Teacher education and teaching of Portuguese in East Timor: perceptions of Brazilian teachers

Abstract

In 2002, after the independence of the Democratic Republic of East Timor was restored, Portuguese and Tetum became official languages and media of instruction. As Portuguese was (re) introduced in the various social spheres of the country, Brazilian teachers from different fields of knowledge worked through the Teacher Education and Portuguese Language Teaching Program in East Timor (PQLP / CAPES). The teachers particularly devoted to teaching Portuguese were selected for this research. Data were collected through a questionnaire and consisted of written utterances about these teachers’ education and teaching practices. The methodology used for data analysis was underpinned by the studies developed by Bakhtin (2010; 2011). Based on the theory of dialogism, the following concepts (which compose the extra-verbal context of the teachers’ written production) were selected as categories of analysis of their utterances: the concepts of chronotope - (historical) time and (social) space - and value-judgement, i.e., the subjects’ social evaluation of the object referred to by their utterances. Overall, the analysis showed that there are gaps in the professional education of teachers who will work in East Timor; moreover, these teachers acknowledge the importance of relying on Tetum and aspects of Timorese culture while teaching Portuguese in this country.