The Portuguese Language: teacher training and pre-school education in the East Timor context

Abstract

Since the period of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, many are the co-operation programs from Brazil and Portugal aimed at the dissemination and teaching of Portuguese Language in that country. As an example, the Teacher Training Program and the Portuguese Language Teaching in East Timor, in the Portuguese acronym) promoted by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel. In this sense, at the confluence of the areas of education (using Paulo Freire’s perspective) and Lusophone Studies, after a brief background of the Portuguese Language situation in East Timor (in the colonial period and during the Indonesian rule), this article, based on memorials prepared by participants of the Instrumental Portuguese Course (CPI), inserted into the Portuguese Language Instrumental Teaching Project, analyzes some aspects of the work carried out under this course, aimed at teachers of Dili preschool. We point out here the perception of educators in relation to the CPI’s contribution and to the activities proposed which address both the fluency of expression in Portuguese and, mainly, a prolific teaching practice and the teachers’ awareness process on the need for mastering the Portuguese language.