Ethnic analysis in a raisin in the sun. Literature for second language teaching

Abstract

Since the beginning of the academic process, I had defined that I would research ways to help young students, especially those of public schools, to read and reflect about their social contexts. When I was introduced to the play A Raisin in the Sun in the Literature course at Universidade Federal do Ceará, I found a literary work that brought up antiracist and anticolonial thoughts, which could change people's minds and behavior. This study intends to investigate literary studies that could awaken students' interests in reading and interpreting literary texts. One of the main objectives of this article is to investigate ethnic studies, in order to create a pedagogical proposal that can be applied to increase critical thinking in Brazilian students of English as foreign language. One way we want to achieve that is by presenting reflections about power relations, symbolism about minorities that can be extracted from the play A Raisin In the Sun (1966), by Lorraine Hansberry. Another objective is to foster the interpretative capacity, bringing literary analysis to the classroom experience and, therefore, to encourage the reading habit of these students. A third objective is to present strategies for active reading in order to enhance reading skills of the students of English as Foreign Language and consequently to increase their motivation for reading more literary texts with a critical perspective. [...]