Da (des)obrigatoriedade do ensino de línguas no Brasil: o caso do inglês (1961-1971)

Abstract

This dissertation investigated and analyzed the legislation on English language teaching and its establishment as a not required subject in the Brazilian school curriculum, presenting and clarifying the possible factors for the omission of the foreign languages teaching recommendation with the institution of LDB published in 1961, remaining effective during Law nº 5.692, from 1971 and in force until 1996. Hence, data collection from the referred legislation was carried out considering the qualitative nature and the historical and documentary character of this research, in order to identify and comprehend the law’s sustaining ideals and principles in its various forms (decrees, opinions, reports, etc.), as well as to investigate the historical context of its elaboration. Thus, the history of the school subjects (Chervel, 1990) and the school curriculum (Goodson, 1995) are used as theoretical references. Legislation and educational historiography of the period are used as sources. It was understood throughout the investigation that the non-recommendation of foreign language teaching in the official texts of LDBs from 1961 and 1971 was defined as an attempt to decentralize the teaching in the country, and therefore its recommendation happened exclusively by complementary legislation. The decision-making process was then a matter of the state councils of education.