"Português para inglês ver" : primórdios do ensino/aprendizagem de português como língua estrangeira

Abstract

The present Dissertation aims at identifying and describing the historical conditions which enabled the origin and development of the teaching/learning of Portuguese as a foreign language. To do so, we analyzed two works of Antonio Vieyra Transtagano (1712-1797): A New Grammar of the Portuguese Language in four Parts (1768) and A Dictionary of the Portuguese and English Languages in two Parts (1773), by looking into their repercussions in the teaching/learning of Portuguese as a foreign language. Though there had been two previous similar publications by different authors, A Compleat Account (1701) and Grammatica Lusitano-Anglica ou Portugueza, e Inglesa (1731), by the time Transtagano‟s works were published, neither had the longevity and served as reference for the writing of Portuguese grammars and dictionaries as those of Transtagano‟s. The period between the 17th and the 18th centuries marked the commercial expansion by means of mercantilism, which stimulated the competition among European nations for a greater number of profitable markets. That was also the time when the national languages achieved their consolidation, making for the transformation of ideology inside the manuals of language teaching as the objectives and demands of society changed. Thus, the Portuguese language, besides being seen as a tool for proselytizing purposes, it acquired a mediating statute in the trading intercourse. Based on this context, we tried to look into the above mentioned grammar and dictionary the linguistic elements which could meet the needs of that moment as regards the teaching/learning of foreign languages.