d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.

3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

World Englishes, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 159±172, 2003. 0883±2919

The educational role and status of English in Brazil

HILARIO I. BOHN*

ABSTRACT: The teaching of English in Brazil is part of the larger project of foreign language education in
general. In the context of growing use of and demand for English as an international language along with
recognition of a growing need for the maintenance of local identities associated with local languages,
Brazilian language teachers are faced with the challenge of making the classroom more responsive to the
social reality. An obstacle to change in pedagogy is the lack of a local and national foreign language
teaching policy. This paper explores historical and national scenarios that contribute to the status quo,
considers the role of English in the Brazilian pedagogical and linguistic landscape, and puts forward
proposals for language teaching professionals to take into account in the process of articulating a national
foreign language education that does justice to the learners, their first languages, and the languages being
taught.

INTRODUCTION1
Foreign language teaching and learning is a complex matter for teachers and educational
administrators in most countries; the same is true of English language teaching. In many
emerging nations, Brazil for example, that have a multiethnic and multicultural population
and have severe shortages in human and economic resources available for education,
English language learning has been seen, up to very recently, as a luxury for the upper
class. However, the need for qualified workers in industry and, especially, the demands
made on individuals by a globalized world that values knowledge over skill, have led the
Brazilian political and educational establishments to reintroduce foreign languages into
the curriculum in 1996. Because foreign languages had been practically banned from the
public school system for the previous 20 years, language teachers had to rediscover and
rebuild the profession.
In this paper the complexity of language teaching and learning is revisited and the
(de)construction of Latin American nations, with special emphasis on the English language
and Brazil, are briefly outlined as a backdrop for this review. An examination follows of
official and professional documents that discuss and reintroduce foreign language teaching
and of the Brazilian educational situation. Finally, problems and proposals are presented
to set the pace for the rebuilding of a foreign language teaching policy for Brazil and the
meaningful teaching of English that it would entail.

THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

The history of foreign language (FL) teaching around the globe shows that the values of
FL education are not easily perceived and integrated into a country's educational
objectives when it is government and local authorities who outline educational policies.
The issue becomes still more blurred when efforts, resources, and school time, as happens
in many countries, must be dedicated to the development of very basic literacy skills in the

* R. Simao Hess, 54-Trindade, 88.0356-580 Florianopolis, SC ± Brazil. E-mail: hbohn@terra.com.br

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

160 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

mother tongue. Additionally, when educational priorities are outlined in emerging

countries, school authorities, individuals, parents of learners and social practices very
often do not include in their discourses the importance of FL learning. The elite, who hold
power, dominate the media, and manage public resources in these countries, can use the
lack of competence in foreign languages to exclude the majority of the population from the
most competitive professional careers. These same elite, because they have the means, can
find alternative ways to offer to their children opportunities to become bilingual and
multicultural, skills which have become necessary for success in an interconnected
globalized world. In the present educational and economic situation, not knowing English
is one way to exclude millions of Brazilians from local, national and international
competition in the marketplace. The ability to comprehend, read, and write in a foreign
language, in most cases English, has become a basic requirement when applying for the
best paid positions on both the private and public Brazilian job markets.
Discrimination can occur very early in the life of a young learner. A good example is the
university entrance required for admission into the Brazilian university system, a public
system that is free of charge and government financed. Most universities include in their
selection process threshold level reading comprehension in a foreign language, usually
English and occasionally French, Spanish or another FL. In some institutions and courses,
especially in the highly competitive medical and technological fields, English is compul-
sory. Since neither the private nor the public school systems in Brazil offer adequate
English education in the regular elementary and secondary curriculum, wealthier families
send their children to special private language courses, where they can develop the
necessary linguistic skills for immediate academic as well as future professional needs.
The lack of an official language teaching policy in the national curriculum has not been
the only difficulty that Brazilian English teachers and learners must face. The international
literature clearly indicates that learning a FL is not an easy task. Both teaching and
learning have been traditionally presented as a very complex activity (Skehan, 1998, 1989;
Naiman et al., 1996) because of the variables involved in the process. As a consequence,
failure to learn may also be attributed to curricular management and methodological
deficiencies. There are, for example, controversies on a variety of key issues: the optimal
time for the introduction of foreign language teaching into the curriculum; a lack of
consensus among teachers and applied linguists on the methodologies that produce the
best results; the role of grammatical knowledge and language awareness in the acquisition
process, and what sequence, if any, should be followed in the presentation of teaching
materials.
At the same time the literature shows neither enough nor sufficiently robust research
evidence on the role of strategic learning and on the influence of individual differences in
the learning process. Endless debates are held, at the local and national level, on which
abilities ± reading, listening, speaking and writing ± should be developed and emphasized
by the school system. Additionally, research on the role of the local culture and the place of
the mother tongue in the development of linguistic competence in foreign languages is also
rather scarce.
Because of its complexity, government authorities have many times left the choice of the
language to teach, when it is to be taught, the particular skills to be developed and how
they should be taught to the local school authority. In the Brazilian situation, only very
broad national guidelines on these topics have been outlined.2 The decision on the
language to be taught to future generations is certainly an educational issue, but it is

