With the current policy of internationalization of federal universities in Brazil, there have been far-reaching changes. Before the internationalization policy, the main academic language was Portuguese, but now there is a growing shift to English. This paper focuses on the orientation of one particular university to the global context, in relation to the language and literacy practices of academic staff. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changing language and literacy practices, and techno-linguistic biographies of academics in Brazilian university life from a critical, ethnographic perspective.
With the current policy of internationalization of federal universities in Brazil, there have been far-reaching changes. Three changes are at work: 1) internationalization in the organizational structure of the university; 2) orientation of the university to the global context; 3) the design of an appraisal system. Before the internationalization policy, the main academic language was Portuguese, but now there is a growing shift to English. This paper focuses on the second change in relation to the language and literacy practices of academic staff. This shift has considerable language policy implications, in terms of capacity building – offering English language support for academics and for students going abroad – and in terms of welcoming people from abroad by offering courses to them in Portuguese as an Additional Language. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changing language and literacy practices, and techno-linguistic biographies of academics in Brazilian university life from a critical, ethnographic perspective. The paper draws on life history interviews conducted with academics during a research project carried out in two federal universities in 2019. It will highlight in particular the ways in which digitization has contributed to change in academic practices both in English and Portuguese.
