulating the heat in the envelope. To ascend, the pilot heats the air in the envelope. When the pilot is ready to land, the air in the balloon is allowed to cool and the balloon becomes heavier than air. This makes the balloon descend.

Before the balloon is launched, the pilot knows which way the wind is blowing. This means that she has a general idea........................... which way the balloon will go. But, sometimes the pilot can actually control the direction that the balloon flies while.......................................... flight. This is because the air above the ground is sectioned .........................................layers in which the direction of the wind may be different. So even though the pilot can’t steer the balloon, she can fly or higher or lower into a different layer ......................................air. Some days the difference between the direction of the wind between layers is negligible. But other days the difference is so strong that it can actually push the balloon in a completely different direction!