Reflecting on the English (Es) Taught in Brazil (original) (raw)
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Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada
This paper discusses government policies for the teaching of English as a foreign language in Brazilian regular schools, in relation to the practices and identities developed by the teachers working in this context. Starting with an historical analysis of the practices, propositions, and policies, since the second half of the last century, the article evaluates the impact of official documents upon the process of teaching English in Brazil. The tension between resistance and willingness to change, as well as between the identities of the teacher as either educator or instructor underlies the analysis, which also aims to point out possible paths for the future of our profession in regular schools.
English Language Teaching in Brazil: A gap in policy, problems in practice
English Language Teaching, 2020
Only three percent of Brazilians are estimated to speak English despite the status of this language as a mandatory subject in grades 10 to 12 of basic education and preferred foreign language in grades 5 to 9. This paper will analyse possible reasons for this fact. The widespread concept in the Brazilian society that speaking English is beneficial to individuals because it provides access to the globalised world does not seem to be enough to promote the actual learning of the language by the majority of the population, and it is argued here that this fact has to do with a gap in the foreign language teaching policy documents: the 2015 National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (LDB 2015), the Brazilian National Curriculum Parameters for Primary Education (PCN-EF), and the Brazilian National Curriculum Parameters for Secondary Education (PCN-EM). These documents do not prescribe the necessary conditions for English Language Teaching (ELT) to take place effectively, but, instead, provide suggestions for teachers on how to adapt to the status quo, which means focusing on reading to the detriment of the other aspects of the English language due to a number of factors ranging from a lack of resources to a large number of students per class.
LEARNING ENGLISH IN BRAZIL: CHALLENGES IN THE MIDST OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
LEARNING ENGLISH IN BRAZIL: CHALLENGES IN THE MIDST OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, 2023
This paper aims to investigate how Brazilian scientific papers describe and question the historical landmarks of public education in Brazil, considering English language teaching. It also aims to infer what perspectives are expressed in the texts, from the beginning of the 21st Century to nowadays. The research is subsided by the findings of Brazilian education being marked by profound social disparities since the Colonial Era. Such characteristics persist to the present historical period, and its consequences result in several structural problems (such as social, educational and workforce exclusion), especially towards marginalized people. Given the scope of the investigation, a systematic review of literature was done, based on the materials extracted from Periódico Capes and Google Scholar. In order to analyze the documents, Corpus Linguistics and Content Analysis were the chosen methodologies. The 81 compiled texts consisted of papers, undergraduate thesis, master's and doctorate's thesis. It was noticeable in the analysis that the selected corpus focused on identifying effective ways to transform public education in Brazil, with proposals to overcome the existing challenges in each context.
English As An International Language: Issues From The Brazilian Classrooms Perspective
English As An International Language: Issues From The Brazilian Classrooms Perspective, 2022
This essay starts from one doubt the learners, whose nations speak other languages may manifest when they take English classes for the first time: “Teacher, why do we have tostudy English in the school?” It is interesting how this question addresses not only teachers, butthe entire community of academic linguists, researches and studious to discuss the role of English language and the syllabus relating it to the communication and globalization, which feed deep reflections on teachers` understanding about the English as a foreign language (EFL),English as an International Language (EIL), TESOL, and how it becomes fundamental for diversified areas of studying, as well as its widening over the world. Some other questions emerge and remind the readers there are English language institutions of teaching which reinforce the importance of keeping the English native speaking pronunciation in classes, what may leave non-native teachers in a narrow path, because they have to perform English native speaking at the same time they have to avoid their own accent and personal identities on teaching practices; quite hard, not even ethical and it may sound funny. Teacher´s preferences may motivate the learners´ pronunciation when they are alphabetizing their students in the English language. The influence can be also supported by the cultural productions: movies, music, fashion, books or even countries and their respective lifestyle. A natural pronunciation performed in classrooms can represent the initiative of language teachers to promote free practice of teaching and learning process without domain, or interference, in order to let the learners be comfortable to express themselves naturally, thus, respecting their accents, preserving their personal identities for keeping the plurality in the educational environment. The learners´ cultural diversity may have to be taken into account when designers of programs plan their courses and materials. Teachers could enjoy the opportunity to advocate on behalf of the transcultural teaching maintenance when they do not teach predominance based on traditions. Issues can be reflected and may be reevaluated up from the mentioned starting points and extending them to the International English teaching debate promoted by Dr. Majid Safadaran Mosazadeh among the TEFL master academics.
Anais do I Congreso Internacional da ABRAPUI, 2007. p. 1-12.
