Resumo

MAHER, Terezinha de Jesus Machado. O desejo de retorno da língua (quase) perdida: professores indígenas e identidade linguística. Revista da FAAEBA: Educação e Contemporaneidade [online]. 2010, vol.19, n.33, pp.147-158. ISSN 0104-7043.

The present paper aims at describing and discussing the impact of an indigenous language revitalization policy in the linguistic identity (re)construction processes of a group of indigenous teachers from Acre and southeast Amazonas. Members of the Kaxinawa, Shawãdawa/Arara and Apurinã peoples, these teachers, whose level of proficiency in their heritage languages is limited, have been employing a number to strategies to cope with the demands of the new sociolinguistic order in which they find now themselves in. Starting with the presupposition that identity, rather than being given, is a process under constant social and historical (re)definitions, this paper, informed by ethnographic data, will analyze discourses related to the construction of these teachers linguistic identity, highlighting local cultural interpretations of their relation to the traditional language of their communities. Discursive practices  that reveal such strategies will be examined in order to call attention to the fact that no realistic bilingual education program involving linguistic revitalization policies can be devised unless we are able to adequately interpret the tensions faced by indigenous teachers immersed in sociolinguistic conflict.

Palavras-chave : Indigenous Teachers; Linguistic Revitalization Policy; Conflict and Linguistic Identity.

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