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 161

also a highly political and financial one in which power, domination, and political
affiliation play central roles. An example of the interweaving of political and economic
interests with education policies is the significant recent increase in Spanish teaching in
Brazil and Portuguese in Argentina.
There are, however, other issues closer to the classroom that have a direct bearing on the
efficiency of English teaching. National curriculum guidelines, matters of evaluation, the
preparation of human resources as well as the production and availability of adequate
teaching materials are aspects to be considered in any teaching policy regardless of the
language. They seem to be especially crucial for English teaching in the Brazilian situation.
The establishment of national or regional foreign language standards, and the preparation
with application and evaluation of regional and national examinations are matters most
school systems have not been successful at because they are financially costly and require
qualified human resources.
The skills to be taught and evaluated as well as the standards to be established for the
different linguistic and social realities in Brazil are a challenge for Brazilian applied
linguists and teachers. Southern Brazilians, for example, are exposed to Spanish speakers
in restaurants, shops, and gas stations. In the summer they meet their Spanish speaking
neighbors while jogging on the beach or sitting on buses and planes. The towns and villages
that border Spanish speaking communities are separated only by political boundaries.
Culturally and linguistically, the frontiers are symbolic, marked simply by street names
through which pedestrians and motor vehicles move freely, independently from their
nationality. The inhabitants of the Northeastern States like Pernambuco, Rio Grande do
Norte and Alagoas, for example, have, however, quite a different linguistic experience.
Even though Brazil is bordered by eight different Spanish speaking countries, some cities
in this region are as far from Spanish speaking communities as New York and Los Angeles
are from each other in the USA.
A number of questions naturally arise from this scenario. Should Brazil establish for its
learners a threshold level of linguistic skills similar to what was proposed by the Council of
Europe for the European countries in the 1960s and 1970s (van Ek and Trim, 1984; van Ek
and Alexander, 1977)? So far Brazilian authorities, Brazilian applied linguists, and
Brazilian teachers have not developed such a framework. Would such a proposal be
educationally, linguistically, and socially feasible or desirable? Should all schools focus on
the same language skills? Is it fair to expect similar motivations for learning, and are the
needs for language use in highly industrialized, competitive Brazilian urban regions the
same as needs of country villages hidden in the rain forests of the Amazon basin or spread
around the marshy countryside of the Pantanal in the Mato Grosso region, close to the
Bolivian and Paraguayan borders?
When dealing with FL teaching policies in countries like Brazil, many issues need to
be considered and numerous difficulties overcome. The following deals with those that
focus on the English language. First, it presents a short historical overview of the
shaping of Latin American nations; second, the place and role of English teaching and
learning in Brazil is briefly described; third, documents produced by the Brazilian
government and educational authorities, applied linguists and teachers are discussed
and the rebuilding of a national foreign language teaching policy is outlined. Finally, a
number of challenges are presented as proposals for change and to indicate new
directions toward diversity for the future of English, and indeed all FL teaching in
general, for Brazil.

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

162 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

THE (DE)CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS

Latin America is certainly a land of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity. The whole
population of the region3 is around 350 million people, and Brazil contributes about half of
this number, which includes about 300,000 native aborigines. Spanish has official status in
most of these countries. Brazil is a notable exception with Portuguese as the official
language. Aboriginal languages also function as official languages, including Guarany in
Paraguay and Bolivia, Quechua in Peru and Bolivia, and Aymara in Bolivia.
It is generally believed that over 500 aboriginal languages are still spoken in Latin
America, about half the number spoken at the end of the fifteenth century when the region
was discovered mainly by Spanish and Portuguese explorers. These colonizers, unlike the
Pilgrims who fled to North America because of religious beliefs, came with exploratory
goals. Most came to exploit the natural riches, including gold and wood, by collecting
these raw materials for export to their home countries. A pattern of international
exploitation was established by the colonialists and continued for centuries. After the
imposition of the colonialists' religion, laws, and language, the region started to suffer
other controls. Following the Iberian conquest came the economic, cultural and political
power of North America and of European nations. A unilateral will, based on specific
economic, political, and cultural interests, was again imposed (Phillipson, 1992). This
influence permeated all human activities and, as a consequence, has also deeply affected
the way foreign languages have been taught and learned in Brazilian classrooms. This
influence was felt not only in the methodological domain but it also had a direct binding on
the selection of languages to be taught in schools. For many years French and English were
the dominant languages in the Brazilian educational system. Today Spanish has been
favored over French.
The foreign influence has not been limited to the choice of languages to be taught in
Brazilian schools. The professional literature from abroad has also traditionally domi-
nated the theoretical foundations of research in most areas of applied linguistics in Brazil.
This, however, has been changing in the last two decades. There are clear signs that
Brazilian FL teaching professionals, especially English language teachers and researchers,
have decided to establish their own national language teaching policy, and they want to do
so not solely in the spirit of unity ± that is, to be understood by the global community ± but
also in a spirit of diversity. Teachers in particular have become critical of what they regard
as a rather naive approach represented in the literature from outside Brazil to homogenize
the complex language teaching situations that exist around the globe. More and more
frequently Brazilian national seminars, English language teaching congresses, references in
research papers as well as Masters' theses and doctoral dissertations refer to and rely on
theoretical foundations produced by Brazilian authors and researchers.
There are, therefore, some positive aspects to be singled out in the Brazilian and Latin
American linguistic landscape. The political actions and some educational objectives
recently outlined by government and national professional committees clearly demonstrate
the ideological will to construct multiethnic nations in which local aboriginal languages
and cultures are part of daily school practices. Governments have again allowed early
bilingual literacy instruction programs in Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil to be implemented and
presented in the aboriginal and immigrants' languages in the early years of elementary
education. The Bolivian government in the mid-nineties, for example, nominated an
aboriginal Ministry of Education which was able to introduce important legislation on

