Bilingualism and bilingual education:

This paper presents concepts related to bilingualism and bilingual education in Brazil, as well as offering an analysis of the pedagogical proposal of a bilingual institution located in the interior of the state of São Paulo through the information contained on its website together with interviews conducted with two of the institution's teachers with a view to identifying the concepts of bilingualism as well as the way in which the school space is organised. This study also includes a presentation of bilingual education in Brazil and some considerations set out in the National Curriculum Parameters (PCN) with regard to foreign language teaching. Next, some advantages, concepts and definitions related to bilingualism are highlighted. At the end, we point out the need to extend bilingual education, which to this day is restricted to only a financially privileged minority due to the high prices of the institutions that provide this type of education.

Autorentext

With a degree in English and Portuguese, the author, together with her co-author, presents the results of an investigation into bilingual education in Brazil. Both English language teachers, they believe in the potential of Bilingual Education as a promoter of social integration.