Ideologias de linguagem na formação de professores: uma etnografia com estudantes guineenses de letras-língua portuguesa no Brasil

Abstract

This study investigates the language ideologies articulated in the discourse of Guinean students undergoing professional training in Portuguese language education in Brazil, specifically in São Francisco do Conde, Bahia. It examines how these ideologies are constructed, negotiated, and co-produced based on the values attributed to language use in the situated practices of these students. The discussion is situated within the field of Applied Linguistics and draws upon critical sociolinguistic perspectives that explore the relationship between language and the globalized political economy (Heller, 2010; Heller & Duchenne, 2012; Garcez & Jung, 2021). The research adopts a language ethnography approach (Garcez & Schulz, 2015; Lucena, 2015; Jung & Silva, 2021), which involved participant observation, field notes, document analysis, and interviews conducted within the research context. For data analysis, a triangulation of the information generated during each research stage was employed to identify convergences and divergences in how the participants’ discourses and actions reproduced and produced underlying language ideologies. The data reveal that standardized Portuguese is perceived by the participants as a privileged language in language studies in Guinea-Bissau. However, the ideological structuring that attempts to standardize communicative resources has not erased the traces of local languages present in the communicative practices of these future Portuguese language teachers studying in Brazil. As expressed in their discourse, linguistic production in the multilingual context of Guinea-Bissau results from the variation of Portuguese and the country’s broader social reality. In light of this, participants express dissatisfaction with the language policies of the Guinean nation-state, which do not legitimize the local variety of Portuguese that encompasses the linguistic and cultural richness embedded in their people's communicative practices. In opposition to the hegemonic and Eurocentric precepts of Portuguese language teaching and learning, the Guinean student community in São Francisco do Conde represents a movement concerned with rethinking language as a site of social construction, adopting an approach more attuned to the Guinean people. The findings show that the imposition of Westernized Portuguese represents a form of political and ideological domination that has led—and may continue to lead—to the suppression of diverse forms of knowledge within Guinean society. Consequently, it reinforces economic exploitation and the subordination of peoples in terms of their identities, languages, and epistemologies. The data gathered on the perspectives of Guinean students regarding language use and Portuguese language teaching and learning reveal that, although these individuals were socialized, educated, and taught under rigid ideologies (monolingual, standardized, normative, colonial, etc.) during their formation in Guinea-Bissau, they actively resist the hierarchies imposed by such ideologies. As future educators, they demonstrate a keen awareness of the ideological construction of language and show a willingness to reshape language practices in their everyday discourse. They also recognize that language education practices and policies can be challenged, enhanced, and transformed.