AlvarezLucia FRP.

Final Research Project:
The Influence of Vernacular Portuguese in Secondary

School Students’ Academic Performance in the Alto
Uruguay.
Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación

Licenciatura en Ingles
Lucía Clara Alvarez
El Soberbio, Misiones 20022
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In this section I would like to thank first my family who has been there for me understanding
my lack of time and supporting me. I would also like to thank our Linguistic teacher: Carla
Bicoff who has made us love linguistics. She has organized the material and the subject in
such a careful way that I have learned far more than I have expected and I have been inspired
to choose the topic for my final research project. I would also like to thank my classmates
who I do not know in person but whose emotional support, empathy and help have definitely
made the journey more pleasant.
I am as well grateful with Universidad Fasta for giving me the opportunity of completing this
Bachelor´s degree in English in an online course.
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ABSTRACT
The study examines the influence that Vernacular Portuguese (VP) has in Argentinean
secondary schools which are on the border with Brazil in the province of Misiones. Students
from rural areas entering this level of education in boarding schools are the subjects of study.
This study concentrates on how the use of VP affects their academic performance and
considers other aspects that may influence first year students’ school results in the Alto
Uruguay. Most educators in the area mention the negative influence of Portuguese in the
academic environment; it is widely known in our area that linguistic competence determines
satisfactory school outcomes, but little has been done so far to try to understand this
phenomenon in depth and find possible solutions. The research has been carried out by
gathering information through surveys, simple tasks performed by students, observation
techniques, as well as interviews with teachers. The findings reveal that most students use VP
in their daily life and experience learning difficulties in general. Learning English in this
context mean trying to learn a third language, the dilemma is that the first language (VP)
lacks written form and students learn to read and write in Spanish. Trying to learn a third
language when there is not a solid basis of the first and second is complex. In addition, the
findings show that there are other aspects that influence academic success such as cultural
background, type of TV shows watched, social media habits and of course reading habits.
Conclusions suggest that many actions can be taken if teachers work coordinatively.
Multidisciplinary work, proper instruction from scratch and involvement of families, are
some of the aspects mentioned in this section.
Key words: Vernacular Portuguese, socio-cultural background, Linguistic competence,

academic performance, difficulty to learn, possible solutions.
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Content
Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………2
Abstract …………………………………………………………………...3
Introduction……………………………………………………………....5
Context…………………………………………………………………….6
Importance………………………………………………………………...7
Literature Review…………………………………….…………….....9-22
Methodology ……………………………………………………………..22-29
Analysis and findings………………….…………………………………29
Performance in EFL……………………………………………………..35
Interview with teachers…………………………………………………..38
Limitations………………………….……………..………………………40
Discussion and Conclusion………….……………………………..……..41
Appendix ………………………………………………………………….43
Bibliography……………………………………………………………....55
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INTRODUCTION:
This study explores to what extent first year students from the Alto Uruguay experience
difficulties when they enter secondary school because of the fact that they speak a language
which is different from the language of instruction. They usually do not reach linguistic
competence in Spanish by the time they enter secondary school. They communicate in VP
which hinders their verbal and written expression as well as their auditory and reading
comprehension. Students have a hard time expressing themselves and understanding teachers.
Therefore, learning English is more than a challenge, they do not have a solid knowledge of
any formal language to compare grammar and vocabulary. They often do not understand how
to perform tasks both in the classroom or as homework.
However, there are many other aspects that arise around this statement such as
-The socio-cultural background of each student. Many of them come from rural areas where
VP is widely spoken as a native language across generations.
- The students’ reading habits and the type of culture they consume. Most families in the area
watch Brazilian TV shows and parents have a low level of instruction. Many of them are
illiterate.
- The insufficient or incorrect instruction received in the first levels of education is a serious
matter in the area of Alto Uruguay. Unfortunately, there are few studies about the nature of
VP and how to address the problem in education in order to improve instruction and of course
enhance learning in general.
This investigation consists of several items. First, there is a description of the context where
the study takes place and a characterization of the variety of Portuguese spoken in the area.
Second, there will be an analysis of the results obtained from surveys where we will learn
about the sample’s socio-cultural characteristics. Third, there will be considerations about the
results of a series of simple tasks which students performed related to the use of capital letters
and punctuation. Fourth, there will be an analysis of the participants’ performance in English.
