The language politics for teaching and promotion of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) in Mercosur

Abstract

Language politics are always a reflex of macroeconomic and cultural organizational politics. The promotion and teaching of foreign languages come inserted in a wide planning of language and public policies of several countries. Mercosur as a political, economic and social movement for the creation of a regional bloc implies the development of language politics to provide the integration amongst the member countries. In this context Spanish and Portuguese were established as official languages for the Mercosur. This paper will present the current situation of the language politics in such regional bloc dealing with the politics for the promotion of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) that were created in the Spanish-speaking member countries as well as the stage of its teaching in the only non Spanish-speaking member country —Brazil—. We will approach the role of Spain as the main diffuser of the Spanish language in Brazil and the contradictions and weaknesses that it represents to the Mercosur language integration.