TEXT:
For a national policy on English language teaching
Cíntia Toth Gonçalves
According to the survey Demandas de aprendizagem de Inglês
no Brasil [Demand for English Learning in Brazil, British Council,
2013], only 5.1 per cent of the population aged 16 or more claim
to have some knowledge of English. This claim, however, is more
a question of perception and does not necessarily translate into
actual knowledge of the language. Among the younger people,
aged from 18 to 24 — who have completed or are about to
complete their secondary education — the number claiming to
speak English doubles, to 10.3 per cent.
Even so, this is a low percentage if we consider that most Brazilian
students spend at least seven years studying English at school
– more specifically, from the sixth grade of lower secondary
education to the third grade of upper secondary education, for
an average of two hours a week. There are also students who
take English lessons at private language institutions or on courses
offered before or after class by the public networks themselves.
If we want to disrupt this situation and offer quality English teaching
for all as part of the basic curriculum, we have to understand what
it is during their time at school that determines whether or not they
learn the language properly. Thinking about the system, how is
policy made and implemented for teaching English in state-run
schools? What are the basic elements that a state education
department needs for an English teaching programme?
Finding answers to these questions is essential if we want to
understand how English language teaching functions in our
country. We need to recognise the good practices existing in parts
of Brazil and other countries that improve English teaching and
learning and that can help formulate new and more comprehensive
public policies, through more informed discussion.
We must also acknowledge the Base Nacional Comum Curricular
(BNCC) [Common National Curricular Base] progress towards
teaching the language as a social practice, rather than just as a
list of grammatical content. This change in the approach to English
language teaching can and must have a prominent role in the
personal, academic and professional training of students, helping
make them into global citizens.
One of the challenges of my work at the British Council is to
design and develop projects, in partnership with Brazilian public
managers at national and subnational level, for improvements in
English teaching. Brazil is a vast and diverse country, and with
85 per cent of Brazilian students in public schools, this is where
change must be made, particularly in the state education network,
which bears most responsibility for teaching foreign languages
and, as from 2020, for teaching English.
Available in: Public Policies for English Teaching - An Overview of Brazilian Public
Network Experience - British Council - 2019