A política de formação de professores de língua inglesa e os desafios da prática cotidiana na escola pública

Abstract

English teachers’ education and professional activity in the public schools in Manaus are embedded inthecontextof foreign language teaching in Brazil as a part of public policy in education. Although educational reformsover the years have instituted changes which have resulted in school improvement as a whole, there are signs of a school praxis that seeks procedures to obtain desirable results in this type of education as a professionalizing basis for language teachers and their practice. The insertion of foreign languages as a natural part of the training process has historically fallen short of sociocultural needs in the Brazilian educational system, either due to curricular instability, lack of teacher education requirements, or structural and / or curricular problems.As a result, language teaching and learning suffers from alack of prestige in the basic public education. This research examines the Brazilian historical repercussion on theteaching and learning of English in the context of the city of Manaus, in a study that analyzes the preparationof English language teachers whograduated in English Language Arts and Literature, at the Federal University of Amazonas, from 2004 to 2010, andwork in basic public education. Twenty teachers participated in the study through a semi-structured interview, with open and closed questions, whose narratives and choices of answers are the aim of the presentdescriptive and discursive analysis whichexaminesteachers’ practicesundercategories such as professional competence and theoretical and practical improvement or not for the better use of elementary and high school students.Finallyindicators of the challenges and institutional implications that impact theteaching and learning ofEnglish in public schools are presented.