Variação linguística e diversidade cultural em amostras de livros de inglês como língua adicional para adultos

Abstract

Classroom materials usually present linguistic content in standard English, but the language offers infinite possibilities for communication, vocabulary and structures which depend on geographic location, social group, and local culture. Besides, globalization allows people from all over the world to share, to a certain extent, ownership of the English language, contributing culturally and linguistically to its expansion. The objective of this article is to verify the existence of recommendations, notes or any information regarding linguistic variation, as well as the display of cultural diversity, in samples of four textbooks and their teacher’s editions made available online by international publishers. Literature by David Crystal (2003) and William Labov (2008) is presented. The observation shows that the materials have almost no information about linguistic variation and that cultural diversity through images, texts and subjects varies according to the material, with more diversity in British English textbook samples and less diversity in American English textbook samples.