The role of attitudes in the management of multilingualism in Brazilian schools located in the Brazil-Paraguay border region
This chapter presents an interdisciplinary study held in two Brazilian schools located in the Brazil-Paraguay border region that participated in the Education on the Border Observatory Project. An action research was carried out in order to identify how teachers managed multilingualism in these schools. The results indicate that their management practices toward Paraguayan official languages were influenced by attitudes toward these languages and their speakers, as well as by ideologies that associate the languages with Brazilian and Paraguayan nations. We conclude there is a need to improve language-in-education for border areas so as to build more positive attitudes toward languages (and speakers) of the neighboring countries in these schools as a means for real social and cultural integration and understanding.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Multilingualism management and attitudes
- Education on the border observatory project
- Research design
- The context of the study: The Brazil-Paraguay border region
- Results and discussion
- The sociolinguistic environment of schools A and B
- Multilingualism management practices and the role of attitudes toward speakers and languages
- Conclusion
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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References