Literacy, linguistic variation and the teaching of Portuguese

Abstract

The present paper is intended as a contribution for elementary and high school teachers as it briefly discusses the implications both of the myth of literacy and of the work with linguistic variety in the teaching of the Portuguese language, based on the discussion by Marcuschi and Bagno (among others) on that issue. In order to do so the concept of literacy will be discussed, as well as how the myth is built and the difficulties in the teaching caused by linguistic variation. This text does not intend to offer solutions; it just incites one to search by pointing some clues.