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Common mistakes and difficulties student´s experience in this subject will be examined.
Fifth, a summary of teacher´s interviews on the topic will be presented. There are recurring
topics mentioned in those interviews which confirm that the influence of VP is a common
concern in our school environment. Finally, there is a discussion on how language and
identity are bonded together and how traditional instruction should take bilingualism as a
cultural asset instead of an obstacle. Eventually, some lines of action will be suggested to
improve the situation.
CONTEXT
The context where this project takes place is in the area of the Alto Uruguay in Misiones
Argentina, precisely in my town El Soberbio and a neighboring village called Colonia Alicia.
The study specifically looks into the influence that Vernacular Portuguese (Lipski:2017)
(vernacular Portuguese is here known as Portuñol) has on Argentinean secondary schools
which are on the border with Brazil. For this, two schools that have similar characteristics
have been studied. These schools are called E.F.A (Escuela de la Familia Agrícola) and they
are both boarding secondary schools for students that live in rural areas. E.F.A schools are
public but with private organization and they are also religious schools. Another important
detail is that students spend two weeks in a month at school and two other weeks at home
completing homework for almost every subject and conducting field tasks related to
agriculture. That is to say that they live two weeks at school, going back home during the
weekend, while the other two weeks of the month they are at home. While a group of
students is at school (1st and 2nd year), the other group is at home (3 rd, 4th, 5th year). This
system is called alternation system. Each class has one (in EFA Espiritu Santo, El Soberbio)
or two (in EFA Santísima Trinidad, Colonia Alicia) form tutors. These are teachers who are
in charge of following the students’ learning process. They know their families and they are
supposed to maintain a fluent communication among teachers, students and families.
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The sample population will be students entering first year of secondary school, most of the
participants in this study have Vernacular Portuguese (VP) as a mother tongue and come
from rural areas where the exposure to Spanish is mainly limited to school. Over the last
years there have been more exposure to Argentinean TV and media content, but Portuguese
keeps on being the dominant Language in these areas.
IMPORTANCE
The reason for researching this topic and this specific population is because there is a general
belief among teachers that children who come from a certain socio-economic and cultural
background have a hard time when entering secondary school. In fact, it is not just a thought,
it is a recurrent topic of conversation among teachers. Besides, trying to teach English to
students of these characteristics is certainly not easy and demands a special approach and a
plan. It is more difficult to learn other languages when there is not structured knowledge of a
first language. In this case, the mother tongue will be Vernacular Portuguese, which lacks
definite rules or a written form. Portuguese and Spanish are sister languages. This means
there are similarities in lexis and grammar, although there are differences too. VP speakers
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normally resort to Portuguese when they try to speak Spanish, making many mistakes
because of the lack of instruction in both languages.
There is no place for extreme ideas in this research, those ideas that stated that portuñol must
be banned from school; teachers from the old school had this approach and it proved to be
inefficient. Teenagers need to be aware of the nature of their mother tongue, the importance
of acquiring the Standard Language and mastering it to have better academic performance.
Students need to master Standard Spanish by the time they leave secondary school and go to
a city to continue at college or university. Also, if they want to move to another city and get a
job because language is one of the most important letters of recommendation. Making
yourself understood is vital for better job prospects.
There is another topic going around this discussion related to identity. This matter is
addressed further in the study, so as to understand that banning portuñol from schools will
not improve students’ academic performance. It is necessary to raise student’s awareness of
both Languages so that they can benefit from bilingualism.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The nature of the language spoken in the Alto Uruguay
The first challenge encountered when trying to define the topic was to understand what type
of language the so-called portuñol was. At the beginning, it was assumed portuñol was a
pidgin or a creole, but it is not the case because Portuguese and Spanish are not mutually
unintelligible Languages (Fromkin, 2014, p.303). Besides, historically there have not been
socio economic or political conditions of dominance that derived in the use of this variety.
Conversely, Spanish and Portuguese are sister languages that hold many similarities.
However, there are similarities between VP and pidgins or creoles. They have not got a
writing system and speakers learn to read and write in a standard language (Holm, 2000, p.4).
This same situation is what we experience in the Alto Uruguay. Children who have VP as a
mother tongue, learn to read and write in Standard Spanish when they start school. Of course,
this comes with numerous complications that affect the student’s whole academic process.
