Critical reading: integrating principles of critical discourse analysis and gender studies

Resumo

Reading has become the most important skill in EFL teaching in Brazil, if we consider factors such as students’ needs in our globalized contemporary society, institutional support, teacher demands and learning-teaching conditions in our elementary and secondary schools. The interest in reading can be observed in the large number of different publications in the area and in the priority given to it in the new national curriculum parameters for foreign language teaching. Besides, several master’s and doctoral programs in Applied Linguistics or Language Studies in Brazil include research in reading as one of their main areas, specially since the development of the National ESP Project in Brazil (Moita Lopes, 1996).