BRAZILIAN TEACHERS OF PORTUGUESE AS A FOREIGN PERCEIVE THEMSELVES AS LESS PREPARED TO TEACH GRAMMAR THAN THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS

Abstract

Brazilian teachers profess to enjoy teaching and studying grammar and rank the importance of explicit grammar instruction similarly to their European counterparts or teachers from other nationalities. However, Brazilian teachers differ from other instructors when it comes to their perception of their own preparedness to teach grammar. They consistently rank themselves below their peers when it comes to evaluating their background formation, and their ability to find grammatical information when they don’t know it. They also rate the didactical materials at their disposal as less adequate than both foreign and Portuguese teachers do. This may be explained by the academic culture in Brazilian universities, especially when it comes to educating new teachers. There has been a consistent dismissal of the importance of grammar in Brazilian Applied Linguistic fields and the results of this survey may indicate that teachers could benefit and acquire security from a more comprehensive formational process.   Article visualizations: