The place of Portuguese language in the United States
Beliefs and motivations for PAL teaching-learning in American universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2022.1.41043Keywords:
Portuguese as an additional language, Linguistic beliefs, United StatesAbstract
In addition to policies that encourage the study of a language, undergraduate students have particular motivations when it comes to an additional language. As an attempt to explore the US context of teaching-learning Portuguese as an additional language (PAL), we present an exploratory study whose main objective is to analyze American undergraduate students’ beliefs and motivations when enrolling in elementary Portuguese language courses. The research was conducted with students from four institutions in different regions of the country in the fall semester of 2019. Through a quali-quantitative approach, participants voluntarily filled out an online questionnaire, with open-ended and closed-ended questions, so we could analyze their beliefs and motivations regarding the course during the semester. The results show that the main motivating factors are previous proficiency in another Romance language and the desire to maintain affective and cultural ties, while the main learners’ beliefs are: knowing another Romance language and the relationships with Portuguese speakers work as facilitators for learning PLA; speaking is seen an important linguistic skill. Finally, we conclude that, for the US, Portuguese has a status of critical language, whereas for students, the language is linked to ethnic-linguistic and cultural aspects.
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