LINGUISTIC EDUCATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SINCE CHILDHOOD IN THE MUNICIPAL PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF FARROUPILHA/RS: CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES
linguistic education; English language; childhood.
Learning English from childhood is an issue advocated by several researchers (Lima; Martins, 2021; Magiolo; Tonelli, 2020; Bradenburg; Pohl; Santorum, 2019). Young children have an outstanding cognitive ability, and research shows that learning an additional language does not differ from the processes involved in acquiring one's native language. Besides that, learning more than one language can improve understanding of the native language (Vigotski, 2000). Current studies advocate the term linguistic education (Tonelli, 2023; Brasil, 2018) for teaching English, since the act of teaching the language also involves educating through it. In Brazil, according to the National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular – BNCC, in Portuguese), the English language is normatively introduced starting in the sixth year of elementary school. In the municipal public education system of Farroupilha/RS, schools teach the language following the document. Therefore, this project aims to contribute to the implementation of linguistic education in English during early childhood in the municipality, advocating for its promotion starting from early childhood education. This qualitative study seeks to investigate linguistic education in English, bilingualism, and child development, as well as to map documents addressing public policies for teaching foreign languages in Farroupilha/RS. It also aims to develop an educational product based on bibliographical and documentary research that serves as a space for dialogue and professional development among teachers and municipal management. The proposal is justified both by the relevance of English as a lingua franca in contemporary society (Brasil, 2018; Rajagopalan, 2011), and by the benefits of linguistic education in English during childhood. In addition to qualifying the project, it is expected that the research will encourage the implementation of English from early childhood in the studied municipality and that its findings will provide a foundation for further studies in the field