Mozambican linguistic variation: corpus analysis and challenges in teaching the Portuguese language

Abstract

In this article, we analyze constructions considered as variants with the objectives of (i) describing how the Portuguese language is used in Mozambique, (ii) understanding the levels of variation, (iii) presenting possible proposals for addressing these variations in the classroom context, and (iv) analyzing the 12th-grade textbook used in education in Mozambique in order to identify the language used and the possible presence or absence of variations within it. The research is descriptive and applied, and to achieve the objectives, we used a provoked test technique applied to 20 fourth-year students of the Portuguese Teaching course at Púnguè University – Tete Extension. In the end, we obtained 80 constructions. The deviations centered on (i) co-occurrence of words of the same grammatical class “Where” and “That”, (ii) lack of agreement between the pronoun of address “You” and the possessive “Your”; and (iii) resumptive, copying, and cutting relative constructions. In conclusion, we found that Mozambicans produce constructions that deviate from the standard in use, leading to conflicts with teaching manuals that use the European standard and disregard these variations. Therefore, teachers need to find diverse techniques to teach these variations, including promoting lectures and scientific events.