Introduction

The approach about works that address the teaching and learning processes of the Portuguese language for foreigners in Brazil is configured as the problem of this investigation. As the Portuguese language is primary and primordial in Brazil, few studies have tried to divulge its importance to foreigners living in the country.

In the context of globalization, we know that the world dynamic is multicultural and plurilingual, showing us that the borders between homelands and different languages ​​are becoming increasingly narrow, especially with regard to which languages ​​are spoken by a people. In the same way that other foreign languages ​​are spoken in Brazil, such as English and Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese - a variety of Portuguese spoken by more than 190 million Brazilians - has been gaining space on the international stage ^{(Murta y Souza, 2014} ). According to ^{Rocha (2019),} rescuing a historical memory of language teaching may initially seem a simple and linear task, however, positioning itself in the middle, both for the complexity and uniqueness of this history and for the multiplicity of theoretical, academic and identity constitution, of according to that author.

There are several aspects that contribute to this maximization of growth in Portuguese speakers. Among them, we point out the vast economic interest in Brazil, which is the biggest power in Latin America. Another relevant aspect of the growing demand for the appropriation of Brazilian Portuguese is due to the occurrence of exchanges and courses of medium or long duration, carried out by foreign students and teachers who spend seasons for these activities in Brazilian territory.

Furthermore, nowadays the Portuguese language is considered a foreign language, a host language, an additional language, a language of inheritance, for speakers of other languages, a language of the future, and each of these nomenclatures has a justification, so that it has an identity according to each situation and context; these nomenclatures also aim to specify the groups that are interested in this language (^{Alvarez, 2018}).

It should be noted that in the Brazilian context, most higher education institutions work in the practice of taking exchange students, mostly teachers and students, abroad, as well as receiving people in the same process. Thus, the practice of internationalization has been more expanded and active in Brazil.

Especially in the last decade, there have been some government incentive programs that cover the context of internationalization, such as “Science without Borders”, created in 2011 through a joint initiative between the Ministry of Education (MEC), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), National Research Council (CNPq) and Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, with the objective of increasing Brazilian competitiveness through international exchange and mobility. In this program, there were more than 100 thousand exchange students (scholarship holders) from Brazil and abroad, but the program was completed in 2016. Certainly, this program had elementary impacts on reciprocity with other countries, which sent their students to Brazil.

Although the teaching of Portuguese as a non-native language has existed since the colonization of Brazil, according to ^{Teixeira (2016}), we can say that the awareness of this teaching as a scientific area is relatively recent.

Considering that Brazil is a welcoming country and that, usually, receives many people from other countries, and more recently many refugees, this theme is very pertinent. In this sense, ^{Diniz and Cruz (2018}) recommend that in the current world scenario, characterized by expressive mobility, economic and cultural exchanges grow substantially. When verifying the exchanges provided by globalization and the market bias that integrates this process, we cannot fail to point out some impressions about certain phenomena, such as, for example, environmental impacts, economic instability and social exclusion. Therefore, there are relevant humanitarian problems, such as the displacement of people in a state of social vulnerability.

Still in this sense, ^{Rotta (2018)} points out that the growing number of immigrants and refugees leaving their countries of origin in search of survival and better living conditions further expanded the discussion on the issue of belongings, territories and different identities, conflicts and tensions arising from cultural differences. The author also states that in this new context, respect, tolerance and dialogue have gained strength in defense of cultural diversity and otherness. Differences, in turn, in this new scenario, do not want to “diverge”, but to highlight the discourse of the “distinguished” as an opportunity for knowledge and peaceful understanding.

^{Silva y Costa (2020)} emphasize about the new contours that migratory flows and their agencies have been gaining and the needs of communication and linguistic-cultural exchange that have been imposed on the Portuguese Language since then. ^{Barbosa y Freire (2017}) recommend that the number of higher education institutions is still scarce, including public universities, in which there is the offer of courses in Portuguese as a foreign / additional language. In fact, it is not common for Language courses to include in their grades disciplines that address teaching, as well as teacher training, of Portuguese as a foreign and / or additional language.

Before leaving for more specific issues related to Portuguese language teaching, according to ^{Ribeiro (2020}), in particular Portuguese for people who speak other languages, it is important to remember some questions that seem to be fundamentally essential. These questions, in the author's view, should be asked not only in order to arrive at unquestionable answers, because this is not the purpose, but to understand our context and our practice.