According to Fromkin (2014), pidgins do not last more than some generations and may die
out, but VP has existed in our area for around 150 years and there is no signal of vanishing, it
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is deeply and culturally rooted. VP is not a creole because although it has its own rules and it
has native speakers (Holm, 200, p6), it is not the evolution of a pidgin. VP has many aspects
that differentiate it from Brazilian Portuguese (BP) such as dropping the plural form of
nouns, changing the inflection for verbs in the first-person plural and pronunciation more
similar to Spanish, among others. At this point, it is where we need to consider Lipski’s
(2015 -2017) studies which depict this variety of Portuguese more accurately. Also, Carissini
da Maia’s unpublished work (2022) has been enlightening in the characterization of VP. I
was fortunate enough to meet John Lipski in person when he was conducting another study in
the EFA school in El Soberbio and it was him who connected me with Ivene Carissini da
Maia. I also had the chance to interview him by phone, but, unfortunately, I could not record
the call and I just took notes.
In his study Portuguese or Portuñol? Language contact in Misiones, Argentina, Lipski

(2017) coins the term Vernacular Portuguese to talk about the variety spoken in the Alto
Uruguay. It is defined as a rural language that is in contact with Spanish. He makes a
difference between other linguistic contacts such as Spanglish and Portuñol. In the first case,
the contact is limited to lexical borrowing and the combinations vary from speaker to
speaker. However, Spanish and Portuguese are very proximal languages and mutually
intelligible. It could be said that portuñol or fronterizo is spoken on the border of Uruguay
and Brazil, where it is mainly used for trading purposes or where many people are bilingual.
Another totally different thing is the Portuguese spoken in Misiones, where it is the native
language spoken by people from rural areas. Lipski (2017) accurately characterizes this
phenomenon by explaining that in our area there is little social pressure to speak Spanish in
public institutions and there is a low level of formal instruction (schooling) in the middle
aged and older population. All these factors contribute to maintaining VP as a widely spoken
dialect. In this study he analyzes the main elements of VP and shows to what degree Spanish
and Portuguese remain separate. Lipski (2017) states that the greatest number of speakers of
VP are settled in my town, El Soberbio and the area of Colonia Aurora and Colonia Alicia.
Places where this research was conducted. The Portuguese spoken in these areas is more
similar to the rural varieties heard in Brazilian rural areas than to the language spoken in the
big cities of the neighboring country. Even though people from Misiones listen to Brazilian
radio or watch Brazilian television, this does not mean that they imitate the standard variety.
In Misiones there is not a heavy rejection of Portuguese as it is on the border of Uruguay.
There is little pressure to speak Spanish, but unfortunately, this has a counterpart which
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concerns us deeply in this study. Children entering the first levels of primary school
experience great difficulties as they encounter Spanish and literacy altogether. Moreover,
there is no formal instruction of Portuguese in primary schools and, in general, there is little
knowledge of grammar and structure. Lipski (2017) explains some of the characteristics of
VP as follows:
- Depleted plural marking. Placing plural only in the first element of the noun phrase.
(os livro,as pessoa). This phenomenon is translated into Spanish when VP speakers
shift languages (las mujere).
- Omission of -s in first person plural verbal suffix (vamo trazer)
- Turning first plural verb ending from – amos into emo (nos estudemo instead of
estudamos)
- Replacement of first-person plural verb forms by invariant third person singular
forms. Avoiding antepenultimate stress (nos travaiava instead of nos trablhávamos)
He conducted a translation experiment to establish whether Misiones bilingual speakers kept
similar basic systems of the languages in question. The experiments were conducted precisely
in both EFAs schools in which my study is based. The participants heard short utterances
where there was a plural agreement and they had to translate it into the other language. There
were some deceiving utterances of mixed code. Results showed a high rate of plural
agreement when the stimulus was provided in Spanish. Although, in noun phrases usually the
first two items were marked (as novelas brasileira). When the task was translating from
Portuguese to Spanish, there was not much variation, but it was spotted that plural forms
ended in -es for example, were reduced like in los profesore. It is suggested that dropping -s
is more due to the variety of Spanish spoken in the province than to a trait that is transferred
from VP. Lipski (2017) claims that both languages co-exist as two different systems in the
participants’ repertoire. There were utterances that prompted the first-person plural
characteristic (mo), also the first-person conjugation -amos which is often turned into -emos
and invariant verbs for the first-person plural (-abamos, íamos). Analysis showed that
responses were varied and that bilingual people maintain distinct systems for each language.
