Simone Sarmento Ufrgs - Telma Gimenez Uel - Basic Education

SIMONE SARMENTO
TELMA GIMENEZ
ENGLISH IN THE
SECONDARY PUBLIC
SCHOOL SYSTEM
www.britishcouncil.org
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
• National Education Guidelines and
Framework Law no. 9.394, approved in
December 1996:
• Decentralisation and autonomy of schools and
universities, which are responsible for drafting and
implementing their pedagogical proposals and
managing their personnel, materials and financial
resources.
• School systems to be organized in a collaborative
way by the Union, the states and the municipalities,
according to their respective administrative
responsibilities.
www.britishcouncil.org 2
• National Plan for Education – PNE (2014/2024)

• 20 goals. Monitoring by Observatory of PNE
http://www.observatoriodopne.org.br/metas-pne
#3 Upper Secondary School
Universalize school enrollment for young people
(15 to 17)
3
EDUCATION IN BRAZIL
Pre-school, Primary and Lower Secondary Levels
High school and Higher education
Secondary School
LITERACY RATES
UPPER SECONDARY EDUCATION
• The age-grade distortion rate of secondary

education is 28.2%, mainly due to grade retention.
• 7.9% are full-time students (7 hours in school or
longer)
• 92.1% are part-time students (~4-5 hours in
schools)
• 91.3% of schools have internet access, but only
79.9% with wideband connections
TEACHERS
HOW TO BECOME A SCHOOL TEACHER
IN BRAZIL
• The National Education Guidelines and Framework
Law of 1996 (Brasil, 1996) determines that teachers
of all educational levels must have a higher-education
teaching degree.
• Teaching degree to be an English teacher lasts from 4
to 4.5 years, depending on a number of factors
(university choice, dual-degree, etc)
• Teaching degree Programs (for lower and upper
secondary schools) are very specific from the start,
i.e., you have to decide to be a teacher and also the
discipline you will have to teach by the time you are
17/18
NUMBER OF TEACHERS
• 2.2 million teachers
- 80% female
• Pre-school 557,541
• 1st to 5th 761.737
• 6th to 9th 764.731
• Upper Secondary 509.814
SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
• 52.9% are over 40

• 93.5% have a college degree being 86.8%
with a teaching degree
• 73,305 English teachers
• 35,553 primary
• 37,752 secondary
-56.2% have a teaching degree in Languages/Literature
-2.2% have a degree in Languages/Literature
-34.1% have a college degree other than languages
-7.2% do not hold a college degree
INSTITUTIONAL SCIENTIFIC
INITIATION GRANT PROGRAM – (PIBID)
qThe program aims to improve and upgrade training
for primary/secondary school teachers by granting
scholarships to undergraduate students who
participate in teaching initiation projects offered by
institutes of higher education in partnership with
municipal and state public schools.
qPIBID first started in 2007 and a new Call has just
been launched calling for universities to apply.
INSTITUTIONAL SCIENTIFIC
INITIATION GRANT PROGRAM – (PIBID)
qThe new Call requires students from teaching
degree programmes to be in their fresh of
sophomore years.
qFor third, fourth or fifth year students, a new
Program has been put into place: “Teaching
Residency” (controversial though)
qA great deal of research papers have been
published about PIBID first 10 years, but no large
scale (impact) study has been conducted yet.
ENGLISH IN THE CURRICULUM
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
qGeneral belief – not to be learned in regular schools

qGrowing number of bilingual and international schools
qLanguage/English private institutes – very successful
business – shift over the years from independent to
big multinational groups
- 4th biggest market in the world
- not regulated – different types of public ($)
- all ages
qThere are no official monitoring of FL proficiency, but
most people just speak Portuguese, specially in lower
social classes
ENGLISH IN SCHOOLS
• Government policy
• Preschool years (ages 0-6)
• Not compulsory,
but increasingly introduced at early stages by private
schools or municipalities.
• Until 2017, a foreign language was compulsory in the
curriculum.
• New BNCC (Basic National Curriculum Framework) for
lower secondary schools was approved (December 2017)
• From 2019 on, English will be compulsory for lower and
upper secondary levels.
• BNCC for upper secondary level under discussion.
BNCC: ENGLISH IN THE LOWER
SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM
qEnglish as a lingua franca
for international communication
qCurriculum organised in areas. English is part of
the "language component“ (Portuguese, Arts,
Physical Education)
qFocus on communication
qCompetence-based
qSyllabus: oral skills, reading, writing, linguistic and
grammatical knowledge, intercultural dimension
qIntercultural awareness and literacies as
curriculum pillars.
BNCC: ENGLISH IN THE HIGH SCHOOL
CURRICULUM
qEnglish is part of the “Languages and their

