Effective approaches to conjunctions: contributions to language learning in Basic Education

Abstract

The struggle in comprehending the pragmatic semantic effects of conjunctions in text interpretation and production tasks is a common problem between students of Portuguese in Brazil. Given this scenario, this study has two objectives: (i) draw from the existing literature a comparative overview of how the conjunctions are commonly approached in traditional grammar and in linguistic studies; and (ii) investigate which one of these two perspectives guides the teaching of conjunctions in pedagogical practices. The didactic materials used for analysis are the “Rotinas pedagógicas da Educação Básica no Espírito Santo” (Pedagogical Routines of Basic Education in Espírito Santo) adopted by the schools in the state of Espírito Santo under the guidance of  their State Department of Education (SEDU). All of the Pedagogical Routines available on SEDU’s page were analysed, in the year of 2025, namely, 21 Pedagogical routines (three from each grade, from 6th to 9th grade of Elementary School and from 1st to 3rd year of High School). The analysis occurred based in four criteria: (i) the purpose of teaching conjunctions; (ii) the type of approach to the topic; (iii) the proposed activities regarding the topic; and (iv) the theoretical-methodological perspective used in the handling of this topic in Portuguese (according to a traditional approach or according to the latest linguistic studies). The results indicate that this didactic material presents itself as a promising alternative to overcome recurring constraints of didactic books and to expand the teaching possibilities, taking into account the fact that it addresses the grammatical topic of conjunctions in consonance with the linguistic studies.