Política linguística na institucionalização do português como língua de acolhimento (PLAc): o que revelam os cursos de mestrado em letras/linguística nas regiões do Brasil?

Abstract

In recent decades, Brazil has established itself as a destination for migratory flows from different parts of the world, driven by armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, religious persecution, and socioeconomic disasters. In this context, the present research arose from concerns about how studies on the institutionalization of Portuguese as a Host Language (PLAc) have been developing in master’s programs in Brazil and the implications of these approaches for the effective linguistic and social integration of immigrants into universities and Brazilian society. The theoretical framework was based on Calvet (2007), Rajagopalan (2003), Batoréo (2014), Cabete (2010), Lopez (2022), Labov (1978), Bakhtin (2006), Bagno (2007), Marcuschi (2010), Clyne (1992), Scaramucci (2019), among others. The objective was to analyze the abstracts of five dissertations on the institutionalization of PLAc in Brazilian master’s programs, based on the analytical categories: research context, PLAc-related themes, theoretical framework, methodologies, approaches and trends, guiding research questions, and academic and social contributions resulting from these studies. Methodologically, a qualitative, critical-collaborative research was conducted according to Prodonov and Freitas (2013), with a documentary approach following Marconi and Lakatos (2003), through a survey in the Theses and Dissertations Catalog of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). The descriptor “Português como Língua de Acolhimento (PLAc)” and specific filters were applied — academic level “Master’s,” work type “Dissertation,” and concentration areas “Letras,” “Applied Linguistics,” and “Portuguese Language” — with a temporal scope from 2014 to 2024. After reading titles, abstracts, and applying inclusion criteria, the research corpus was composed exclusively of abstracts from master’s dissertations in Letters/Linguistics from several graduate programs in the five regions of Brazil. The results indicated a modest tendency toward the geographical decentralization of research and the appreciation of regional varieties of Portuguese as a welcoming strategy, contributing to more inclusive and representative diagnoses. Furthermore, the analyzed abstracts revealed not only advancements but also significant gaps, such as the lack of studies focused on the North and Northeast regions, the scarcity of interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches, and the absence of discussions about the legitimization of African varieties of Portuguese within the PLAc context in the continuous and ongoing training of undergraduate teachers, which remains unacknowledged in course curricula (PPCs).