Ethnicity and race in english language activities at a University in Bahia

Abstract

English Language Teaching in Brazil has been challenged by the emerging universities resulted from the presidency terms of Lula and Dilma. In our case, the Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia is one of the last universities to be founded in a black-majority state. In this paper, I discuss ethnicity and race at play in the context of reading activities during three courses taught in one year-period whereby activities concerning regional context and encouraging discussion on racism were used to employ a more inclusive methodology in order to engage black students. The results point out a positive engagement by the students if they have the inclusion of their own identities.