RESUMO:Bárbaro, grosseiro, melancólico, preguiçoso, malandro, por um lado e, por outro, exótico, alegre, cordial. Essas são algumas das imagens tradicionalmente associadas por estrangeiros e até mesmo por sociólogos, antropólogos e escritores nativos à representação do brasileiro. Partindo de imagens construídas desde o descobrimento do Brasil, pretende-se confrontá-las com impressões e visões de estrangeiros construídas contemporaneamente, antes de suas vivências no país, pontuar de que modo elas se transformaram e/ou se reforçaram após o contato com a cultura brasileira e, finalmente, complementar esse quadro com questões pertinentes à constituição da identidade de um povo. Palavras-chave: identidade nacional; brasilidade; representações de estrangeiros.ABSTRACT: Barbarian, rude, melancholic, slothful, cunning on one side, exotic, happy, courteous, on the other. These are some of the images associated to a Brazilian typology by foreigners and even by native sociologists, anthropologists, and writers. Departing from images which date from the discovery of the country, the article aims to confront them with foreigners' impressions and visions built and assumed before their real contact with Brazil and the Brazilian culture, and point out whether these contemporarily pre-fabricated impressions changed or remained the same, or if they were simply reinforced. Finally, the study proposes to complement this overall picture bringing up questions which relate to the process of building up the identity of a people.

Although a significant number of practitioners are being progressively exposed to English as a lingua franca (ELF) research findings and developments, we still face the challenge of bringing ELF into the ELT classroom in a more systematic way and on a regular basis. It is a fact that once EFL learners move into contexts of use outside the classroom, they naturally become ELF users. To respond to this reality, ELF and EFL need to work together in such a way that the classroom reflects as much as possible what students have to deal with when using English to interact with interlocutors from different linguacultural backgrounds. Under a decolonizing perspective, the article seeks to discuss the feasibility and relevance of this integration, illustrating in practice how an ELF–EFL dialogue can emerge in ELT materials.

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Based on an ethnographic research study involving Brazilian teachers from different educational contexts in the city of Salvador, Brazil, this paper aims to approach and discuss the dialogic relationship between critical pedagogy and language education, within the context of English as a global lingua franca. The main goal of the original work was to investigate how EFL teachers see themselves as language professionals in the contemporary world, how aware they are of the implications related to the condition of English as an international language or a global lingua franca, and to what extent they conceive teaching the language under a critical intercultural pedagogy. Data were generated through a questionnaire, class observation sessions, and video recordings of semi-structured group interviews in which issues like the globality of English, culture teaching, interculturality, and critical (language) pedagogy were approached and debated. Results have shown that participants are aware of the implications of the global status of English and that teaching the language in these current times cannot happen in a neutral and/or uncritical way. It was also revealed that teachers find difficult to systematize the teaching of culture in their EFL classes, as much as it is challenging for them to see themselves as critical intercultural professionals who can engage in critical pedagogy in their specific educational settings.

Research in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), that is the medium of communication between people who come from different linguacultural backgrounds, has created a rich body of work in various areas. This article focuses on a more recent development of this research for teachers and teacher educators in the perspective of critical language education (CLE). We explore how ELF research, both the linguistic/discourse-oriented one and the pedagogic-oriented one, can benefit from its links to CLE, with its understanding of teaching for social change. We then refer to aspects of critical transformative theory that become relevant in designing and implementing ELF-aware teacher education programmes, focusing especially on three recursive (non-linear) components, i.e. the phase of exposure, the phase of critical awareness and the phase of development of actions that teachers can implement in their teaching. We finish by exploring the critical role of assessment in language education and conclude by inviting teachers and educators to become involved in ELF research for CLE.

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A great amount of the findings in ELF research has not yet reached the regular practitioner in different parts of the world. Despite the fact that ELF research has been solidly advancing, very little has been found out about teachers’ questioning their role in the context of ELF, the global position of English, their role in possibly reproducing or resisting discourses of dominance, inequalities, hegemony, among others. This paper investigates teachers’ attitudes towards ELF, and what influences them, with pre- and in-service teachers in Brazil, the former from a public university and the latter from a prestigious language institute located in Salvador, the capital city of Bahia, Brazil. The findings have shown that regardless of the differences in experience and background knowledge, both groups have demonstrated a very positive attitude towards ELF, although many questions and doubts were brought up when it came to conceiving the teaching of ELF-oriented classes on a regular basis. At a broader level, both groups highlighted the link between an ELF-oriented pedagogy and emancipation and open-mindedness, a way of liberating the teachers from the straightjacket of traditional ELT.

Partindo de crenças, valores, atitudes e expectativas de professores brasileiros de língua inglesa de três realidades educacionais de Salvador (BA), o artigo discute achados do trabalho de tese de Siqueira (2008), que objetivou investigar como esses docentes enxergam sua tarefa de ensinar a língua mundial da contemporaneidade, até que ponto estão conscientes das implicações relacionadas à condição do inglês como língua de contato entres povos de culturas diversas e se (e como) a prática diária desses educadores refletem tais crenças. Os dados foram gerados através de instrumentos como questionário, observação de aulas e entrevistas semiestruturadas, onde foram abordados, sob uma perspectiva mais dinâmica e democrática, tópicos como inglês como língua internacional, competência intercultural e pedagogia crítica. Os resultados advindos do trabalho revelaram-se extremamente relevantes para as discussões sobre as implicações metodológicas, políticas e ideológicas para a educação de língua inglesa nos dias atuais, mas, especialmente, para a reflexão sobre temas que possam contribuir para a (re)construção de um perfil mais adequado de professores não nativos de inglês, propondo, entre outros aspectos, a adoção de uma pedagogia intercultural crítica capaz de empoderá-los na busca por soluções locais para os desafios que a educação linguística contemporânea lhes tem reservado.