Políticas linguísticas do ensino da escrita do português na formação do estado-nacional brasileiro

Abstract

Given that language is product of a social context and that the choices about languages are not random (SPOLSKY, 2012), this work aims to discuss language policies, which constitute management, practice, beliefs and ideologies, about the teaching of writing in Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A bibliographic survey was made regarding the teaching of writing in the mentioned period and an analysis based on the theory of Language Policy. We observed that among extralinguistic factors that guided the Portuguese language writing was the interest of the State in the making of a national State and of a citizen who represented it. As a consequence, the making of unified citizens, users of a homogeneous language in favor of a centralizing power. Other factors that were very important in the linguistic and methodological choices of teaching were linked to discourses outside the school environment, such as the medical discourse and the influence of the writing style of the English language. We concluded with an open reflection on the role of the centralizing plans that tend to erase local cultures and languages.