"Eu vejo o PEC-G como uma teia": narrativas de professoras do Curso de Português como Língua Adicional para Candidatos ao Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Graduação

Abstract

The Exchange Program for Undergraduate Students (PEC-G), developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education (MEC), establishes an agreement between Brazil and developing countries with the goal of having students from these countries undertake their undergraduate studies in Brazilian Institutions of Higher Education (IES). Some of these IES offer a preparatory course in Portuguese as an Additional Language (PLA) for students whose countries do not administer the Certificate of Proficiency in Portuguese for Foreigners (Celpe-Bras). The present study analyzes PLA teachers’ narratives about the pre-PEC-G course, promoted by a university located in southeast Brazil, which relies on the collaborative work of five teachers. The narratives point, above all, to the difficulties international students usually encounter, especially in their first year in Brazil, of which we highlight: financial difficulties; social interaction issues; minimal institutional support to face health problems in Brazil; cultural constructs that often clash with Brazilian culture, with the complication of arriving in the country with little knowledge of the Portuguese language, situation that pervades all the mentioned difficulties. Such challenges may interfere with the work of PLA teachers, who need to deal with them since they impact students’ learning. The objective of this research is to analyze the narratives teachers produced about the PEC-G and about their experience teaching PLA in the pre-PEC-G course. In order to reach this goal, I resort fundamentally to Indisciplinary Applied Linguistics (FABRÍCIO, 2006; MOITA LOPES, 2006; PENNYCOOK, 2006), which establishes a dialogue with Critical Literacy studies (JORDÃO e FOGAÇA, 2007; MATTOS e VALERIO, 2010; JORDÃO, 2013), about Interculturality (MOTTA, 2002; MAHER, 2007; MAHER e CAVALCANTI, 2009) and Extended Linguistic Education (CAVALCANTI, 2013). Besides, studies about Teacher Training have been mobilized (NÓVOA, 1992, 2009). Narratives from semi-structured interviews with teachers were analyzed, as well as excerpts from face-to-face meetings and e-mail conversations. Results point to the potential that the teaching-learning context has to contribute to critical and reflexive teacher training, even when teachers hold different views about the context, be it due to length of teaching experience, academic education or personal reasons. Additionally, results point to the impact of collaborative work on teacher training. The analyses undertaken throughout this research allowed me to discuss aspects that, hopefully, will contribute to reflecting on contents for PLA teacher training courses, development of PLA curriculum tailored to the pre-PEC-G courses, and actions aimed at promoting surrounding education in this context.