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 163

early literacy language education in which the local language was privileged. Brazilian
authorities and non-government organizations have also contributed at the national level
to discussions on early mother tongue literacy programs in minority language communities
(Cavalcanti, 2000).
A strong feeling prevails among Latin American nations, even in countries that have no
tradition in cherishing past aboriginal traditions, for example, Brazil or Argentina, that a
language or language policy cannot be imposed by either a foreign power or by the local
and wealthy elite. For example, a bubbling dynamic linguistic process of grammar and
linguistic identity construction is perceptible all around Brazil. As a consequence, a strong
popular feeling is developing that language may be the last remaining feature that all
citizens can contribute in the construction of their cultural identity.
English language learning, local identity, and different Latin American economies have
been engulfed by globalization; most of the national wealth has been bought up by
transnational and international companies or appropriated by local ruling authorities and
the bureaucracy. However, millions of Brazilians living in the favelas ± the poor housing
conditions of urban neighborhoods of most big cities in Brazil as Rio, SaÄo Paulo, and
Recife; Colombians living in the slums of BogotaÂ, and, more recently, a growing margin-
alized population around Buenos Aires in Argentina ± are deeply involved in building
regional and national linguistic identities. Linguists have created specific names for the
phenomenon, gramaticizacËaÄo (grammaticization), for example has been introduced by
Orlandi (2001a, 2001b). The grammaticizing process in the mother tongue is being carried
over to the FL classroom. A consensus is forming that it is becoming increasingly difficult
to ask Brazilian FL teachers and learners to give up their regional or national accent and
identity and embrace a foreign, homogenized reference. Applied linguists have basically
welcomed such an attitude.
Cultural differences may be the last feature that distinguishes among citizens of nations
because most other human traits ± housing, clothes, food, music, behavior ± have already
been homogenized. Yet, teachers seem to recognize that linguistic expression is one of the
last cultural traits constituting identity to be maintained in an interconnected globalized
world and are not prepared to deny learners their local, regional, or national accent in the
language learning process.
There is, of course, awareness in Brazil and Latin America that English is the
language that dominates in the world (cf. Crystal, 1997). However, the political and
economic power exercised by the American government in Latin America and elsewhere
disturbs many Brazilians, including English teachers (see Rajagopalan, this volume, for
an account of the ambivalent role of English in Brazil). This is an issue that clearly
reveals the dialectics that comes about when political, economic and cultural values clash
with educational needs.
Research suggests that Brazilian teachers would like to present to their learners the
different Englishes of the ``inner,'' ``outer'' and ``expanding'' circles (Kachru, 1992; Pakir,
1999). Neither how this can be achieved is clear nor is how comprehensive such an
objective may be in terms of a nation. Clearly understood, however, is that language
teaching policy must be based on the notion of difference (Bohn, 2000b, 2000c) and that
inner circle Englishes (e.g. American, British, or Canadian) are limited and insufficient for
the Brazilian situation (see also Friedrich, this issue, in relation to Argentina).
Such a national feeling seems to be in harmony with the social movements that
characterize the last decades of the twentieth century. The feminist movement, civil

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

164 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

rights movement, and the ecological awareness movement are arguably the three most
important social phenomena of the second half of the last century. The egalitarian claim of
feminism of the 1970s and 1980s developed into a much broader notion of gender and
cultural difference in the 1990s. The feminist and black movements were built around the
notions of equality and difference, two concepts that seem to have made the strongest
impact on social and human relations and on the way society tends to perceive and
construct reality at the turn of the new century. In the quest for equality, feminism moved
towards acceptance of difference in gender, opinion, behavior, sexuality, language, and
cultural expression. Perhaps by drawing on these movements for equality, a strong case
could be made in the pedagogical domain for the acceptance of difference in objectives, in
local expression and in choice of the foreign languages to be offered in schools. Kachru
(1992, 1986), Kachru and Nelson (1996), Graddol (1999, 1997) and Pakir (1999) among
others, have advocated the recognition of different Englishes for the outer and expanding
circles, in addition to those of the inner circle. Similarly, Brazilians, as members of the
expanding circle, must be prepared to recognize difference in language teaching and
learning, in language choice, and in language expression.
The ecology movement suggests a complementary perspective associated with the notion
of variation, which is also anthropologically and biologically rooted. Human beings have
changed philogenetically in the history of the species and have underdone inter and intra-
group ontogenetic changes. In light of this, is it wise for teachers and FL policy makers to
aim for uniform and homogenized objectives if instruction time, language needs, motiva-
tion for learning, and teacher education programs are different around the globe, not to
mention across Brazil?
Raising these questions on the complexity of language teaching and learning and arguing
for the need to respond to this notion of difference in Brazil and other countries with
diverse ethnicity, educational needs, and forms of cultural expressions provides a backdrop
for a look at those guidelines on FL teaching that have been outlined by government
authorities and associative professional language associations and organizations in Brazil.