Moreover, mixed utterances should have been translated into a mixed code if the portuñol
was a variety of both languages being mixed. However, there was a tendency to translate
mixed sentences into Spanish. Lipski (2017) claims that Spanish spoken in Misiones by
bilinguals is more similar to national patterns than to Misiones Portuguese, and there are no
signs of incorporating non-standard patterns present in VP. There is no morphosyntactic
convergence between the languages in question although there is lexical borrowing. He
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concludes that the common belief in the existence of portuñol in the area of the Alto Uruguay
cannot be so because languages do not converge, they co-exist and are in constant in a
context of poor linguistic instruction or prescriptive pressures. This is how VP is initially
characterized.
Lipski (2018) carries out another investigation to test the language interface between Spanish
(Castellano) and Portuguese. His aim is to study syntactic restrictions inside the sentences
which is typical of code-switching. He compares different communities where Spanish and
Portuguese are in contact and explains for example that in Paso de Los Libres, Corrientes;
Spanish speakers incur into code switching when trying to speak Portuguese producing
anomalous combinations. For instance: não sabría decirle. Therefore, we need to
differentiate code-switching from VP. In the first place, a speaker tries to communicate in a
language that he/she does not master and mixes languages without a logical structure or
definite rules. In the second place, the speaker may borrow lexical items from Spanish and
introduce them into VP structure. In the area of the Alto Uruguay, Portuguese is spoken as a
native language, especially in rural areas, but this variety differs from BP. Lipski (2018)
conducted his experiment called quick translation in our area to measure to what degree the
languages in question are compenetrated. The participant heard a sentence in Spanish and had
to translate it into Portuguese, and if he/she heard a sentence in Portuguese, it had to be
translated into Spanish. In general, there was little mixture of languages. Some of the
characteristics that aroused are:
- Plural forms only marked in the article (os gurí)
- Deletion of the final “s”in the suffix for verbs in the first-person plural (nos temo 4
filho)
- Changing “a” into “e” for verbs which infinitive form end in -ar when used in the
first-person plural (falemo instead of “falamos”, plantemo inatead of “plantamos”).
A second experiment consisted in classifying languages. The point here was to show that
speakers of the area know that Spanish and Portuguese are different languages although
there is a continuous belief that these are mixed and that people speak portuñol. In this
experiment, participants had to listen to a stimulus and classify whether the input was in
Spanish, Portuguese or mixed. The results showed that participants could classify Spanish
straightforwardly, but had a harder time with Portuguese and mixed sentences. This is
probably due to the unofficial status of Portuguese in the area.
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A third experiment consisted of repeating a sentence that was heard but after receiving a
distraction (overloaded optional memory). As a consequence, participants fail to repeat
the stimulus accurately. There were sentences in VP, Spanish and Portuguese. There were
high levels of self-correction in sentences with pronouns and auxiliary verbs and low self-
correction in sentences with questions words.
Lipski (2018) concludes that even though Spanish and Portuguese are sister languages,
and that is common for speakers who live on the border to blend them; speakers in the
Alto Uruguay do not normally mix them. And he concludes:
“Between Spanish and Portuguese, the postulated morphosyntactic restrictions about intra-
sentential code changes are neither completely non-existent nor fully in force but variably
crossable, which suggests a close relationship between lexical/morphosyntactic repertoire
and mixed configurations: a threshold based on the psycholinguistic distance between
languages, beyond which the grammatical restrictions on intra-sentence changes” (Lipski,
2018, p.17)
Carissini da Maia (2022) did a socio-linguistic study of the Portuguese spoken in Msiones
and coined the concept Portugués de Misiones (PDM) to describe the variety that is found
in a large geographical extension of the province. Carissini da Maia (2022) agrees with
Lipski (2017-2018) on the difference between the local variety and the Standard
Portuguese, which she calls PB (Portugués de Brazil). Her aim is to understand PDM,
how it is composed and used as a reflection of socio-linguistic events. The research has
three main lines: the study of phonetics, grammar categories and field study with speech
communities. She also explains the origin of PDM and places its origins 150 years back
in time when European immigrants first came to Brazil and moved then into the area
which is now Misiones. In fact, PDM has always been a spoken language, also used to
facilitate communication between immigrants who spoke different languages (German,
Polish, etc.).
