Useful Bibliography

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To work in the area

If you are interested to work in the area, this website provides you information and tips on how to do so

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Bilingue or not?

The importance of a bilingual education
By Marina Vidigal (Revista Crescer – Ed. Outubro 2009)

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Does bilingual education work?

"To be bilingual is to be in process, process in change, it is not having two languages, but it is living in two languages, in two words, navigating in other spaces: it is having broader views, other perspectiver of the world"
(Antonia da Cunha Duarte Justo)

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Bilinguismo e Educação Bilíngue

An article by Antonieta Heyden

Abstract: O conceito de bilinguismo e tambem de educação bilíngue é complexo e pode envolver varias dimensoes ao se definirem.
O objetivo deste trabalho é propor uma reflexao e uma redefiniçao de bilinguismo e educação bilíngue. Termos estes que se tornaram nao só difíceis de conceituar, mas também sujeitos a definiçoes um tanto quanto divergentes. Para tanto, este trabalho se apresenta dividido em duas partes: na primeira, sao discutidos os diferentes conceitos e as diversas definiçoes de bilinguismo, partindo de concepções unidimensionais como a de Bloomfield (1935), Macnamara (1967) e Titone (1972), em direçao a definições multidimensionais como a de Harmers e Blanc (2000); e na segunda parte, é definido o conceito de educaçao bilíngue, descrevendo diferentes propostas como a de Harmers e Blanc (2000) e Mackey (2001).

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Being bilingual 'protects brain'

Being fluent in two languages may help to keep the brain sharper for longer, a study suggests.

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Myths

A large amount of myths are created around bilingualism, for instance, a child should learn one language at a time, learning two languages might confuse the child, bilingual children will mix the languages and etc, all these topics and others are debated by Marcello Marcelino in his blog

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A little more about the same discussion by Colorin Colorado

Bilingualism popularity in Brazil

Bilingual education and its discussion, which is no so rare anymore, in the Brazilian midia

An execerpt of a popular brazilian tv show "Hoje em dia" presente by the Tv Chanel "Record", it envolve a conversation with professionals, common questions are raised and bilingual children participate



Another video made by "Veja" presents the topic and a brief interview with a professional in the area

A professional opinion

Isis Nogueira Barbosa is 24 years old and graduated in pedagogy. She worked at Esfera, a bilingual school in Sao José dos Campos-SP. According to her own experience with the topic she answered some questions:


1) What are the good and the bad aspects of a bilingual education?

Some of the good aspects are:
1. Studies show that the earlier a child
learns a second language, faster she turns fluent and less chances she
has to develop accent.
2. Nowadays, being bilingual is essential to
have good job opportunities.
3. Bilingual kids tend to develop good
communication skills.
4. Bilingual programs usually put the kids in contact with varied cultures. I don`t know any bad aspects of a bilingual education, although it`s important to say that there is a difference between bilingual and international schools. Bilingual schools use the English language to teach the Brazilian curriculum and the kids learn how to read and write in Portuguese, then, afterwards, the child can study both in a Brazilian College or abroad. International schools usually teach foreign curriculums, so it`s not recommended if you want your child to study in Brazil.

2) What are the difficulties the teachers may face regarding the
students comprehension?

From 1st grade on, It`s very important that the school offers extra
classes for those students who find some difficult in understanding
the second language. In preschool, it`s important to have an assistant
teacher to be closer to the new students, helping them. In all levels,
bilingual teachers need to be patient, speak slowly and use as many
sources as possible to be understood.

3) Do you think that it affects the students' learning process any how?

For sure! As I mentioned before, bilingual kids tend to develop good
communication skills and they also find easier to solve problems.

