Although writing is a formal and structured skill that requires explicit and detailed instructions for its proper development (Barbeiro & Pereira, 2007; Grabe & Kaplan, 1996), the literature has shown that its teaching has occupied a marginalized position in relation to the development of other L2 skills (Silva, 1990; Cumming, 2001). Based on this observation and considering that textbooks are fundamental for the development of communicative competencies (Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2018), we intend to present the results of an analysis of L2 Portuguese textbooks regarding the development of writing competence. The selection of textbooks was based on the responses of a survey completed by L2 Portuguese teachers, from which we analysed the most used or recommended textbooks. The results indicate that the textbooks adopt a weak communicative approach and follow a model of teaching writing as a product, which does not provide instructions, planning, or revision. There is also an imbalance in the distribution of language skills and a lack of interconnection between writing and other skills, as well as a lack of methodological guidelines for teachers.
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