In her study, she used a test of linguistic elicitation that consisted of recorded sentences in
Spanish which participants translated into PDM. The participants were from a variety of
locations, gender and age. Most of them with a low level of formal instruction (from 20
participants, 14 had not reached the secondary level). There is the presupposition that
PDM has its own rules and that there might be some variation depending on the area,
population, age, etc. She also claims that there are underlying rules that make this variety
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different from PB. Some of her findings that characterize PDM and which I have found
most useful are:
- Hybrid constructions such as Eu di pra ele instead of Dei a ele.
- The imperfect form of the verb gostar. Eles gostavin/gostavum (PDM) instead of
gostavam (PB).
- Confusion between subjects. Changing eles to nois. The original sentence said: “ellos
tenían hambre”. Some participants translated: nois tinha fome
- Different ways of pronouncing voltemos. (voltemo, vortemo)
- Different responses for translating pronto into PDM (logo, ligero, em seguida,
pronto)
- Difference in pronunciation between PDM and PB (ommiting final m, r for example,
onte, falá)
- Borrowings from Spanish with shift in pronunciation (arquilá, albañir, casteiano).
- Borrowings from Spanish with hybrid words (guiso de pinto, trapo de chão)
- Lexical hybrids (banho instead of banheiro, ermã instead of irmã)
- Use of perfect compound verb forms (tinha trazido)
She concludes that it is surprising the uniformity that was found across the province,
considering that it is language that lacks a writing system or prescriptive rules. The
participants constructed sentences with the same phonetics, morphosyntactic structure
and lexis. PDM exhibits characteristics of vernacular rural Portuguese with the
incorporation of Spanish elements. She makes a point at the end of her study where
she explains that denying the existence of language varieties or labelling them as
“wrong” or “badly spoken” has negative effects and prevents native speakers from
producing poetry or cultural expressions in PDM.
Languages and Education

Looking into the effect that speaking a different language than the one it is used in formal
instruction, many studies from Nigeria aroused. There is a general concern about the use
of Pidgin English in academic environments and the negative effects that this might bring.
There is now a summary of some of the studies which were found to be useful for the
purpose of this study.
Bunmwakat (2013) started his study defining what pidgin is according to different
authors, but he characterized Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) as a dialect that is different
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from standard English but that should not be associated with any negative connotation, as
VP, NPE is a product of the social context. In his interview, Lipski commented that many
languages are still called pidgins when, in fact, they have turned into a more stable system
This is the case of NPE which has been perpetuated in time. Bunmwakat (2013) intends
with his study to investigate whether students at the University of Dutsinma speak NPE,
the role that NPE plays in the student´s lives and the influence that NPE has on their
academic performance. He also tries to answer why NPE has negative effects on students’
academic performance. The study was conducted through questionnaires, recordings and
observation. He concludes that the use of NPE in formal educational settings should be
discouraged because it has not been recognized as a language, there is not literature in
NPE and the use of it affects students’ academic performance. He suggests that NPE must
go through a process of standardization because the majority of the students speak it.
Another study in the same scope is Zahradeen’s (2020) piece of work. It looks into the
impact of NPE on secondary school students’ compositions in Gwale area in Kano state.
Zahraddeen (2020) is concerned on how NPE affects student´s writing skills. The
methodology used was questionnaires and interviews. Some of the characteristics of NPE
mentioned in this study are reduplication, using words like welluwelu to mean very well;
or compounding, which means building words to mean a more complex idea. For
example, strong head means “stubbornness”. The findings reveal:
-That students normally use NPE in school settings for their daily communication and
that this has affected their academic performance.
- That male students use NPE more frequently than females both in and outside the
school environment.
-That the use of NPE reduces student’s confidence in expressing themselves in English.
Communication between school staff and students is usually conducted in NPE and this
hinders the students’ communicative skills.
It is interesting how such a distant reality has many aspects in common with the problem
addressed in this research. In the EFA’s schools, quite often school staff speak in VP to
students, although it is usually argued in the school environment that this practice should
be avoided.
