A REFLECTION ON STEREOTYPES ON AFRICA IN THE CONTEXT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

In consonance with the premises of a modern and Brazilian Applied Linguistics (MOITA LOPES, 2013), in which becomes necessary to look at the relationship between language and day-to-day life, in this present work we understand that the process of teaching and learning languages must take into consideration the many cultural aspects and identities of the participants, highlighting the interculturality stamps present in those interactions (MENDES, 2010). Therefore, in the current paper, we show an analysis about the stereotypes reproduced and built by Brazilians about Africa and Africans, in the context of language teaching and learning, while immersed in the city of Salvador, between 2017 and 2019, during Portuguese as foreign language classes, by the Programa de Proficiência em Língua Estrangeira para Estudantes e Servidores da UFBA (PROFICI).   The option for this research scenario was due to the need to promote and reflect on language teaching in a contextualized and socially oriented way. Consequently, from the students’ empirical reports, we aimed to identify and debate the presence of these stereotypes, prioritizing the way they manifested in daily interactions of those African students and how they interfere into the identity process of the very same individuals.