THE VOICE OF THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

Political change and language education reform, 1940±90

The course of FL teaching in Brazil in the second part of the twentieth century can be
divided into three phases that roughly correspond to three political periods in the history
of the nation: the post-World War II period from the mid 1940s up to the mid 1960s; the
years of dictatorship between 1964 and 1988; and, the present period beginning in the
1990s.
The notion that literacy skills are a universal right and an important value for
individuals and society has only very recently been accepted by the Brazilian elite upper
class. In the 1950s, when government and private capital was used to implement an
ambitious national industrialization project, government authorities and administrators
discovered that such a project demanded skilled and literate workers. Up to that point,
most educational initiatives and school systems (over 80 percent), were in the hands of
private institutions in Brazil. The very few public schools, which did not differ much from
the private sector, all followed similar competitive procedures for accepting students.
The curriculum was inspired by the European humanistic model, drawing heavily on the

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 165

French tradition. Learners were exposed to three foreign languages: English, French, and
Spanish. Latin was also compulsory. FL instruction began at the age of 11±12 with French
given priority over English. It was only in the second year of elementary school that
English was studied. In the second year of secondary school Spanish was taught for one
year. Learning a FL was considered a serious matter and evaluation procedures were
severe and standards rather high. It was quite common for learners exposed to English and
French through instruction to develop a good reading ability in these two languages by the
end of their secondary education. However, a higher quality of education, with higher
levels of FL proficiency, was the privilege of a few.
The Brazilian national university system was also quite small up to the 1970s. In 1968,
the National University of Mexico, in Mexico City, had a student enrollment in its
different departments similar to the whole university system of Brazil, which was around
100,000 students. At less than 50 percent, the literacy rate in Brazil, defined at the time as
the ability to write and read one's own name, was also very low.
In 1964, a group of well organized military authorities overthrew the democratically
elected government and held control until the late eighties. In 1988 a new constitution was
written, debated and approved by Congress, and free elections were held again. The
intervening 24 years of authoritarian military government had seen the introduction of
many changes in the educational system. The French tradition of a humanistic curriculum
was abandoned; foreign languages, the arts, and the humanities, in general, lost ground.
Emphasis was put on the development of technical competencies so schools could prepare
skillful workers for the fast industrialization process and for the international market.
Physical education, patriotic indoctrination, and laboratory work were introduced in the
curriculum. It was around this time that private commercial language schools started to
flourish in Brazil.
Traditional educational values were replaced by instrumental objectives which were
consistent with the competitive needs associated with globalization. The number of
specialized private language schools mushroomed all over the country. The 1970s were
also the time when chartered planes took large groups of young, privileged Brazilians to
American universities on the east and west coasts to learn the English needed for the
competitive scenarios envisaged by the ruling classes.
The elite perception of the importance of English in a globalized world created a
powerful national language teaching business that spread franchised schools all over the
country. Up to the present, such schools are not subject to any control, either by national
or local educational authorities. They are big business and the students enrolled number in
the millions. In some regions they have become so powerful, and in the popular
imagination so efficient, that local education authorities are giving these commercial
groups the responsibility to teach English in the public or private school systems. Applied
linguists and groups of language teachers around the country fear that FL teaching,
especially English teaching, may become one more asset to exploit those who compete in
the job market as well as a tool of domination and social exclusion. Monetary and
economic values are again replacing the human, cultural, and ethical. This outcome leads
to the next aspect of FL teaching under consideration ± changes in educational policy.

Curricular reform in the 1990s

In November 1996, a new education bill was passed by Brazilian Congress. It was called
Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da EducacËaÄo (Bill of Directions and Foundations of Education),

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

166 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

referred to as the new LDB. This legislation reintroduced foreign languages, arts, sexual
education and ecology, among other disciplines, in the national curriculum. A first FL
became compulsory in schools from fifth grade on (age 11±12), and a second FL was to be
introduced at secondary school (age 15±16) and continued for the last three years of basic
compulsory education.
The bill establishes that the choice of language and pedagogical implementation are the
entire responsibility of the local education authority and local school community. This has
been a very welcome move to most school districts and teachers, but it has also left the
country without a clear direction or policy, and professionals have felt rather unprepared
to undertake the responsibility of defining and presenting, in a short period of time, a local
or national FL teaching proposal. However, this policy has also created important
opportunities for teachers, language teaching associations, and municipal education
authorities. They now can prepare FL teaching programs for their own communities,
with the result being a great variety of approaches in teaching, in skill development, and in
the establishment of priorities. There is intense activity all around the country, in the big
cities, small country towns, and rural villages; communities are deciding on the languages
they want their children to learn. In some cases, local school authorities have introduced
substantial changes in their school curriculum to accommodate a meaningful number of
hours for FL learning by the children. No national statistics are yet available on the
language choices communities have made. English, however, continues to dominate the
scene, in spite of local and national government efforts to introduce Spanish in schools.
The shortage of competent FL teachers has made the (re)introduction of the foreign
languages in the Brazilian school system slow and difficult.
The new legislation does not make any specific reference to FL education at university
level. Most Brazilian universities do, however, require threshold level reading ability in an
FL from candidates when taking the entrance exams. It is also common practice for many
university courses to offer students either optional or compulsory FL instruction for the
duration of their studies. Courses may be offered for one, two or even more semesters.
Reading comprehension in a FL is also a requirement for post-graduate Master's students
as is comprehension in two foreign languages at the Ph.D. level. In the technical and
biological sciences English is frequently compulsory.
Brazilian educational policy makers are well aware that new legislation and new
discourses do not necessarily lead to better quality education or to more efficient learning
practices (Perrenoud, 1999). They are however seen as necessary tools for change. That is
one of the reasons why in 1997 the Brazilian Ministry of Education started a bold project
to reform the national curriculum. Teams of experts, helped by groups of international and
national consultants in the different areas, in about 18 months, produced guidelines for
Brazilian education. Experts were also summoned to produce a document on FL education
(MinisteÂrio de EducacËaÄo e Cultura, 1998). Even though the document, ParaÃmetros
Curriculares Nacionais: LõÂngua Estrangeira, (PCNs) (National Curriculum Parameters:
Foreign Language) does not have a regulatory status, it re-introduces FL education as an
official field of study in the national curriculum.
In their discussion of criteria for selecting a FL in a community the authors of PCNs
propose a socio-interactional perspective on language learning and use, and they insist on
the interconnectedness between FL learning and mother tongue development. The
document also addresses the issue of the hegemonic power of certain languages at specific
periods of human history and emphasizes the educational humanitarian values of FL

