How do ERASMUS mobility students at the University of Aveiro perceive the varieties of portuguese?

Abstract

The mobility students at the University of Aveiro attend at least one subject of Portuguese as a Foreign Language during the exchange period. Even though the variety taught is the European variety, these students have contact with other varieties of Portuguese. This work investigated what are the attitudes and linguistic perceptions of these students in relation to the Brazilian and European variety. To make this possible, we designed a test of attitude and linguistic perception, based on variationist theory, and applied it through the Google Forms platform. The linguistic levels most susceptible to the students' assessment were the phonological, lexical and stylistic monitoring (degree of formality). The evaluative expressions most frequently associated with the Brazilian variety were “easier”, “clearer” and “softer” and the expressions most frequently associated with the European variety were “more difficult”, “less clear” and “more formal”. Inaddition, students expressed awareness of linguistic variety and did not demonstrate linguistically biased attitudes and assessments.