| dc.description.abstract | Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) is the approach used in the Centro de Ensino e Pesquisa
de Línguas Estrangeiras Instrumentais (CEPESLI/UFSM) for the development and implementation of
Portuguese courses to Uruguayan Federal Agents, supported by Brazil‟s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The current project aims at teaching Portuguese to correctional officers in order to prepare them to
interact with Brazilians convicts either when living or passing by Uruguay. In this context, given the
fact that most of the border prison guards are native speakers of Uruguayan Portuguese (PU), a variety
of Brazilian Portuguese, we found it relevant to investigate further their learning needs in learning that
variety. Hence, this study aims to present a Needs Analysis for teaching/learning Brazilian Portuguese
to/by Uruguayan Portuguese speakers. For that purpose, we initially proceeded to study the
characteristics of the border Uruguay-Brazil and Uruguayan Portuguese in their historical, linguistic,
social and political aspects (CARVALHO, 2003a, 2003b, 2007, 2008, 2010; MILÁN, SAWARIS e
WELTER, 1996; e STURZA, 2005, 2006, 2014). Since we also based our research on the Language
for Specific Purposes Approach, we present its history, characteristics and a review or the
bibliography on the teaching of Portuguese as a Foreign Language according to this approach
(HUTCHINSON e WATERS, 1987; e DUDLEY-EVANS e ST. JOHN, 1998). Regarding the
methodology to identify the UP speakers‟ beliefs we followed Barcelos (1995, 2000, 2001, 2004,
2006, 2007) and Pajares (1992); and Error Analysis (CORDER, 1967, 1971; SANTOS GARGALLO,
2004) to analyze the linguistic production in Portuguese of Uruguayan PU speakers, in contrast to the
Brazilian Portuguese. The subjects of this study were four Uruguayan prison officers, all men, at Cerro
Carancho, in Rivera-ROU. The results indicate that the correctional officers should learn the Brazilian
Portuguese variety specifically to communicate with Brazilians who are in Uruguayan prisons; it also
showed that subjects believe they need to learn to write in Portuguese, fix some aspects of their speech
and learn ("improve") their Portuguese to speak to Brazilians who are not from the border area.
Finally, the analysis shows that the subjects ignore the origins of their native language, what might be
useful in the learning of Brazilian Portuguese as well as it would be to know about some varieties of
Portuguese; that they need to cope some linguistic and sociolinguistic problems related to the use of
stigmatized forms and errors of relevance and/or discursive errors. | |
