Who can learn and where is english taught? the challenges of teaching the communicative competence in teacher education

Abstract

Teaching and learning English as a foreign language (FL) in the course of Letters has been a major challenge across the country. It is known that students come to college without the basic level of competence expected for the education process to be conducted with emphasis on linguistic and pedagogical issues. This article aims at examining this situation critically, based on data from research with both public school teachers of English and Letters undergraduates. Considering that access to foreign language education is a right and that the teaching of English in public schools, based on several studies in the area, is inadequate to ensure that students leave high school with a satisfactory level of competence, the discussion in this paper shows that the English language classroom places learners in a paradoxical condition. They need to participate in practices that promote interaction in order to learn English, but to engage in such practices they are required to have, a priori, a good command of that language. The data, therefore, show the English classroom as a space for identity production, based on unequal power relations.