Language education in english as an aditional language in Brazil: overcoming the colonial practices of teaching english as a foreign language

Abstract

Both Great Britain and the United States have, for a long time now, deliberately implemented policies designed to spread the learning of English to countries all over the world, as a way of expanding their cultural and ideological influence throughout the globe. All the money invested in language and cultural institutes, teaching materials and teacher education has always been associated with this goal (PHILLIPSON, 1992; MOITA LOPES, 1996) and has promoted the development of a powerful industry for the teaching of English as a second or foreign language for virtually every country on the planet. The present essay discusses the ideological implications of mainstream practices of teaching English as a foreign language in the Global South (SANTOS; MENESES, 2010) in general and, more specifically, in Brazil. It also proposes an alternative framework for developing educational practices intended to facilitate the appropriation of the English language by Brazilian students. Appropriating the language, from the perspective adopted in this essay, means that the students should become able to use it on their own terms, according to their own needs and values, and, above all, for their own purposes. That is, appropriation is a process for replacing “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” by “Language Education in English as an Additional Language”.