Por que (não) ensinar espanhol no Brasil? As políticas linguísticas e a gramatização no ensino do espanhol a partir da glotopolítica

Abstract

In order to answer the question “Why (not) teach Spanish in Brazil?” this PhD thesis verifies the arguments from the education and government spheres by making the three moves that formalize language teaching in Brazilian High Schools considered herein as linguistic and geopolitical events, namely, 1919 (Collegio de Pedro II), 1942 (Reforma Capanema), and 2005 (“Lei do Espanhol”). In order to restructure this historization, this PhD thesis theoretically resorts to Glotopolitics (ARNOUX, 2000), Linguistic Policies (HAMEL, 1998), and History of Linguistic Ideas (AUROUX, 1992, ORLANDI, 2001), from which it takes grammatization as a component of the process. An excerpt from the beginning of the corpus, namely, the argumentative discourse that grounds the laws and the primary linguistic tools to implement the Linguistic Policies, is associated to different linguistic ideologies (ARNOUX e VALLE, 2010) sometimes made up as ideologemes (ANGENOT, 1982). They are expressed as less or more crystallized verbal sequences, namely, the formulae (KRIEG-PLANQUE, 2010). These elements refer to representations on language, language teaching, and on the relationship between the Portuguese and Spanish languages. In the historization process, back in time and space, the geopolitical relationships between Spain and Portugal caused conflicts between the Lusophone and Hispanic elements that occasionally projected themselves on the Spanish language representation in Brazil in the relationship between languages. However, in a closer context, the teaching of “someone else´s language” has been conditioned in first place to the geopolitical relationships between nations and their interests, swinging at times in each temporality. The mode of teaching Spanish in Brazil was military in the primary continental geopolitical circumstances. With a view to a policy of American sympathy, a great bilingual army was idealized “in the letters and in the guns” in the threatening settings of two huge world wars when the two primary events were effected. After that, in the 20th century, in the context of MERCOSUL and panhispanism’s forged relationships, the process of South American regionalization that motivated the third event was deteriorated. In September 2016, in the context oh the Pacific Alliance, the Brazilian government passes a Provisional Act, namely, MP 746 that repeals the “Lei de 2005”. This law had conceded the compulsory offer of the Spanish language in High School. The repeal leads to ongoing drawbacks that have imposed and overlapped the teaching of Spanish in Brazil since the primary event. This PhD thesis takes this new event as a component of the current geopolitical context and, primarily, as a glotopolitical fact. This fact formalizes the regional disintegration since it disestablishes the teaching of a language that integrates the official languages from the closest regional bloc. This bloc has been developing when it comes to the valuing of the linguistic element as a key means of South American integration. The Mercosul’s flag lowering in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a current symbol. Spanish is silenced. A linguistic new imperialism over the teaching of foreign languages has been put into effect.