CRITICAL APPLIED LINGUISTICS, CRITICAL LITERACY, AND LGBTQIA+ ISSUES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN BRAZIL: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Resumen

This literature review article proposes an in‑depth reflection on the urgency of incorporating the LGBTQIA+ agenda into the context of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Brazil, grounded in the theoretical assumptions of Critical Applied Linguistics (CAL) and Critical Literacy (CL). The investigation starts from the premise that, although official documents such as the BNCC and Brazil’s national curricular guidelines advocate the formation of a critical and participatory citizen, day‑to‑day pedagogical practice and the school curriculum remain largely conservative, operating under a “pedagogy of silence” that renders issues of gender and sexuality invisible. Through a bibliographic survey that spans from initial teacher education to practices in Integrated Secondary Education and university extension projects, the study analyzes how CAL, as an interdisciplinary and politically engaged social science, makes it possible to problematize the power relations and hegemonic identities present in language. The results of the analysis of four main case studies demonstrate that the application of Critical Literacy, mediated by disruptive textual genres such as LGBT Rap and multimodal materials, not only helps combat homophobia and prejudice but also drives more meaningful and authentic linguistic‑discursive development. It is concluded that English teaching must function as a space of “re‑existence,” where ethical formation and social justice go hand in hand with linguistic proficiency, requiring a restructuring of teacher education so that the teacher assumes their role as a transformative intellectual in the face of diversity.