Teaching Portuguese as a second language in pre-school education in Angola

Abstract

The Portuguese Language (PL) is the official language in Angola, coexisting with dozens of national languages and dialects. It is currently the only language of education and teaching, starting in preschool. The preschool curriculum includes the Linguistic Communication area, in which children acquire and develop skills for communication in PL, which is the premise for successful schooling. This research aimed to understand the methodological guidelines for PL for 3- and 4-year-old children in Angola, taking into account the country's sociolinguistic context. The linguistic communication and children's literature curricula, as well as the programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, were analyzed to determine which objectives, methodological proposals, and content for PL as a first language (L1) and second language (L2) are aimed at teachers and early childhood educators. The results revealed the existence of curricular plans and linguistic communication programs with little information regarding methodological procedures to address the sociolinguistic diversity of Angolan children in terms of PL as L1 and L2. Some objectives of linguistic communication overlap with those of the physical and social environment, and consequently, some activity suggestions do as well. The lack of differentiated pedagogical proposals can lead to numerous difficulties for early childhood educators in preparing children for oral communication in PL.
These discrepancies in the future of these children result in numerous difficulties in reading and writing PL and in understanding the content of other subjects, resulting in academic failure and early school dropout. Differentiated methodological guidelines for PL, such as L1 and L2, in preschool education will be one of the solutions for reducing the profound asymmetries in access to knowledge in PL at sequential levels of education in Angola.