The search for bilingual education

Fundaçao Getúlio Vargas material's points the increased demand for bilingual education for Brazilian parent

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Brazilian immigrants: efforts for first language maintenance

ABSTRACT: This ethnographic study, involving twelve Brazilian families in the United States, describes the socialization process o people confronted to a new language/culture. The bilingual communicative competence was investigated within five social domains. Children/adolescents of the study manifest a kind of "subtractive bilingualism". Parents express strategies of actions aimed at maintaining the first language. The church community and Brazilian television programs have become important forces to promote "conversational lessons" in Portuguese.
Key words: Immigrants. Bilingual competence. Socialization process

MOTA, Kátia Santos. Aulas de português fora da escola: famílias imigrantes brasileiras, esforços de preservação da língua materna. Cad. CEDES [online]. 2004, vol.24, n.63, pp. 149-163. ISSN 0101-3262.

Complete article

Advantages of bilingual education

Pueri Domus coordinator's article about the advantages of a bilingual education

Bilingualism in Brazil: Meaning and Expectations

Abstract: Bilinguism grows in Brazil as a phenomenon and as tendency. Sometimes, thoug, this may come across as a new trend to be followed because it ir very happening. In this paper, I analyse the context in which bilingualism grows, the seeming reasons that it is still growing and where it seems to be heading. Throughout the paper, I refer to the (i) concept of bilinguism, which is highly debatable, (ii) the ideal characteristics of a bilingual school in the Brazilian context, and (iii) the linguistic aspects of using an L2 for instruction, which are usually left out of the loop. Towards the end of the paper, I bring in a reflection on the importance of providing the child in the bilingual context with a optimal input as a means of maximizing the chances of a learner to acquire and develop an L2 that is as close to the target language as possible. KEY-WORDS: Bilinguism; acquisition, bilingual education;

Artigo em PDF

But, what is bilingualism?

In this video there is a professional, who speaks 7 languages herself, presenting her definition of bilinguism, explaining how common is this and the advantages and disadvantages of it for a bilingual child

A Brief introduction

Languages of Brazil

The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which is spoken by the overwhelming majority of the population (more than 99%). Minority languages include indigenous languages, and languages of more recent European and Asian immigrants. Approximately 210 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 80 are indigenous to the area.
Language is one of the strongest elements of Brazil's national unity. Portuguese is spoken by nearly 99.9 percent of the population. The only exceptions are some members of Amerindian groups and pockets of immigrants, who have not yet learned Portuguese. There is about as much difference between the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and that spoken in Portugal as between the English spoken in the United States and that spoken in the United Kingdom. Within Brazil, there are no dialects of Portuguese, but only moderate regional variation in accent, vocabulary, and use of personal nouns, pronouns, and verb conjugations. Variations tend to diminish as a result of mass media, especially national television networks that are viewed by the majority of Brazilians.
The written language, which is uniform all over Brazil, follows national rules of spelling and accentuation that are revised from time to time for simplification. They are slightly different from the rules followed in Portugal. Written Brazilian Portuguese differs significantly from the spoken language and is used correctly by only a small, educated minority of the population. The rules of grammar are complex and allow more flexibility than English or Spanish. Many foreigners who speak Portuguese fluently have difficulty writing it properly. Because of Brazil's size, self-sufficiency, and relative isolation, foreign languages are not widely spoken. English and Spanish are often studied in school and increasingly in private courses.

Bilingualism

More people are realizing in Brazil that a person can master and carry more than one language throughout their lives, In other words, integration into mainstream society does not mean that one has to become monolingual. More and more the reasoning is that if languages are a human capital of great value to some, perhaps they should be considered valuable to one all
Spanish is understood to various degrees by most Brazilians, due to the similarities of the languages. In some parts of Brazil, close to the border of Brazil with Spanish-speaking countries, Brazilians use a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese that is sometimes known as Portuñol to communicate with their neighbors on the other side of the border.
In São Paulo, the German-Brazilian newspaper Brasil-Post has been published for over fifty years. There are many other media organizations throughout the land specializing either in church issues, music, language, etc.
The Italian online newspaper La Rena offers of Talian lessons.
There are many other non-Portuguese publications, bilingual web sites, radio and television programs throughout the country. For example, TV Galega from Blumenau shows German-language programming on their channel on a weekly basis.
The English-language daily Brazil Herald is directed mostly to tourists, foreign executives and expatriates.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Brazil