The intention of this paper is to analyse the possibilities and limitations of the maintenance of the hegemony of English in the Brazilian school curriculum, taking into consideration the relative autonomy of schooling not only in relation to State policies, but also to any scientific or academic knowledge which is elaborated outside schools, once the discipline itself is made, from a historical point of view, from the concrete practices of teaching which are represented in architecture, syllabuses, class plans and textbooks.
GLOBALIZATION, CULTURE AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN BRAZIL
Estudos Anglo-Americanos, 2011
This paper aims at presenting some considerations about the terms globalization, culture and multiliteracy used in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Brazil. I begin the article by revisiting some of the ideas spread by McLuhan about the Global Village and, throughout the paper I make a relation with the contemporary view of globalization, communities, enter-spaces and literacy. I also go through some data to illustrate possible creations of enter-spaces by emphasizing the role of using cultural topics in the teaching of foreign languages.
English in Brazil: A Sociolinguistic Profile
Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, 2016
This paper is a sociolinguistic profile of English in Brazil. It explains how English operates in Brazil through a brief discussion of the history of English in Brazil, the Brazilian variety of English, users and uses of English, and attitudes towards English. The history of English is traced from the 16th century to today, highlighting the development of English language teaching throughout the years. The Brazilian variety of English is delineated through a focus on several features of loanwords that are present in the Portuguese language. In addition, a discussion of Brazilian-Portuguese-accented English outlines the phonological, syntactic, morphological, semantic and lexical differences, and pragmatic levels that exist within this language variety. In examining the users and uses of English, emphasis is placed on the symbolic and innovative functions played by English in Brazil as well as how it is presently used in schools. Furthermore, in imparting the attitudes that Brazilians have towards English, two sides are presented; English is rampant and knowing English is critical. Ultimately, this paper seeks to offer categorizations for the roles played by English in Brazil to bring clarity to this reality and to offer a point of comparison for the roles played by English in other countries. It also presents an account of the power roles played by the global status of English and the implications of this presence in Brazil.
Journal of Education and Learning, 2012
This paper aims to diagnose, through a qualitative comparative study, the main differences concerning the teaching of English in Brazilian regular schools when compared to language schools. There has been a growing tendency of students to attend language schools while still having English classes at their regular schools, and this has led to a lot of change in teachers' beliefs and approaches in general over the years. To establish this diagnosis, a questionnaire consisting of 14 key points related to this topic (ranging from teaching resources and methodologies to workloads and knowledge of grammar) was answered by six teachers of English, three working at regular schools, and three at language schools. The main findings can be summarized by the fact that heavier workloads, bigger groups, lack of resources and focus on reading and writing have made regular school teaching less effective than the experience students have when attending classes at language schools. 83 26). The second period was around the 70's, when the Brazilian elite started to notice the importance of learning English. In this period, language schools started to appear all over the country and trips to the United States were more frequent. The third period refers to the moment when foreign language teaching became mandatory, according to the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (Brazilian educational laws), established in 1996. Since then, the Ministry of Education does not decide that English is the foreign language taught, being the choice up to each school. Nevertheless, it is the main foreign language in the country.
Brazil this fact remains the same. This powerful language has become a relevant part of the Brazilian schools' curriculum and a basic request for almost any kind of job, and these are just few examples. With this in mind, the purpose of this essay is examine how the concept of English as a Lingua Franca influences the role of the English in Brazil and analyse the impact in education and how it affects the Brazilian choice of English as the number one foreign language.
Language and Education in Brazil: Linguistic Structural Problems and Their Historical Origins
2022
In this article I offer an extended socio-historical overview of the Portuguese language in Brazil from independence to modern times in order to establish why there is such a gulf between the written official standard and actual linguistic usage. I reflect on how language is often regarded as a problem within educational contexts and how the response of academics in both linguistics and education studies has largely been focused on combating linguistic prejudice against non-standard varieties of Portuguese. I identify this as a recognition-oriented strategy aimed at changing attitudes towards non-standard forms of the language and its speakers and I question the effectiveness of such strategies. I argue that there are more fundamental structural problems with language and education in Brazil. These are identified as (a) the linguistic distance between the speech of the great majority of Brazilians and the official standard norm and (b) the uncertainty whether the education system is designed to teach this standard norm or, paradoxically, to assess the extent to which it is acquired. I conclude with an analysis of modern education policy documents where I find no strong emphasis for ensuring that students achieve active, advanced proficiency in the standard norm. I argue that recognition-orientated strategies need to be accompanied by strategies that advocate for structural changes in (a) the standard language to make it more readily resemble the actual speech of Brazilians and (b) how this standard is used as a means of instruction and assessment.