The teaching of the mother tongue in the curriculum of Pedagogy courses

Abstract

This paper presents some preliminary results of a research about teaching of the mother tongue in Pedagogy courses in Brazil. It is a qualitative approach that tries to answer the following questions: how is the linguistic training of pedagogues at present? Are our pedagogues really being prepared to teach literacy in elementary education? Will they be able to help their pupils develop reading comprehension and writing that are adequate to different textual practices? Since 1990,
most Education Colleges have endeavored to address the specific social demands, but language has been given less importance in professional educational training. The results show that knowledge required by academics in the teaching process is naturalized and language practices are neglected. The present state of affairs of the academics is that they lack practical language learning. Due to this gap in their initial training, this work advocates the revision of curriculum of Brazilian Pedagogy courses so that the graduates experience literacy practices, which would include theoretical linguistic reflection and reading and writing experience.