Material didático para o ensino de inglês: money matters

Abstract

Consumerism, defined as a materialistic attachment to possessions, has become a major problem these days. The desire to buy and the urge to possess things has led many people to debts and despair. The media, especially television, has enforced the idea that happiness comes from materials, beauty and pleasure. We have noticed in Brazil the ¯ostentação phenomenon, which means that the more possession you have the more popular and successful you may become. Selfies and pictures in general in the social media have portrayed ¯happy people, showing their acquisition, which make us reflect on this important contemporary issue. Since 2013, I have been studying the consumerism phenomenon due to a school project in which I led. Since then I have attended several lectures aimed at alerting people about over-consumption, financial and shopping addiction. My motivation for doing this work is make students reflect and express themselves about this social behavior through readings, discussions and interactions in classroom or online.