“We Can’t Become Robots who Reproduce Texts”: Brazilian Students’ Narratives About the Presence of Literature in English Language Classes

Abstract

Considering that literature can work as an instigator of constructive emotions (ROSIEK, 2003), and given that the Sociocultural Historical Theory based on Vygotsky recognizes emotions as an important aspect of the individual’s development (VYGOTSKY, 1989), this study aims at analyzing the multimodal narratives (BARKHUIZEN; BENSON; CHIK, 2014) provided by ten public high school students. Data for this study were generated on-line due to the COVID-19 pandemic and regard their memories of the use of literature in 2018 and 2019. We analyzed the presence of emotions as motivators for engagement and, thus, beneficial for language development, collaborating to fulfill the gap in empirical research on literature and emotions in lessons of English as an Additional Language (PARAN, 2008; BLOEMERT et. al., 2019).