On the teachers who teach Portuguese to foreigners, ^{Chagas (2019}) comments that these, in contemporary times, come from teaching-learning areas of foreign languages ​​such as English, French, Spanish, German, among others, leaves us with the challenge of (re) think about what we call initial and continuing teacher education. As the PE teacher, he is often a teacher of another language, foreign or mother tongue, so it seems that we would not have a question of initial training. Similarly, if he will act as a teacher in another language from which he was usually trained to teach, we would also not have a question of continuing education.

It should be noted, however, that according to ^{Café et al. (2018}), Portuguese as an additional language (PLA) courses have been gaining space within Brazilian universities. This is due to actions such as the incorporation of Portuguese into the Idiomas sem Fronteiras (MEC) program and the growing internationalization of Brazilian universities, given the various cooperation agreements between universities in neighboring countries, in the case of our local context.

Regarding publications in this field of research, ^{Barbosa y Freire (2017}) comment that, despite this recent growth, the number of higher education institutions, including public universities, in which there are courses in Portuguese as a foreign language is still scarce /additional. In fact, it is not common for Language courses to include in their grades disciplines that address teaching, as well as teacher training, of Portuguese as a foreign and / or additional language.

Based on the aforementioned information and scenarios, this research proposal sought to investigate the panorama and trends about the process of teaching and learning Portuguese as a foreign language in Brazil, through searches to various bibliographic sources, the result of research published in area. More specifically and with the aim of reflecting on the performance of those involved in the exchange, understanding the difficulties encountered by them, knowing why the student chose Brazil and the Portuguese language and, especially, understanding this student, professional reality and institutional, we have some questions about this process, which will be discussed throughout the present work.

Methodology

This work is characterized as a bibliographic research, of the state of knowledge type, whose nature is qualitative, descriptive and analytical (^{Romanowski y Ens, 2006}). Studies called the state of knowledge are a type of research that have a bibliographic character, aiming to investigate academic publications in different areas of knowledge.

In this context, for ^{Marin y Vinholi (2020}), the research entitled state of knowledge has a bibliographic character and draws a mapping of academic literature with coverage in different areas of knowledge, aiming to verify, compare and discuss the characteristics of publications related to aspects and highlighted and privileged dimensions in different times and places. Based on the descriptors stipulated by the researchers, a methodology of a particular and descriptive nature of the selected published works is used, whose specific and collective characteristics must be analyzed.

To understand these works related to the teaching-learning process of language and culture, the assumptions of qualitative research were used, in which data will be collected using more than one type of instrument, in order to understand the points of view of the participants of the search in several directions. ^{Denzin y Lincoln (2006}, p.16) argue that qualitative research is a field of investigation that is characterized by “crossing disciplines, fields and themes”. For the authors, an approach that is approaching is:

qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of material and interpretive practices that give visibility to the world. (...) qualitative research involves a naturalistic, interpretive approach to the world, which means that its researchers study things in their natural settings, trying to understand, or interpret, the phenomena in terms of the meanings people give them.

(^{Denzin y Lincoln, 2006}, p. 17)

According to ^{Patias y Hohendorff (2019}), the reasoning or logic of qualitative research is inductive, starting from the specific to the general. It is not based on a specific theory, but it is produced from the perceptions of the subjects who participate in the research (Methodology).

For ^{Ribeiro et al. (2016}), research guided by the qualitative method reveals the historicity of the phenomenon and its relations, at a broader level, place the problem within a complex context, at the same time, establishes and points out the possible contradictions among the investigated phenomena. Furthermore, qualitative research is based on the inseparability of phenomena and their context, since opinions, perceptions and meanings will be better understood with greater depth from contextualization. We present, in the results, aspects resulting from the works found in the research findings, in order to dialogue about the theme in question.

Considering the theme “Teaching Portuguese as a second language to foreigners”, the objective was to examine the emphases and themes covered in the research; the theoretical frameworks that supported the investigations; some relationships between researchers and pedagogical practices; the suggestions and propositions presented by the researchers; the contributions of research to change and innovations in pedagogical practice in the field of language teacher education.

The investigated works are not restricted to identifying the production, but to analyze it, categorize it and reveal the multiple approaches and perspectives. According to ^{Soares (2000}, p. 04), in a state of knowledge, it is necessary to consider “categories that identify, in each text, and in all of them, the facets on which the phenomenon has been analyzed”.

The sources of data for state-of-the-art research are, for the most part, research repositories, libraries from different universities, associations or research promotion bodies (^{Ferreira, 2002}). Researchers can analyze the state of knowledge through several alternatives, such as, for example, choosing to map academic production by reading their abstracts, or by reading the works in full (^{Ferreira, 2002}; ^{Romanowski y Ens, 2006}).

