This is an exploratory research with ethnographic basis (FRAGOSO et.al. 2011), and which had as specific objectives to identify, describe and explain the modes of representation of the English language by future English teachers while they interacted in online discussion forums about themes related to language studies in general, in a pre-service teacher education program. To complement the analysis, the research participants answered a motivating question. The theoretical bases on which this research was built were the dialectical-relational approach to Critical Discourse Analysis of Fairclough (2001, 2003, 2009), especially what refers to discourses as representations, and the sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Studies of van Dijk (2008, 2009), especially what refers to modes of representation. The results could somehow validate a common discourse of the English language hegemony. However, discrepancies were found between the modes of representation of the English language in the natural discourse and in the question-motivated discourse.
English; Critical Discourse Analysis; Modes of Representation.