The (bi)literacy social practices in the border region between Brazil-Uruguay

Abstract

The present work focuses on the Brazilian-Uruguayan border region at Aceguá/Aceguá in an attempt to describe the literacy activities carried out in one or more languages (BORTOLINI, 2009; HORNBERGER, 2004) by students and their relatives outside the school context, in their daily lives. This research articulated quantitative and qualitative methodological perspectives (cf. RAUEN, 2006), and made use of forms applied in interviews, observations and field notes. The results suggest that the manifestation of different languages occur in the daily activities of border subjects. Even though Portuguese is the predominant language in use in some of the activities, biliteracy was found to be an important and current phenomenon in the lives of the individuals of the community.

Keywords

• border
• bilingualism
• literacy