Thus, scientific articles, course completion works and dissertations / theses were chosen to constitute the data of the present research, which are works that generally pass the evaluation and / or qualification by some specialist in the area. Following the recommendations of ^{Romanowski y Ens (2006)}, research of this scope should use studies that are relevant to the topic in question and that have been evaluated by peers.

To carry out the state of knowledge of research in teaching Portuguese to foreigners, in order to highlight the trends of published research and its main considerations, a selection of themes was carried out, which do not only involve teaching the structure of Portuguese, syntactically and morphologically , but also the context in which the foreigner is inserted, as well as its challenges in the teaching and learning process with the teacher.

The data were collected in the following databases: Google Scholar; Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO); Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) and the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD). With that, it was possible to identify several magazines and dissertations / theses in the field of Linguistics that covers the topic of our research.

The elaboration of this mapping sought to know the academic productions, through articles, theses and dissertations, of academic productions published between 2005 and 2018.

The criterion established for the selection of research was based on the search for research that involves the use of the following keywords: Portuguese for foreigners; Portuguese in Brazil for foreigners; Teaching Portuguese as a foreign language; Portuguese as a foreign language; Portuguese as L2 for foreigners and Portuguese as a second language for foreigners. Furthermore, only productions closely related to these themes, published in Brazil, were examined, being excluded who did not specifically address these themes.

Results

As an initial criterion for finding jobs that met the objectives of this research, a search was performed with the combinations of keywords, shown in Table 1. Keywords in Portuguese, from Brazil, were used to locate the maximum number of jobs Brazilians as possible, with the objective of not finding works of the Portuguese Language used, also, as an official language, in other countries, such as Angola, Cape Verde, Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe.

This concern was due to the fact that the aforementioned countries also have Portuguese as their primary language. Our intention, however, is the search for works that contextualized the research theme in Brazilian territory. Table 1 below shows all the words used:

With that, ten works were selected which, initially, in their title, abstract or keywords, showed signs of meeting the objectives of this research. Table 2 below shows the works that were selected and analyzed:

These works were saved in a specific folder, for the purposes of organizing and systematizing the productions. With a more detailed reading, due to the related themes being very wide and not being in the scope of the objective of this work, not all the analyzed productions served as basis for the continuity. Therefore, among the 10 works analyzed, only 6 were used for the present written work. Table 3 below shows the works chosen to constitute the data of this research.

These six works presented in table 2 are in accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria established by the authors in the methodology of this article. The more specific details about the approaches presented in the documents, which support us for a more in-depth discussion on the topic and contribute to the fulfillment of the proposed objectives, will be discussed later.

Discussion

In the field of language teaching and learning, we are often faced with different concepts that seem to fit a language into a teaching method and approach. From this framework there are terms that characterize the designations and amplitudes of a language. Mother Language (LM), First Language (PL), Second Language (SL) and Foreign Language (LE) are some of the terminologies used frequently and that seem to demarcate singular contexts for a language to be placed as an object of knowledge to be taught (^{Chagas, 2016}).

The language, be it Maternal, First, Second or Foreign, will always be “

symbolic verbal structure, whose formal marks gain meaning when they take place in discursive processes, historically determined and determinant in the constitution of the subjec

t” (^{Serrani-Infante, 1997}, p. 217). Considering that the language will never be homogeneous, in this way, it remains for us to understand the language itself as LM, PL, SL or LE, that is, an object of knowledge and identity constitution that, regardless of its designation, or historicity conferred to it , brings up the function of supporting the subject in the world of humans (^{Chagas, 2016}).

As proposed by ^{Coracini (2007}) every language is nothing more than a simulacrum of oneness, because it is made up of other languages, of other cultures:

there is no pure language and there is no complete, whole, one language, except in the always postponed promise, a promise that is divided impossible from to be paid off, which is hope in a rationality, in a totality never reached, an inaccessible place of security and certainty away from doubt and conflict (p. 48-49)

Unlike Mother Language, the concepts of Foreign Language and Second Language are similar in that they are languages ​​learned by individuals who already have the ability to place themselves in the world through a First Language, which is not always socially referred to as "Mother". An example is configured when children lock with the language of the school, there named “Maternal”, and which is very different from that spoken by the little ones until the moment of its formalization and systematization in the school environment (^{Chagas, 2016}).

