Language teacher education has raised theoretical debates on several aspects. One of them is the conception of undergraduate curriculum, which should allow students to develop autonomous and independent study skills so that they would become professionals to educate towards autonomy. The present work aims at presenting a historical perspective of the undergraduate teacher education in Brazil from the imperial times to the present day; at arguing on the historical setbacks which make it hard for undergraduate language degree programs to innovate in their curricula; and also at suggesting some possibilities to overcome the current drawbacks. This study main goal is not to offer solutions, but to broaden the discussion in order to provide background to the discussion. This study is based on bibliographic research, as well as on theoretical ideas developed by Benson (2006), Chitashvili (2007), Smith (s/d), Aoki (2000) and Leffa (2003), on the concept of student and teacher autonomy; Gatti (2009, 2010), on the investigation of the profile and the curricula of the undergraduate Portuguese language courses in Brazil; Paiva (2003, 2004, 2005), on the history study of the undergraduate English language courses; and lastly by Masetto (2003-2004, 2011) and Cunha (2003), on higher education curriculum innovation.
autonomy; teacher education; curricular innovation