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 167

learning, for example, the comprehension of other cultures, religious values, gender
difference, variation in behavior, and in the understanding of learners' own mother
tongue and cultural traits.
The PCNs insist on the notion that language is a social practice. The dialogical (Bakhtin,
1997) perspective of language definition adopted in the document has important con-
sequences on how Brazilian applied linguists and teachers perceive the learning and
teaching processes. Their perceptions may have a direct effect on methodological proce-
dures and on the linguistic competencies to be developed in the classroom. The document
also discusses evaluation criteria, signaling the importance of affect in learning and of
coherence among classroom content, classroom interaction, and evaluation procedures
and policies. One of the central proposals of the document refers to the objectives of
learning a FL, which can be summarized in terms of classroom focus (see Figure 1).
Another important element in building a national FL teaching policy for Brazil is the
work of different national language teachers' associations. These associations, mainly of
English, French, Spanish, German and Italian teachers, meeting jointly and individually,
have produced position papers and research results on FL teaching and on teacher
education in Brazil and abroad. One of these documents is the ``Synthesis Document of
the Second National Meeting on FL Teaching Policy,'' September 2000.4 In it the
participants reaffirm the linguistic universal right of all individuals to become multilingual
and multicultural. The document also claims that this right previously has not been
guaranteed by Brazilian schools for two reasons: poor government policy on
teacher education and the inability of school and government authorities to perceive the
complexity and importance of language teaching in education.
The Synthesis Document also suggests forms of collective action and discusses the status
of FL teaching in the curriculum. It proposes when foreign languages should be introduced

The classroom should focus on:

1. A multilingual world of which the learner is part;
2. Global comprehension;
3. Meanings expressed, rather than on correction of form;
4. Development of learners' ability to perceive the foreign language as an opportunity for
communication and participation;
5. Learners' ability to share the values of a plural world and to comprehend and identify
their role in such a world;
6. Recognition that the development of FL competence will allow learners to access
cultural values and goods and products from different parts of the world;
7. Interconnectedness of FL systemic and communicative knowledge and mother tongue
knowledge and language practices;
8. Critical awareness of language use and language variation;
9. Development of critical reading ability to enhance learners' professional capacity and
their continuous knowledge development;
10. Learners' communicative capacities to prepare them for diverse/multicommunicative
situations.

Figure 1. Foreign language learning objectives proposed by the PCNs

(Adapted from MinisteÂrio de EducacËaÄo e Cultura, 1998: 66±7)

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

168 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

in schools and who should have the right to choose the language to be taught. The
document demands language diversity, a definition of a national profile of the FL teacher,
and regional or national evaluation procedures at the secondary and university levels.
Teachers and applied linguists who participated in the meetings also insist on the need and
opportunity for continuous education for language teachers already on the job. In
addition, they alert educational authorities that FL teaching is a professional activity,
and as such, schools, private and public, should hire only university certified professionals.
The document also warns education policy makers that solutions for FL teaching in Brazil
should be inspired by Brazilian researchers, teachers and applied linguists who have widely
published, nationally and internationally, on issues of language acquisition, classroom
research, teachers' education, discourse analysis, computer and distance learning.
But can these specifications and proposals both improve the teaching of English and
other foreign languages in Brazil and contribute to the elaboration of a national language
teaching policy?