A Second Foreign Language is distinguished by the fact that it is a “non-first language” (^{Spinassé, 2006}, p. 6), learned by the need for communication within a socialization process in another country or in the country itself, when there are several official languages. A "non-first-language", as proposed by ^{Spinassé (2006}, p.6), seems to add to the Second Language a status similar to that of First Language.

Anyway, the difference between the two seems to be in the fact that a Second Language is learned when someone is subjected to an environment of immersion in another language that, when taken as an object of knowledge and social practice, can operate differently from the one he has as his mother tongue. For someone to take a language for Monday it is necessary to consider that he enunciates daily from that language and that it, as an object of knowledge, plays a role in the integration of someone in society or in a socio-historical context (^{Chagas, 2006}).

It is in this characteristic, therefore, that a Second Language differs from a Foreign Language. We consider, then, that a Foreign Language is a knowledge, generally learned in school, not used daily by the one who learned it and whose application is to help him “interpret the political and social framework composed by the media, as well as to understand both foreign cultures as well as culture itself, with different forms of expression and behavior” (Brasil, 1998, p. 10 ).

Anyway, although this is a designation proposed by an official document of the Brazilian Government, it is still not possible to limit what place a Foreign Language can occupy in someone's unconscious. Unlike the context of learning a Second Language, in this paper we propose that foreign language learning is knowledge presented with a utilitarian and instrumental purpose, so that the language taught does not necessarily call the learner to position himself in the world and establish a bond with the discursive memory belonging to the language learned (^{Chagas, 2016}).

We conceive of language as a dynamic system (^{Larsen-Freeman y Cameron, 2008}, apud ^{Murta y Souza, 2014}), as an activity in the world and in the relationships between individuals, communities and the world and, at the same time, we understand the teaching and learning process of languages ​​in their multifaceted nature, permeated by the dynamic interaction between methodology and context.

In the search for the right methodology for teaching a foreign language, ^{Murta y Souza (2014)} can summarize his post-method pedagogy ideas in a three-dimensional system that consists of the following pedagogical parameters: (a) particularity: meaningful teaching cannot be built without a holistic interpretation of particular situations; (b) practicality: there is an intrinsic relationship between theory and practice; and (c) possibility: language learning is allowed and restricted for reasons of power.

So, if the teaching process should take into account that students learn within the particular, the practical and the possible, we can summarize that one must consider that learning is established and requires an increasingly central participation of these students. Such an understanding does not mean the solution to educational problems. According to ^{Lave y Wenger (1991):}

Walking towards central participation in practice involves not only greater dedication of time and more intense effort, greater and broader responsibility within the community, and more difficult and risky tasks, but, more significantly, a growing sense of identity of being a central participant

. (p. 111)

When there is no contact, the urgency of communicative interaction, LE can remain foreign. When communication is sought, contact can be made possible in quasi-immersion rooms where oases of experiences of the target language are created. This condition raises the learning of an LE to the most implicit level of acquisition that we need to understand well to escape the determinism of having to teach language only rationally and explicitly (^{Almeida Filho, 2005}). In the figure 1, we can identify the different contexts in which the student has contact with his native and non-native language:

This means that the student must feel involved in the process of learning a non-native language and must be engaged in that process. This involvement does not usually start with central participation, but with external participation: the student observes and gradually moves towards this centrality. Anyway, even in external participation there is involvement and, if the context helps the student to understand the relevance of what he is learning, there is a tendency to participate more and more. However, it is important to note that this does not happen linearly or predictably; it is a complex process ^{(Murta y Souza, 2014} ).

Wanting to get involved, the student seeks to find or recognize something or even identify with someone or something (^{Nasio, 1999} p. 80). In general, he places himself against the other to alienate and assimilate with him until he becomes as similar as possible to the one who arouses his attraction. In this sense, to alienate would be to dominate or appropriate knowledge and occupy, from it, a certain discursive place. Thus, from the moment that the subject identifies with an object, he can alienate himself by appropriating the knowledge he has.

In this case, the student seeks to resemble a characteristic feature of the discursive universe of the Portuguese language which, in his country - maternal discursive universe -, seems not to be so present. It is a matter of identity. ^{Chagas (2016}) explains this by saying that from the moment the subject establishes himself and is established by language and formulates an image of himself, while I, in front of the other, it can be said that he starts his eternal journey in the chain of language, where it will split its identity.

