Analysis of the forms and formulas of address in Portuguese as a second or foreign language textbooks for Spanish learners

Abstract

Pragmatic proficiency concerning forms and formulas of treatment (FFT) acquires special importance for a non-native speaker, namely because they are such historically and socio-culturally variable linguistic resources. Given that relevance and given the lack of studies which focus specifically on FFT in teaching the European variety of Portuguese to Spanish students, this paper presents an analysis of a corpus of Portuguese as a second or foreign language textbooks for learners from Spain, published in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim is to observe how FFT are addressed in these textbooks, taking into account aspects such as (i) the type of grammatical approach from a didactic point of view (deductive/inductive teaching, explicit/implicit learning) and (ii) whether such an approach takes place from a contrastive perspective; (iii) the existence/non-existence of sociolinguistic, sociocultural and pragmatic considerations concerning FFT; (iv) the use of forms and formulas of treatment in a differentiated manner; (v) the presence/absence of metalinguistic reflection; (vi) the inclusion of authentic materials in contexts of real-life use of FFT; (vii) the type of exercises or activities proposed for their practice and consolidation; or (viii) the presence/absence of activities promoting learners autonomy.