A INTERCULTURALIDADE NO ENSINO E APRENDIZAGEM DE LÍNGUA INGLESA: REFLEXÕES SOBRE UMA EXPERIÊNCIA NA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO TOCANTINS- CAMPUS ARAGUAÍNA

Abstract

The English Language Teaching Assistant Program is an Institutional Project in partnership with CAPES / Fulbright that focuses on permanence of teaching assistants in twenty American Federal Institutions in higher education over four years. The first year of the project (2011) at the Federal University of Tocantins achieved some results and it was an extremely enriching experience for students and professors from Letras graduation course involved in the project. This work aims to reflect, analyze and comment the obtained results of the project so far. English is internationally regarded as a global language and, on this world stage, it is increasingly necessary to introduce reflections and discussions on the cultural education of teachers who deal with the teaching of an hegemonic language and that is often seen with prejudice due to its political and historical status . The possibility of having teaching assistants born in a country with the culture of the target language has been extremely interesting as a source of exchanging cultural awareness for these future teachers. Moreover, the contact of Letras students with native speakers has shown a form of motivation and opportunity to practice and improve, not only the skills of listening and speaking, but also the intercultural competence as mentioned before.