Overcoming linguistic barriers in Portuguese higher education: The case of international African students

Abstract

This article reflects about the contextual and theoretical assumptions of the project ‘Trovoada de Ideias: Linguistic and social inclusion of students from Portuguese-speaking African countries in Portuguese higher education’, an ongoing action research on Portuguese academic language teaching involving students who speak different varieties of Portuguese. By adopting a multidimensional inclusion approach (simultaneously linguistic, cultural and social), the ultimate aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors of (in)comprehension between students fluent in different norms of Portuguese and the university host community in Portugal, and consequently, building a frame for improving higher education institutions responses to multicultural challenges implied in the social dynamics of language variation.