QUESTIONS AND PROPOSALS

A number of issues will need to be addressed by Brazilian English and FL teachers in the
near future if the causes of the frustrating results in language teaching and learning are to
be overcome. Since FL teaching in Brazil has predominantly been reduced, in the last
decades, to English language teaching, English language teachers have many times been
held responsible and have had to carry the burden of responsibility for the poor state of the
art of FL education in the country. Teachers of languages other than English have quite
often used this argument to lobby for the introduction of other languages into the
curriculum, especially French and Spanish. What are some of the reasons for this
frustration and what are some of the basic questions and proposals to be put forward
for a Brazilian language teaching policy?
New theories of learning have been proposed in the literature, but most of them have not
made a real impact on teachers' education, on teachers' beliefs, or on the FL classroom
because classroom activities have been based on traditional definitions of language and on
traditional ways of defining learners' roles. FL learning has been based on old notions of
linguistic knowledge as a ready, pre-existent language system, or it has been inspired by
traditional language learning theories that consider linguistic knowledge as something to
be internalized rather than meaning to be socially constructed. To change the status quo,
the language teaching profession, teachers and teacher educators, could profit from a
consideration of the following aspects of FL education:
1. The roles of the teacher and the learner in the learning process have not changed in Brazilian
FL pedagogy. Teachers have been unable to create the socio-interactional environment
needed to fulfill the cognitive functions in learning, and learners have refused to abandon the
comfortable passive role that classroom tradition has assigned to them.
2. State and local curricula and teaching programs continue to dictate homogeneous rules of
what, when and how to teach learners. The uniformity in curriculum and syllabi are ``fetishist''
forces that control teaching content and methodology and continue to fascinate institutions
and teachers. Therefore, the Brazilian curricula and teaching programs are, most of the time,
fossilized proposals of frozen universal meanings with authoritarian and homogenizing
educational values. The dynamic grammaticization process in the mother tongue has not
been allowed into the FL classroom.

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 169

3. Pedagogical space, restricted to the four walls of the classroom, and classroom time and
activities routinized into performing the same task over a full school year, have not changed
either. The teacher fronted classroom, guided by authoritarian teaching materials fragmented
into disciplines, units, lessons, and structures, continues to be the general teaching model of
the Brazilian school system. It is almost impossible to propose cognitive ecologies that lead to
learning in such an authoritarian, linear, disciplinary environment. Smith (1996), after
defining the school as a locus for learning, came to the conclusion that classrooms have
become the worst environment for such cognitive functions as learning, structuring, imagin-
ing and comprehending. For this reason, Silva's (1999a, 1999b) invitation for teachers to
become transgressors of school fossilized norms seems so important, appealing and necessary
for language teachers in Brazil.
4. Brazilian schools have also been unable to bring into the language classroom the local culture,
that is, the set of social meanings, beliefs, values, behaviors, and practices related to the
learners' culture and lives. As a result, they are unmotivated and incapable of becoming inter
or multicultural. Learners' inability to do so springs from the fact that their mother tongue,
their culture, and social identities have not been invited to participate in the construction of
new linguistic expression in the new language. Because the local culture has been kept out of
schools, children's and adolescents' bodies, emotions, and imaginative and creative capacities
have been likewise kept from the classroom. Few innovative proposals have been made to use
the local culture as the starting and motivating driving force towards the construction of FL
competence (see, e.g., Amaral, 2000; Bohn, 2000a, 2001).
5. The focus in Brazilian classrooms is archeological in terms of knowledge and learning and
teleological in terms of needs. Students are not invited or allowed to enjoy the pleasures of
knowledge building in the classroom. Western Christian and Judaic traditions which are
based on the inheritance that happiness lies in the future and suffering is the natural and
necessary path towards the doors of future joy seem to have a strong influence on
expectations for learners. To change this culture, language teachers should be encouraged
to allow learners to experience knowledge development as a pleasurable and emotional
process in which meaning and interaction play a central role. In this respect, it seems to make
sense for Brazilian FL teachers to read the recent literature by Brazilian educators, e.g.
Arroyo (2000), Alves (1999) and Assmann (1998), who advocate the need for a subtle
``re-enchantment'' of the educational process. Their proposals reinstate the notion that
children and adolescents are subjects of the present, not of the past (archeological), not of
the future (teleological).
6. FL teachers in Brazil and English teachers in particular for some reason have not valued
locally and nationally generated research and knowledge on language teaching and education.
They focus on the literature from abroad in their search for the solution to classroom
problems, anxieties, and classroom tensions and thus miss out on national discussions on
education and applied linguistics that have produced insightful texts in which language
teaching, learning, and education in general are approached in highly creative and critical
ways. By not considering the national scene, its schools and programs, Brazilian English
teachers have in a sense become strangers in their own land, and students' motivation fades
away in a couple of weeks when the teacher does not link classroom practice to the learners'
culture, environment, and everyday lives.
7. Another consequence of reliance on literature from abroad is an inability to establish
connections between the FL and the mother tongue. Over a century ago, the German
humanist, Wilhelm von Humboldt, proposed that language stems from an inner human
energy and that meaning cannot be imposed by the external environment (1990). Vygotsky
(1993) signaled towards the same direction: language is rooted in and springs from the
individual need to mean with other individuals, and it is through and in their culture that
individuals mean.

