The Need of language politics for the teaching of English in higher education in Brazil

A brief reflection under the light of logistic factors

Abstract

This paper is about the need to rethink the English language teaching in higher education. The objective is to show how the difficulty to learn this language may be diagnosed through educational research. Under the light of Applied Linguistics and Critical Pedagogy, it develops reasoning to understand that the offer of the English language per se, with the mere presumption of inclusion, may not bring the desired results. To offer the English language it is necessary to plan it, taking into account the logistic factors. When they are disregarded, learners react with negative attitudes, which may hinder learning. This, somehow, signals the need of language politics which redirect the English teaching/learning logistic. This paper aims at making a reflection in this sense, presenting outcomes of an ethnographic research, developed with some undergraduate students, in Brazil, whose data showed negative attitudes toward some logistic factors, in the English language classroom. Thus, this text is aligned with the tenets of language politics, taking into account the logistic factors to reach better results in the English language classroom.