Bodies and voices in the teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language: Decolonial narratives of learners from the Global South

Abstract

This article is part of the researchers' ongoing thesis, which consists of developing and delivering a short course in Portuguese as a Foreign Language, based on decolonial pedagogy, to learners from the Global South. The research aims to identify the learners' loci of enunciation expressed during class, focusing on accounts of the myth of discovery, Christian religious imposition, affective memory, and typical foods. To this end, we analyzed the students' oral discourses through transcriptions of their accounts, collected from class recordings, as well as reflective diaries entries by the instructor and observer. We conclude that the short course provided a space for listening to and expressing decolonial loci of enunciation, which deconstructed "unique stories" about their countries of origin, bringing their own experiences, cultures, and realities to the table. We understand the limitation of the study regarding the wide range of possibilities of decolonial perspective in the context in question and we hope that this research will be an incentive to expand the debate on decolonial pedagogy in Portuguese as a Foreign Language.