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

170 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

8. English language teacher preparation can emphasize that language must be taught and used
in relation to the present, not solely for future needs or for a competitive edge and
professional success. Such an emphasis is counter to the view of education in Brazil, and in
most countries, as a long path leading to the development of a competent adult. Thus,
learning is rationalized along these lines: students learn mathematics, philosophy, and history
because these disciplines make them better, more logical thinkers; they learn foreign
languages in order to be more competitive on the job market in a globalized and inter-
connected world. A present basis for school subjects, especially language classes, could
enhance learners' quality of life by making it more interesting, interactive, and human. This
would be done not with an eye forward to the future, but in the present ± at school, in the
classroom ± whether learners are young children, adolescents, or young adults.
9. The classroom must also allow learners to bring their bodies back into the classroom in order
to counter the Cartesian dualism of mind and body that is deeply rooted in pedagogy.
Learners become communicative through and in their bodies; they reproduce and build
meaning through and in their bodies. The potential of human autopoiesis, or self-creation
(Maturana and Varela, 1992, 1980) can be taken advantage of in the classroom for the
development of knowledge and of linguistic competence.
10. Brazilian English language classrooms should be privileged places for sharing in solidarity
and testing knowledge developed in autonomy, not simply for seeking information, or
checking for answers. Language classrooms are good places to explore alternative meanings,
develop the capacity to ask questions, cultivate uncertainty, dialogue, and discover what
others mean and how they mean.
These changes would make teaching more provocative, would allow learners to build on
what can be apprehended from discourse analysis and discourse studies and to engage in
language use as a social practice, to engage in and subscribe to a specific culture and social
group. Such an attitude would also introduce learners into a society of continuous
learning, would move the profession toward a tolerance of blurred boundaries and the
definition of flexible principles. If human behavior is basically governed by the uncon-
scious, as proposed by Freud, then setting the students' imagination free might be a good
way to create motivating classrooms and produce ecological environments favorable for
maximum cognitive functioning in learning.

FINAL REMARKS

The set of proposals presented in the previous section is one more argument in favor of
the claim made at the beginning of this paper: language acquisition and language teaching
are complex processes. Some professionals may find this complexity discouraging because
the number of variables is large and the problems of teaching and learning seem
insurmountable. However, the suggestions and the problems raised above are all somehow
linked to one central variable, the teacher. It seems, therefore, that it is the teachers who
must be prepared to pursue the audacious energy of Neo in Matrix5 in spite of the
contradictions of the Oracle. It is the teachers who can defy the fetishistic appeal of the
curriculum; reject the rationality of the structural paradigm of modernity, and pursue the
uncertainties of the non-predictive power of late-modernity. Teacher education can best
prepare language teaching professionals by developing their ability to engage in dialogue
instead of instructing; to produce meaning instead of translating; to amalgamate FL and
mother tongue instead of contrasting; to work in companionship instead of determining

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

The educational role and status of English in Brazil 171

knowledge to be memorized. With this flexibility and unpredictability, teaching and

learning may become a worthwhile, attractive, and adventurous experience.
This seems very distant from the present daily routine of the FL classroom in Brazil.
However, the challenge lies in abandoning the archives of archeology and investing in the
creative, regenerative, reproductive, autopoietic powers of the human spirit. The tradi-
tional authoritarian paradigms of education, of teaching and learning English have already
proved unsatisfactory. It seems reasonable then that a national curriculum would be a
response to these realities, particularly in its guidelines for English language education ±
given the status this language holds among contemporary Brazilians.

NOTES
1. I would like to thank Margie Berns and Patricia Friedrich for their valuable comments and careful editing on
an earlier version of this paper. All remaining shortcomings are my responsibility.
2. The Brazilian Ministry of Education has published the ParaÃmetros Curriculares Nacionais: LõÂngua Estrangeira
(National Curriculum Parameters, Foreign Language) (MinisteÂrio da EducacËaÄo e Cultura, 1998).
3. Latin America includes South America, Central America, the Caribbean countries and Mexico.
4. A copy of this document is available from the author. At this stage of the discussion the reader might wonder if
the PCNs did include specific or general guidelines on teacher education and teaching materials, which would
be central to any national proposal. Such important issues have not been included in the PCNs because the
Ministry of Education has planned specific papers in which these issues will be discussed
5. Matrix is a Warner Bros. Production, directed by the Wachowski Brothers, 1999. Neo is the main character of
the film who breaks through the illusionary world, a scenario ruled by rigorous, strict, and uniformly patterned
norms.

REFERENCES
Alves, Rubem (1999) Entre a CieÃncia e a SapieÃncia: o Dilema da EducacËaÄo [Between Science and Wisdom: the
Dilemma of Education]. SaÄo Paulo: EdicËoÄes Loyola.
Amaral, Maria da G. do (2000). A LõÂngua Estrangeira como Meio para o Desenvolvimento da Identidade em
EducacËaÄo Ambiental [The Foreign Language as a Means to Develop the Identity of Environmental Education].
Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Applied Linguistics, Catholic University of Pelotas, Brazil.
Arroyo, Miguel. G. (2000) Desenvolvimento humano e currõÂculo [Human development and curriculum]. Paper
presented at the II Congresso Nacional de ReorientacËaÄo Curricular, Blumenau, SC, Brazil, April.
Assmann, Hugo (1998) Reencantar a EducacËaÄo: Rumo aÁ Sociedade Aprendente [To Reenchant Education:
Towards the Society of Knowledge]. PetroÂpolis, RJ: Vozes.
Bakhtin, Mikhail (V. N. VolochõÂnov) (1997) Marxismo e Filosofia da Linguagem [Marxism and the Philosophy of
Language]. SaÄo Paulo: Editora Hucitec.
Bohn, Hilario I. (2000a) A aprendizagem de lõÂnguas e a cultura local [The learning of languages and the local
culture]. Paper presented at the second Congresso Nacional de ReorientacËaÄo Curricular, Blumenau, SC, Brazil,
April.
Bohn, Hilario I. (2000b) The dilemma between native-like target language competence and linguistic identity.
Paper presented at the twentieth FIPLV World Congress, Paris, July.
Bohn, Hilario I. (2000c) Os aspectos polõÂticos de uma polõÂtica de ensino de lõÂngua e literaturas estrangeiras [The
political aspects of a foreign language and literature teaching policy]. Linguagem e Ensino, 1, 117±38.
Bohn, Hilario I. (2001) Maneiras inovadoras de ensinar e aprender: a necessidade de des(re)construcËaÄo de
conceitos [Innovative manners to teach and learn: the need to de(re)construct concepts]. In O professor de
LõÂnguas Estrangeiras: Construindo a ProfissaÄo [The Teacher of Foreign Languages: Building the Profession].
Edited by Vilson Leffa. Pelotas, RS, Brazil: EDUCAT, pp. 125±34.
Cavalcanti, Marilda do C. (2000) Entre escolas da floresta e escolas da cidade: olhares sobre alguns contextos
escolares indõÂgenas de formacËaÄo de professores [Between the schools of the forest and the city: contextual
aboriginal school aspects of teacher education]. Trabalhos de Linguistica Aplicada, 36, 101±20.
Crystal, David (1997) English as a Global Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Graddol, David (1997) The Future of English? London: The British Council.
Graddol, David (1999) The decline of the native speaker. In English in a Changing World, AILA Review. Edited by
David Graddol and Ulrike Meinhof, 13, 57±68.
Kachru, Braj B. (1986) The Alchemy of English. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003

