Discussion on the Portuguese Class: On (Non) Functional Experiences

This chapter broaches the Portuguese class, discussing school language education for social uses of
writing. It is an approach – based on reflections on (non) functionality [1] – which aims to answer the
following question: With regard to Portuguese classes in Basic Education classes located in
vulnerable social environments, is it possible to test the elaboration of a didactic process – in the
teaching of the social uses of writing – which is not limited to functionality? The theoretical basis is the
philosophy of language from the Bakhtin Circle, the anthropology of language from studies in literacy
and the psychology of language from the Vigotskian ideology. This is a case study whose data were
generated by means of documentary research on experiences of the Institutional Program for
Introduction to Teaching (Pibid/Capes), whose analysis has an interpretive basis. The results indicate
possibilities of a didactic action which, taking advantage of the functionality that characterizes the
school system and the new technologies, open spaces to education for the non-functional, for the
uses of writing in which the word does not yield to the logic of the global market .