O bilinguismo subtractivo em estudantes do ensino superior: causas, seu impacto e sugestões para a sua mitigação: o caso da Faculdade de Ciências da Linguagem, Comunicação e artes da Universidade Pedagógica

Abstract

This research work investigates subtractive bilingualism in the Department of Language Sciences of the Faculty of Language Sciences and Communication at the Pedagogical University of Mozambique. Specifically, the study aimed not only to identify the causes and impact of subtractive bilingualism among students in the Language Department of the Faculty of Language Sciences, Communication and Arts at the Pedagogical University, but also to analyze these causes and impact and propose mitigation strategies for subtractive bilingualism in teaching a new language. In methodological terms, the work falls within a qualitative approach, having used semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observations for data collection in order to answer the research questions. Because data collection took place in the period in which social distancing had been established as a preventive measure against the pandemic of COVID-19, the interviews with teachers and students participating in the study were in a virtual form, through the Zoom platform. From the triangulated analysis of the collected data, it was concluded that the causes of subtractive bilingualism among the students of the selected course are the lack of opportunities for using their first language throughout the course and the students' negative attitude towards their first language as well as the lack of knowledge about subtractive bilingualism phenomenon by students and lecturers. A remarkable impact of this linguistic phenomenon among the students is that English has become the language in which they have the most language knowledge and confidence. That is, their linguistic and communicative competences are more refined in English than in their first language, which in this case is Portuguese. As a recommendation, the study points out the need to elucidate the students and teachers about Subtractive Bilingualism and to create more explicit opportunities for the use of the students' first language.