d:/3d/Worldeng/Weng 22-2/06-bohn.3d ± 8/4/3 ± 19:27 ± disk/sr

172 HilaÂrio I. Bohn

Kachru, Braj B. (1992) Models for non-native Englishes. In The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Edited by
Braj B. Kachru. Second edition. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 48±74.
Kachru, Braj B. and Nelson, Cecil. L. (1996) World Englishes. In Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. Edited
by Sandra L. Mckay and Nancy H. Hornberger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 71±102.
Maturana, Humberto and Varela, Fernando (1980) Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Organization of the Living.
Boston: Reidel.
Maturana, Humberto and Varela, Fernando (1992) The Tree of Knowledge. Boston: Shambhala.
MinisteÂrio de EducacËaÄo e Cultura (MEC) (1998). ParaÃmetros Curriculares Nacionais: LõÂngua Estrangeira
[National Parameters for Curriculum Development: the Foreign Language]. Authors: Celani, Maria. A. A.;
Moita Lopes, Luis P. da. Consultants: Bohn, HilaÂrio I.; Gomes de Matos, Francisco; and Alfaro LagoÂrio,
Consuelo. BrasõÂlia: MEC ± Ensino Fundamental.
Naiman, Neil, Frohlich, Maria, Stern, H. H. and Todesco, Angie (1996) The Good Language Learner. Modern
Languages in Practice 4. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Orlandi, Eni P. (2001a) Tralhas e trocËos: o flagrante urbano [Junk and trash: the urban scenario]. In Cidade
Atravessada: Os Sentidos PuÂblicos no EspacËo Urbano [The City Crossed Through: the Public Meanings of the
Urban Space]. Edited by Eni P. Orlandi. Campinas, SP: Pontes, pp. 9±24.
Orlandi, Eni P. (2001b) Discurso e Texto: FormulacËaÄo e CirculacËaÄo dos Sentidos [Discourse and Text: Formulation
and Meaning Distribution]. Campinas, SP: Pontes.
Pakir, Anne (1999) Connecting with English in the context of internationalization. TESOL Quarterly, 33(1),
103±14.
Perrenoud, Pierre (1999) Construir as CompeteÃncias desde a Escola [Building Competencies from School]. Porto
Alegre, RS, Brazil: Artes MeÂdicas.
Phillipson, Robert (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silva, Tomaz. T. da (1999a) Documentos de Identidade: uma IntroducËaÄo aÁs Teorias do CurrõÂculo [Identity
Documents: an Introduction to the Theories of the Curriculum]. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil: AuteÃntica.
Silva, Tomaz. T. da (1999b) O CurrõÂculo como Fetiche: a PoeÂtica e a PolõÂtica do Texto Curricular [The Curriculum
as a Fetish: the Poetics of the Curricular Text]. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil: AuteÃntica.
Skehan, Peter (1989) Individual Differences in Second-Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold.
Skehan, Peter (1998) A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Frank (1996) Between Hope and Havoc: Essays into Human Learning and Education. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
van Ek, Jan and Alexander, L. G. (1977) Waystage. Council of Europe (Published 1980 as Waystage English).
Oxford: Pergamon Press.
van Ek, Jan and Trim, John L. M. (eds) (1984) Across the Threshold: Readings from the Modern Languages
Projects of the Council Of Europe. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
von Humboldt, Wilhelm (1990) Sobre la Diversidad de la Estructura del Lenguaje Humano y su Influencia sobre el
Desarrollo Espiritual de la Humanidad [On the Diversity of Human Language Structure and its Influence on the
Spiritual Development of Humanity]. Translated by Ana Agud. Madrid: Ministerio de EducacioÂn y Ciencia.
(Original work published in 1836.)
Vygotsky, Lev. S. (1993) Pensamento e Linguagem [Thought and Language]. SaÄo Paulo: Martins Fontes. (Original
work published in 1962.)

A Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003