"Am I American, Too?"

Abstract

The current work is aimed at analyzing the speech of nine Brazilian teachers who teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for three renowned institutions of English language teaching in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, so as to verify if the mental models built justify polarization of the groups denominated as groups of US and THEM (VAN DIJK, 2015a). Such polarization has occurred in a reverse way, since Brazilian EFL teachers look up to the American culture in detriment of their own. This polarization reversal was caused in Brazil, not only by the exposure to American products, but also by the country's historical context. The influence of the American government upon Brazil, and its hegemonic power, began effectively around the 1940s, when they established a Bureau in Brazil to foster cultural exchange. Nonetheless, its creation favored the implantation of the American hegemony, which was channeled by diplomatic agreements with Brazil, which were established by the American government and materialized by institutions along with the export of its English language. This research uses a qualitative, transversal and analytical methodology and analysis was guided in the light of Critical Discourse Studies, having Van Dijk (2015a) as the main theoretician. It will support us to comprehend the socio-cognitive discourse aspects and their components, using the discourse triangle proposed by the author, discourse-cognition-society, as well as Souza (2018) and Moita Lopes (2003) among others to understand the historical context of the North American culture coming to Brazil and the mental representations built subjectively.