HOW TO ‘SELL’ THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE? PROMOTING THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE WITHIN TWO NORTH AMERICA COMMUNITIES

This contribution presents the analysis of the position of the Portuguese language within two Portuguese communities located in North America: in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States of America. Enrollments are decreasing within the communitarian schools of the two communities, and some actors within these institutions are mobilizing discourses about the power of Portuguese as a global language of the future, a language of business. Thanks to our ethnographic approach, we observed discourses promoted by these institutions not anymore as a Heritage Language (HL), but ‘selling’ Portuguese as a new language for the future. Moreover, we realized how the nationalist paradigm in which one language is equal to one nation or community, and this refers to one norm, is maintained to support this new position. Due to a qualitative methodology, mixing interactional observation and semi-structured interviews, we aimed to articulate discursive analysis and analysis of language practices, mainly focusing on the perception and the identification of what is perceived as the ‘good’ Portuguese. Speakers continue to interrogate mixed or hybrid practices according to their repertoires and considering each context or situation. This may help questioning the complex ideology of ‘purity’ of a language.