technologies”
qPortuguese and Maths compulsory during the 3
years
qStates will organise their curricula in flexible ways
to enable learning trajectories that meet the
students's demands/aspirations.
qThe purpose is to deepen and expand the
learning by building on the skills developed
earlier (lower secondary level)
qFocus on interdisciplinarity.
NATIONAL TEXTBOOK PROGRAM
(PNLD)
qThe National Textbook Program (PNLD) is a public
educational policy from the Brazilian federal government
that aims at evaluating, purchasing and distributing
textbooks to Brazilian public schools.
qIT has existed since 1929, but it was only in 2011 that
foreign languages (English and Spanish) were included.
qIt is funded by the National Fund for Educational
Development (FNDE).
qA Cycle lasts for three (now four) years, meaning that
every three years schools will receive new approved
books.
PNLD- APPROVAL RATE
qAfter going through the Evaluation process (each

book series is analysed in a blind review),
teachers can choose the most suitable among the
approved books.
qThe approval rate is 18.9%. This can be
considered low, when compared, for example, to
Portuguese language textbooks, which have an
approval rate of 50%.
qThe reason lies on the unsuitability of the
traditional pedagogy in most English textbook
series which do not conform to the PNLD Calls
SOME REQUIREMENTS
ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS
qDesign that allows for students to overcome stereotypes
and prejudices, creating a positive feeling towards
difference and diversity
qFocus on critical reading, allowing access to different
language usage situations linked to their social purposes
qEnhancement of the plurality of the Brazilian socio-cultural
heritage, as well as sociocultural aspects of other peoples
qPresentation of a variety of discourse genres, achieved
through verbal, non-verbal or verbal-visual communication,
characterizing different forms of expression both in the
foreign and in the national language.
NATIONAL TEXTBOOK PROGRAM
(PNLD)
qQualitative research has shown they do not

receive any kind of training to learn how to choose
the best book or to learn how to work with the
books.
qTotal investment in 2017 - 260.564.098,55 GBP
qMost studies published to date have focused on
analysing the approved books, but the efficiency
of PNLD as a whole is yet to be studied.
CHALLENGES
ENGLISH IN SCHOOLS: CHALLENGES
qFactors such as the limited number of hours
allotted to the study of foreign languages,
coupled with a lack of teachers with the linguistic
and pedagogical background required have
accounted for the non-enforcement of the legislation.
qTherefore, instead of training the student to speak,
read and write in a foreign language, classes at
secondary level often ended up taking on a
repetitive character which can deprive both
students and teachers of motivation for learning.
Source: English in Brazil - An examination of policy, perceptions and influencing
factors (2015).
BNCC CHALLENGE:
INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Teachers are not

prepared to work Schools are not Teacher education
organised to programmes focus Learning
with assessment favors
interdisciplinary encourage on disciplinary
collaborative work perspectives rote learning
approaches
CHALLENGES: STUDENTS'
MOTIVATION TO LEARN
qEnglish seen as unimportant
for progression in school
qFew hours of study (2h/week)
qENEM (upper secondary
school leaving examination)
has limited impact on teaching
and English has minimal
presence on the test (5
questions out of 180).
Students can choose Spanish.
qEarly entry into labour market
CHALLENGE: TEACHER'S
COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH
• Source: British Council/Education Intelligence. English in Brazil - An

examination of policy, perceptions and influencing factors (2015).
CHALLENGE: TEACHERS' WORKLOAD
Number of classes per teacher
Source: English in Brazil - An examination of policy, perceptions and influencing factors (2015).
IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION
229
respondents
from Brazil
IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION
POSSIBLE NEXT STEPS
q Design specific policies for English language teacher education
(Base Nacional de Formação de Professores)
q Work towards one degree only (majority of teaching degrees in
English grant dual qualification (Portuguese and English, with
larger proportion of hours dedicated to Portuguese)
q Make the career more attractive by improving working conditions
and salary
q Establish minimum proficiency levels for entry and exit profiles
q Take advantage of the expansion of practical hours to strengthen
language learning (Pibid and Residency)
q Better articulation between universities and schools in order to
prepare for the implementation of BNCC.
q Nurture interdisciplinarity and project-based learning with the use
of technology
q Watch the political scene.
THANK YOU!
SIMONE SARMENTO
[email protected]
TELMA GIMENEZ
[email protected]
31

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SIMONE SARMENTO

• National Plan for Education – PNE (2014/2024)

Pre-school, Primary and Lower Secondary Levels

High school and Higher education

• The age-grade distortion rate of secondary

• 52.9% are over 40

qGeneral belief – not to be learned in regular schools

qEnglish is part of the “Languages and their

qAfter going through the Evaluation process (each

qQualitative research has shown they do not

Teachers are not

• Source: British Council/Education Intelligence. English in Brazil - An

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