In this regard, we agree with ^{Tavares (2010)} when she proposes that:

The insertion of a subject in language, however, is not a natural and subtle process, as some believe. On the contrary, a being must have undergone castration and interdiction, so that in a third instance he can intervene and, through it, he has access to the symbolic and comes as a subject of language

(p. 70).

This identification of foreign students in Brazil also involves understanding and cultural appropriation. We know that in the process of acquiring or teaching and learning a second language, the speaker of any mother tongue needs not only to learn the grammatical structures of the target language, but also its cultural patterns. In this process, it continues to rely on its native language and culture, the only identity reference known until then; however, at the same time, it changes its relationship with its origin, influenced by the new meanings that the new language presents to it (^{Meyer, 2013}).

^{Meyer (2013}) brings us three different concepts and perspectives on the word culture. Subjective culture would be “a type of social expression little recognized, often not even known: values, morality, behaviors, (pre) concepts, forms of interaction, in short, a whole set of components that form the identity base of each social group”. Objective culture is “concrete products of a social group. These are undoubtedly important components of what we understand as a "language of civilization", that is, a language whose speakers build and offer humanity objects, elements that define and identify it". Linguistic culture

"relates to the aspects that reveal the psychosocial identity of a speaking group: patterns of thought, morality, ethics, communication, behavior, etc. as can be perceived through the use that this community makes of its language

".

In the case of Portuguese as a second language for foreigners, it is exactly the aspects of the subjective culture of Brazilians that offer greater difficulties to their apprentices. For it is precisely the identity relation that is unconscious of the native speaker himself. In multicultural situations - social situations in which individuals from different languages ​​and cultures interact with each other - this is very clear.

In short, based on the complexity of cultural aspects and a vision of language, teaching, and learning, we defend that the teacher should be based on his immediate context of performance, his pedagogical intuition and on his conceptions of teaching practice for mediate the learning process of its students in a process of development, change and co-adaptation (^{Larsen-Freeman y Cameron, 2008}, apud ^{Murta y Souza, 2014}).

Thus, the competence not only to choose, modify and develop teaching materials that integrate foreigners to the target culture, but also the competence to manage a Portuguese class whose students are from different countries requires a solid specialized professional training (^{Guerra, 2018).}

According to Guerra, most of the research deals with aspects related to didactic materials and practices of approaching and teaching certain contents, but they are not enough with regard to the orientation for the training of Portuguese teachers for foreigners. Hence it follows that mastering techniques and having teaching materials related to them do not enable the teacher to act in the different contexts that this area offers, nor do they enable him to have a critical view of the area and to develop strategies to harmonize the class with speakers of different languages. Therefore, the need for intercultural and didactic-pedagogical training for teachers of Portuguese for foreigners and, consequently, the need to update the Language Courses to train professionals qualified to work in this area.

Conclusions

In this study, seeking to answer the proposed objectives, the main emphases related by the authors of the investigated documents were observed, regarding the teaching of Portuguese as a second language to foreigners. We approach the main theoretical references that supported the investigations proposed in the six documents studied, as well as the trustworthy establishment between the researchers' relations with the pedagogical practices.

After the research path developed in this state of knowledge, in which few works were selected, but extremely significant, it is time to make some final considerations about this work.

We started these considerations by weaving some information about the internationalization processes of education, as well as the inference the process of teaching and learning the Portuguese language to foreigners in Brazil. Before that, it is worth mentioning the extreme linguistic and cultural variety present in the country, which has continental aspects and covers a very significant portion of South America.

This knowledge and the studies pointed out in this work have a potentially constructive effect on the identity of foreign students who decide to invest in academic training in another country, perhaps influenced by the seduction of a global and borderless education. It is, therefore, worth remembering important governmental programs in this sense, which acted in a "back and forth" quite habitual and recurring, enabling spheres and opportunities for Brazilian students abroad, as well as the foreign ones that appropriated several aspects in Brazilian territory.

This whole process led to the creation of several extension courses at Brazilian institutions, based on the aforementioned information, which expanded the offer of vacancies to foreigners, offering them Portuguese language courses in order to promote a better social immersion of them.

Not having found in the literature a study with a similar characteristic, even if in a condition of bibliographic research, through the realization of a state of knowledge, of systematic review, this proposal is configured as unprecedented and values ​​the importance in the field of letters for a country with expressive and such representativeness, as is the case of Brazil.

This state of knowledge still has basic but potentially important aspects. We intend, briefly, to expand the horizons and to maximize the number of scientific documents that can collaborate even more with the theme in question.

Interest conflict

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.