Kyria Finardi (UFES) kyria.finardi@gmail.com Felipe Guimarães (UFES) felipe.guimaraes@ufes.br
Hello, Salut, Hallo, Ciao!
Introduction General Belief: Brazil as a Multicultural & Monolingual Country but many Brazilians don t have Portuguese as L1; One official language and its implications those who do not speak Portuguese are excluded from civic life and other languages (in particular, indigenous) are threatened;
Contextualization Language panorama in Brazil: presence of immigrants; surrounded by Spanish speakers; pressed to learn English as a foreign/international language; Leffa (2013) need to fight indifference against minority languages, as well as to fight ideological barriers to learning majority languages; Solution: review of language policies to promote understanding and tolerance among cultures and languages;
Actions and Scenario Brazilian Association of Applied Linguistics 10th National Congress Language policies; Historical Moment Brazil playing an increasing role in the international scene; Role of English and Portuguese as additional languages connection with international agenda and language policies;
Language Policy (...) the art of conducting reflections on specific languages, in order to drive concrete actions of public interest into languages that matter to the people of a nation, a state or even larger transnational bodies (...) (Rajagopalan, 2013, p. 21)
Why do language policies matter? Teaching additional languages is a political issue in Brazil methodological aspects arise from decisions made elsewhere the Senate; The very decision of which additional language to teach is a result of social debates in geopolitical and economic contexts; (Lagares, 2013; Rajagopalan, 2006)
Foreign languages in Brazil Treated as an extracurricular component (Lagares, 2013, p.185); Outsourcing to private language institutes; Common belief that it is not possible to learn a foreign language in regular schools (Finardi and Ferrari, 2008); Belief that regular schools do not have to educate speakers of foreign languages to fluency (Tilio, 2014); Focus on the instrumental role; Brazilians feel they need to speak English fluently, in spite of language policies
English as a foreign language Gimenez (2013, p.202) survey by EF proficiency in English Brazil ranks 46th, in a list of 54 countries; Only 5% of Brazilians speak English (O Globo newspaper); Brazilians need and want to learn English private language courses; Internationalization programs English without Borders
Mismatch: internationalization and language policies Policies that don t reflect people s needs serious social consequences protests in 2013; Private language courses increase social inequality (elite students) only those who can afford such courses will learn to speak English fluently; Internationalization policies view English as an international language whereas language policies for basic education view English as a foreign (and optional) language
Portuguese as a FL Absence of policies for Portuguese as a foreign language; Portuguese courses in Universities focus on the teaching of Portuguese as a native language; Belief: teaching English as an international language threatens Portuguese
English vs. Portuguese Portuguese: classes held at least 4 times per week; Foreign languages: taught after 5th grade, 2 classes a week; Main obstacle for internationalization linguistic barrier (Finardi and Ortiz, 2014) Boost bilateral internationalization: offer English courses and courses in English at Universities along with Portuguese as an additional language;
Language policies for foreign languages in Brazil CNE/CEB Resolution # 7/2010 national guidelines for elementary education; Article # 15 modern foreign language as a compulsory item in the curriculum of basic education; Article # 17 School curriculum includes teaching of at least 1 foreign language, beginning in 5th grade choice of language by the school community;
Language policies for foreign languages in Brazil Law 11.161/2005 Spanish may be the option; Graddol (2006, p.63) Brazil, part of BRICS group, suggests teaching Spanish, and not English, in the curriculum; Explicit reference to Spanish Why? Out of tune with internationalization policies, which favor the teaching of English; Language policies not aligned with internationalization policies;
Language policies for additional languages in Brazil Ambiguity: National Curriculum Parameters (Brazil, 1998) focus on teaching of foreign languages reading skill; High School Guidelines for Syllabus Development (Brazil, 2006) besides reading skills also speaking, listening, writing... There is more than 1 language policy: 1 for elementary school; 1 for high school; Need for philosophical and educational alignment in language/internationalization policies for teaching English in Brazil;
Internationalization Programs Language policy impacts education, economy and internationalization Science without Borders (SWB) & Language without Borders (LWB); SWB created in 2011 101,000 scholarships; Problems in implementing scholarships most serious lack of Language Proficiency; English without Borders (EWB) 2012; LWB created in 2014;
Internationalization Programs EWB to provide opportunities to access universities in countries where Higher Education is conducted in English; Develop internationalization of universities; Increase the number of foreign teachers and students on Brazilian campuses; Virtual courses (MEO) Face to face classes (NucLi) TOEFL-ITP tests
Portuguese as a foreign language courses (some Universities in Brazil) UnB (Brasilia) UFFS (Fronteira Sul) UNILA (Latino-Americana) UFBA (Bahia) FURG (Rio Grande) UFRJ (Rio de Janeiro) UNILAB (Lusofonia) UFV (Viçosa)
Conclusion Though English is perceived as an international language by Brazilians, it is not taught as such in basic education, reflecting a mismatch between language and internationalization policies; Though Portuguese as a foreign language is key to the internationalization process in Brazil, there are still very few universities which offer PFL courses.
Possible solutions Review language and internationalization policies in order to guarantee an alignment between all levels of education Review role of Portuguese and English as foreign languages in Brazil
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