ABSTRACT
The demand for Portuguese classes has grown in the past years resulting from the recent migration of Chinese, South Koreans, and Japanese to Brazil. Given the scarcity of Brazilian Portuguese textbooks to teach Asian learners and the lack of research to consolidate that field, this study aims to contribute with directions for teaching education of Portuguese as an additional language for Asian learners. We expand the linguistic distance concept and discuss stereotypes associated with Asian students (KUMARAVADIVELU, 2003KUMARAVADIVELU, B. Problematizing cultural stereotypes in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, v. 37, n. 4, p. 709-719, 2003.). To fill some of the theoretical and methodological gaps concerning such context, we rethink the role the teacher plays in this context by interlacing the following concepts: biographical approach (BUSCH, 2006BUSCH, B. Language biographies - approaches to multilingualism in education and linguistic research. In: BUSCH, B.; JARDINE, A.; TJOUTUKU, A. (Org.). Language biographies for multilingual learning. Cape Town: Praesa, 2006. p. 5-19. ; 2016BUSCH, B. Biographical approaches to research in multilingual settings: exploring linguistic repertoires. In: MARTIN-JONES, M.; MARTIN, D. (Ed.). Researching Multilingualism. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. p. 60-73.), broadened linguistic education (CAVALCANTI, 2013CAVALCANTI, M. C. Educação linguística na formação de professores de línguas: intercompreensão e práticas translíngues. In: MOITA LOPES, L. P. (Org.). Linguística Aplicada na modernidade recente. São Paulo: Parábola, 2013. p. 211-226.) and translanguaging pedagogy (GARCÍA, 2017GARCÍA, O. Problematizing linguistic integration of migrants: the role of translanguaging and language teachers. In: BEACCO, J.; KRUMM, H. J.; LITTLE, D; THALGOTT, P. (Ed.). The Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2017. p. 11-26.).
KEYWORDS:
teacher education; Portuguese as an additional language; linguistic distance; Portuguese for Asians learners