‘So do you hear me? And “how” do you hear me?’ Perceptions of lecturers on students from Portuguese-speaking African countries in Portuguese higher education

ABSTRACT

The internationalisation of Portuguese higher education implies multicultural challenges arising from the Portuguese language variation. Nevertheless, the perceptions of lecturers about their students are rarely analysed, though influencing learning. This will be the focus of our article, using focus groups. Findings show that lecturers experience unexpected situations of incomprehension with students speaking varieties of Portuguese, while profiling differently students’ sociolinguistic characteristics. Thirdly, participants differ on strategies applied to overcome difficulties encountered, such as pedagogical and monitoring. Our conclusions highlight the need to deconstruct lecturers’ ideologies as listening subjects of Portuguese language varieties and its socialisation, designing solutions promoting their capacity-building.

A internacionalização do ensino superior português implica desafios multiculturais decorrentes da variação língua portuguesa. Contudo raramente são analisadas as perceções dos docentes sobre os seus estudantes, embora influenciem a aprendizagem. Este será o foco do nosso artigo, utilizando grupos focais. Observamos que os professores vivenciam situações inesperadas de incompreensão com os estudantes falantes de variedades do português divergindo perfis sociolinguísticos identificados, e aplicando estratégias diferenciadas na superação destas dificuldades, pedagogicamente ou na avaliação. Concluímos a necessidade de desconstruir as ideologias dos docentes como sujeitos ouvintes das variedades da língua portuguesa e da sua socialização, desenvolvendo soluções com vista à sua capacitação.

KEYWORDS:

• International African students
• internationalisation of higher education
• linguistic and social inclusion
• perceptions of lecturers
• linguistic and communicational repertoires

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In English: ‘“Brainstorming”: Linguistic and Social Inclusion of Students from the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) in a Portuguese Higher Education Institution' See: https://ciencia.iscte-iul.pt/projects/trovoada-de-ideias-inclusao-linguistico-social-dos-estudantes-dos-palop-no-ensino-superior-portugues/917, partnership between CIES-Iscte; APEDI, LCT-Iscte, SAS-Iscte, CELGA-ILTEC. Project funded by NT from DL 57/2016, amended by Law 57/2017 by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), and the Alto Comissariado para as Migrações, I.P., funding PT/2018/FAMI/355. The proofreading of this paper was enabled by FCT funding of the R&D Unit UIDB/03126/2020.

2 The focus groups of 2016 involved 13 students, 7 lecturers and 1 senior staff, of different higher education institutions.

3 The intervention plan established 7 stages: (1) Academic Portuguese Curricular Units: Beginner; Elementary; Intermediate; (2) Teacher’s book – Teaching Resources of Academic Portuguese; (3) Academic Portuguese for students e-learning course; (4) Anthology of student schooling and linguistic biographies; (5) Brochure of teaching guidelines for Portuguese higher education institution lecturers; (6) PALOP Mentorship Project; (7) Events for dissemination of findings.

4 Research stages referred to in footnote 4, specifically eight biographic interviews and three focus groups with 36 students, team researchers, two senior staff members and one lecturer.

5 Following Flores and Rosa’s (2015), use of ‘minoritization’ as opposed to ‘minority’: ‘intended to highlight the processes through which linguistic valuation and devaluation take place and to disrupt the notion that ‘minority’ status is either a straightforward numerical calculation or intrinsic to a given set of linguistic forms’ (idem: 169).

6 Council of Ministers Resolution 47/2015 and 78/2016; Decree-Law 113/2014; Ministry of Education and Science [MEC], 2014, p. 11, 43–45, 88.

7 See Decree-Law 393-A/99.

8 Authors’ own calculations. Foreign students’ available numbers concern Portuguese mainland HEIs, including students in degree student mobility or not, and for CPLP student the numbers include those from Brazil and East Timor. For the most recent data available, 2021/2022, foreign students represent 16.3% of total students from 165 nationalities, being 56.3% from CPLP countries (DGEEC, 2023, p. 124 e 129).

9 Authors’ own calculations. For the most recent data available, 2021/2022, PALOP represent 28.7% of the foreign students, from which Guinea-Bissau (32%), Cape Verde (28.6%), Angola (23.6%), and also Mozambique (10.3%) and São Tomé e Príncipe (5.4%) (DGEEC, 2023, p. 129). Council of Ministers Resolution 47/2015 and 78/2016; Decree-Law 113/2014; Ministry of Education and Science (2014).

10 Also see the concept of ‘reference by default’ and its anguishing effects on students speaking other varieties discussed by Pinto and Araújo e Sá (2020, p. 290).

11 Representative of the Mozambican Students Association in ‘The importance of the Portuguese Language for Future Generations. CPLP Year for Youth’, CPLP Seminar, Fundação Oriente, Lisbon, 2 May 2019.

12 For example, students, who convert their student visa into long-term or permanent residence permits, referred as ‘student switchers’ (King & Raghuram, 2013, p. 130).

13 See recent national legislation aiming to manage these constrains: Opinion Opinion 10/2018; Decree-Law 62/2018, Ordinance 111/2019, Order 3932/2021; and European: Directive 2004/114/EC, Directive (EU) 2016/801.

14 All the data were collected directly from the HEI services.

15 The African students’ formal group was advocated also by our project coordinator.

16 These preparatory modules target students coming from the PALOP, CPLP and refugees. See https://www.iscte-iul.pt/conteudos/soft-skills-lab/soft-skills/1955/courses-palop-cplp-and-refugees

17 Brainstorming focus group 2019, student, M.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ana Raquel Monteiro Matias

Ana Raquel Monteiro Matias PhD in sociology (Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon; Institute for Demographic Studies-INED) with the TIES European Project “The integration of the Second Generation” (Marie Curie RTN). She is a research fellow at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-Iscte) and an invited assistant professor in the School of Sociology and Public Policy (Iscte). Since 2003, she has been working on the intersection between the sociology of migration and language, comparing integration and language policies in Portugal, in national and international research and action-research projects. Since 2015 Ana has been teaching undergraduate and master's courses on language policies and practices; family, migration and education; research methods; and academic writing. At CIES-Iscte she co-coordinates the international project “Coop4Int – Strengthening Migrant Integration through Cooperation between Portugal and Cabo Verde” (ICMPD funding); ‘ “Trovoada de Ideias” – Linguistic and Social Inclusion of Students from the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) in a Portuguese Higher Education’ (AMIF funding); “Language and Literacy Policies and Practices” seminar (since 2018); “Migration in Digital Space: experiences, change and resistance” international seminar (since 2022). Member of the Iscte Scientific Board; the Sociology Department (Iscte) Scientific Committee; the Scientific Committee of the Center for Evaluation and Certification of Portuguese as a Foreign Language (CAPLE-Univ. Lisbon).