The problem of teaching Portuguese as L2
I was recently looking for a textbook of Portuguese for foreigners, which I intended to buy for a friend of mine who wanted to learn the language.
Unfortunately, after looking at several popular textbooks available in the
US market, I couldn't find one I would consider adequate. Most texts
had either linguistic or factual errors, in addition to cultural "cliches"
and misunderstandings about Brazil. Putting the cultural content aside
(since that is part of a wider discussion about Brazil's image
abroad), I believe that, as far as the linguistic content is concerned,
there is an intrinsic problem associated with the teaching of Brazilian
POrtuguese as second language which must be addressed in order to improve
the quality of Portuguese instruction, particularly in the United States.
The teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language implies an important
question: which variety of the language should be taught and why. Unlike
English, German, French or Spanish, there is no standard Portuguese uniformly
adopted across the Portuguese-speaking countries. Roughly speaking , the
different dialects of Portuguese are grouped into two varieties: European
and American. The European variety includes both contemporary Lusitanian
Portuguese and the educated language of the former Portuguese colonies in
Africa (Angola, Mozambique, etc...), while the label "American" is used to
refer to the different regional (and social) dialects spoken in Brazil.
In general, Portuguese L2 courses in European universities tend to focus on
the European variety, which is somewhat more clearly standardized and defined.
US Universities, however, tend to focus on American (or Brazilian) Portuguese,
which is far from definitive standardization. In Brazil, linguistic
varieties vary not so much across regional lines (despite the continental
size of the country), but rather depend heavily on the social and educational
background of the speaker and on the degree of formality of the situation in
which a spoken utterance or written text is produced. One can find roughly
4 levels of register in Brazilian Portuguese:
1) The so-called "literary" language, which was originally fairly close to
standard European Portuguese with minor "Brazilianisms" in vocabulary and
grammar, but which has recently been increasingly influenced by
colloquialisms and even substandard speech.
2) The "standard" formal written language, used in the printed newspapers and
magazines, whose grammar follows closely standard European Portuguese (again
with room for some typical "Brazilianisms"), but whose syntax and vocabulary
are less elaborated than in the literary styles. The "standard" formal
written language has a spoken counterpart, generally used in TV newscasts
and formal settings (speeches, university lectures, etc...).
3) The "educated colloquial" language, used by the urban middle-class of the
big cities at home, among friends or colleagues, and in
most social gatherings. The "educated colloquial" register, also known as the
Brazilian "familiar" language, is the core of contemporary spoken Brazilian
Portuguese. Not only is it the variety a foreigner is most likely to hear in
his day-to-day life in a big Brazilian city, but also it is the language used
in TV soap operas and TV talk shows. Its grammar differs in some significant
and noticeable points from the grammar of both standard spoken European
Portuguese and standard formal written Brazilian Portuguese (ie, newspaper
language).(*)
4) The "uneducated" or "substandard" speech, which encompasses all the
linguistics varieties used by the urban working classes and, in general, by
the rural population. The "substandard" speech, including rural dialects such
as the so-called "caipira" dialect, shares some common traits with the
"educated colloquial" register, but differs from the latter, in the sense that
uneducated speech shows wider deviations from the standard written language,
including possible loss of nominal and verbal agreement and more
frequent regularization of verbal paradigms.
Some foreign L2 teachers of Brazilian Portuguese, particularly in the US,
support the position that students should be primarily exposed to the
"educated colloquial" language as the main model for language acquisition,
This essentially ideological position, which is well enshrined in Portuguese
textbooks for foreigners written in the US, has resulted in considerable
damage to Portuguese instruction in this country.
Becoming fluent in a foreign language implies the ability to communicate on
different levels of register and switch from one register to the
other, conditioned on social and environmental circumstances. The easiest way
to achieve that goal is to expose the foreign student of BP to the standard
formal language and once he/she masters it, introduce him/her to the
peculiarities of the colloquial speech, in the points in which it differs or
deviates from the standard speech. For example, in the case of pronouns, the
natural sequence would be to introduce first the formal standard pronominal
system (including 2nd person singular forms and unstressed 3rd person object
pronouns) and, then, later, introduce students to Brazilian
colloquialisms , such as the use of "te" with "voce", or the use of stressed
3rd person subject pronouns ("ele", "ela") as direct objects. The student
should get a feeling of the social context and situations in which these
nonstandard forms are acceptable or not.
On the hand, there is no point in teaching substandard (basilectal)
varieties to a foreign learner of the language, since those varieties have
low social prestige in Brazil and therefore should be avoided in most
situations in which the foreign learner will find him/herself. Besides, with
a through command of the standard formal language and of the main
peculiarities of the colloquial "familiar" language, the foreign student of
BP can easily understand "caipira" or other varieties of substandard speech,
without great trouble.
Notice that I am not urging that colloquial speech be neglected in BP
courses for foreigners. I am just suggesting that learning a more standard
(written) variety of the language helps the student to understand better the
colloquial varieties and increases his/her ability to function adequately in
different linguistic contexts and registers.
Marcelo Bruno
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PS:
(*) In general, urban middle-class and upper-class Brazilians are taught
"standard" prescriptive grammar at school. In fact, Brazilian private
secondary schools (attented by most middle-class kids in cities like Sao
Paulo or Rio) are known for their *very* conservative grammatical tradition
in the teaching of Portuguese. The result is a situation of near
"diglossia", where members of affluent and middle-income social groups will
invariably speak "familiar" language among themselves, but, when required to
write an essay, an article or any text for professional purposes, will
employ a more formal grammar and vocabulary.
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