“When I see a sale, I say: ‘Ah! But when will this expire?’” - Pragmatic Relations in the Practices of Reading Expiration Dates by Older Women Literacy Students

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào

This study analyzes how older women literacy students in Brazil’s Youth and Adult Education program appropriate school numeracy practices during a class focused on the discursive genre “label” and the information it conveys. It examines students’ participation in discursive interactions around concepts, procedures, rules, and values tied to reading and recording expiration dates. Using a store-bought cake label, the research shows how different appropriation modes reshape didactical activity and build a pedagogical relationship grounded in pragmatic knowledge for meaning-making and decision.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Pragmatic relations and classroom activity

Theoretical perspectives

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION SPRING 2023 | [http://doi.org/10.35847/FGrossi. MFonseca.5.2.4](http://doi.org/10.35847/FGrossi. MFonseca.5.2.4) | | | --- | --- | | | Research Article | “When I see a sale, I say: ‘Ah! But when will this expire?’”: Pragmatic Relations in the Practices of Reading Expiration Dates by Older Women Literacy Students Flávia Cristina Duarte Pôssas Grossi, Federal Institute of Minas Gerais Maria da Conceição Ferreira Reis Fonseca, Federal University of Minas Gerais Abstract This study analyses how older (mostly 60 years or over) women who are literacy students at Youth and Adult Education Program in a small village of Brazil appropriate school numeracy practices during a class about the discursive genre“label” and the information it conveys. We focus on the students’ participation in the discursive interactions that take place in events involving concepts, ideas, procedures, rules, and values related to reading and registering the system used to write expiration dates. Using an example, we discuss how the different modes ofthis appropriation carried out by the students change the didactical activity and innovatively forge the pedagogical relationship. Keywords: aging women; appropriation of numeracy practices; Young, Adult and Elderly Education (YAE) Program; innovation; pedagogical relationships Here, we explore the different ways of appropriating discursive and, as such, sociocultural practices in school mathematics by aging women (mostly 60 years or over), students in a literacy class in the Youth and Adult (and Elderly) Education (YAE) program . We seek to understand the different modes of appropriation carried out by students, which are made possible by a school activity. In the event presented here as an example, the teacher planned an activity for students to read label information of a storebought packaged cake. This reading involves numeracy practices dealing with mathematical representations, criterium, and culture to locate, read, understand, and decide how to use expiration date information and other contents on the label. We want to highlight an innovation that is not in the didactic exploration of the syntactic and semantic dimensions involved in the reading of a code or understanding that it indicates the last day a product must be consumed without risks. The innovation is in how students summon – and the teacher welcomes – pragmatic dimensions of knowledge to forge meaning conditions to the social practice of writing, reading, and using expiration dates on labels. Indeed, the teacher’s initial proposal was to Correspondence: [fcdpossas@gmail.com](fcdpossas@gmail.com 4)[ 4](fcdpossas@gmail.com 4) develop with the students a metalinguistic analysis of the genre “label,” to explain the syntactic aspects (codes and system functioning) of reading an expiration date, and its semantic aspects (the meaning of the expiration date and the restrictions it imposes on the consumption of products) . This proposal, however, is confronted by the narratives of students’ tactics to access the information that the date record conveys, even if not fully understanding the system, and of the use they make of this information. These tactics and uses are incorporated into the meaning processes carried out by students, building anew teaching-learning relationship. This new relationship is established in the discursive positioning of those women that highlights the pragmatic dimension of reading expiration dates and considering their relevance for decision making. This positioning institutes and legitimizes not only other ways of reading labelsand acting as consumers, but other practices of reading and naming the world (Freire, 1967), by dealing with its production, consumption, communication, and control relations. The studies we have carried out or followed indicate that syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions of numeracy practices coexist and are usually explicitly mobilized by young

FAQs

What is the main focus of the study?

The study investigates how older women literacy students appropriate numeracy practices when reading label expiration dates, and how pragmatic dimensions shape meaning-making and decisions.

How is the classroom activity structured in the example described?

The teacher planned an activity for students to read expiration-date information on a store-bought packaged cake label, linking reading with numeracy practices such as representations and criteria.

What theoretical dimensions of numeracy practices does the article emphasize?

It highlights syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions, showing how technical rules, meaning production, and subject uses and intentions interact in discursive interactions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào