Relações entre língua oficial e línguas locais na escola: como as crianças de aldeias de Cabinda/Angola aprendem o português e em português

Abstract

This dissertation, which has as its subject Relations between official and local languages at school: how the children from the villages of Cabinda/Angola learn portuguese and in portuguese, arises from a research developed in three villages from the Cabinda Province in the Republic of Angola, aiming at the study of the relations created between portuguese (the official language) and local angolan languages with african origin as a result of the teaching and learning process. It was presumed that children from these villages learn the portuguese at school. In this perspective, a question emerged: How do children who are taught by their families to speak a regional angolan languages learn the portuguese and in portuguese? Having this question on mind, it was conducted an exploratory research that involved attending to classes, intervewing teachers, principals and some parents, accompanying the lessons and the leisure time of the students. To that end, the educational system of primary school in all of the chosen villages was analyzed. From the collected data, it was observed that in two schools, located in Zôngolo and Fortaleza, the local languages were silenced by portuguese. At a school of Chiela, the angolan local languages were used as a means to comprehend Portuguese in the classroom. It could also be noticed in interviews with parents that even in villages where portuguese is apparently predominant, the familiar atmosphere is marked by the presence of both the official language and the regional dialects, even though in different scales. The same pattern occurs in villages where local languages have a strong presence. Therefore, regardless of the proficiency level, portuguese is always present among the regional african dialects. In the surroundings of Cabinda, it could be perceived that Portuguese is the primary language used by the youngest generations. With the aforementioned data, it can be concluded that in a multilingual environment, such as in the case of primary schools from the three villages in Cabinda/Angola, taking into account the social practices and language reality of the student is a factor that contributes to the learning process at school.