Subsequently and fortunately, I came across a colleague, a psychology teacher who

completed her psychopedagogy degree and wrote a consistent thesis about bilingual
students’ reading comprehension skills. Taszi (2021), like me, studied the characteristics
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of VP through Lipski´s studies and she is also concerned about how VP or bilingualism
affects academic performance. She concentrates on reading comprehension skills and
compares monolingual students’ reading skills with bilingual students’ skills who attend
secondary schools in El Soberbio. Her hypothesis is that monolingual students would
have better skills. She describes the importance of reading comprehension skills because
many learning difficulties are due to poor performance in this field. When a student
understands texts correctly, he/she can process information faster and more accurately
and the imagination is stimulated. Moreover, good understanding of texts allows us to
select information, summarize and classify information. Having good reading skills
means distinguishing between main and secondary information and storing it in our long-
term memory as knowledge schemes. Taszi (2020) states that to analyze reading skills,
we need to consider other “predictive knowledge” that refers to the development of oral
expression. Language is directly bound to personal relationships, especially in the first
years. Language mediates personal relationships, helps us express emotions and ideas. If
the language that an individual speaks is in conflict, let’s say with the environment,
communication is difficult. We can infer from here that a bilingual student with poor
communicative skills in Spanish will probably have a hard time understanding teachers’
explanations, texts or tasks. Later she explains the basic cognitive processes that play an
important role in reading comprehension. These are:
Lexical processes: this is a process through which the reader quickly reads and associates
the words to their meaning. This gives the reader a global meaning of the word and this
meaning is instantly connected to previous knowledge, because the same word has been
seen in different contexts. However, if the reader needs to transform the word into sounds
and later decodify the meaning, the process is slower and less efficient. The more the
students read, the better he/she gets at processing information.
Syntactic processes: refers to withdrawing messages from sentences. Words on their own
do not carry a whole message, they form groups in logical sequences, sentences and
paragraphs. Therefore, the importance of punctuation marks.
Semantic processes: occur when the reader can integrate the knowledge taken from a text
to their previous knowledge and build semantic networks.
Taszi (2021) conducted her study with 25 students from secondary school, from which 12
were bilingual and 13 were monolingual. As regards socio-economic factors, 84% of the
participants were middle-class while 16% were low-class. To measure reading
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comprehension skills, she used standardized tests called Prole-se-r, which allowed her to
obtain data about the three main processes described above. The tests consisted of:
Lexical processes: participants needed to classify words and tell whether they were real or
invented. Another test was to tell whether the words corresponded to a category. For
example: animals
Syntactic processes: one of the tests consisted of a picture and several sentences. The
participant had to tell which sentence described the picture. A second test asked students
to tell whether the sentences were grammatical or not.
Semantic processes: Students read a text and had to answer questions without consulting
the text again. Later, they were allowed to consult the text and had to complete multiple-
choice questions.
In general, monolingual students did better, with a significant statistical difference in the
three processes tested. Monolingual students showed medium to low performance in
lexical processes, medium to high in syntactic processes and medium to low in semantic
processes. She characterizes this group in general, as presenting slow down processes.
Although there is a small group that shows a higher speed and accuracy in reading skills.
In bilingual participants, half presented low lexical processes and half very low ones. As
for syntactic processes, the majority have a medium level, whereas in semantic processes,
variations go from medium to very low, where the majority has a very low performance
in this last process. Their reading speedis slow or very slow and they have great
difficulty to automatize this skill.
She explains that the differences between both groups’ performance confirms her
hypothesis that bilingual students underperform in reading skills if compared with
monolingual ones.
Migge (2010) reviews the historical situation of pidgins and creoles and explains how
they hardly ever reach a written form because they are considered a deviation of Standard
European Languages. She goes further and points out how speakers of Pidgins or Creoles
(P/Cs) usually have a low performance in formal education, especially in writing, and that
students with these characteristics are less likely to finish school or continue at college.
She criticizes how teachers and parents usually think that forbidding P/Cs is the answer to
improving academic performance. This is a conservative approach that is starting to
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change and she comments how research shows that there are other factors that cause low
achievement, such as institutional and environmental factors. Negative attitudes,
prejudices and ignorance are some of the most determining factors in an approach to
teaching students from P/Cs backgrounds. These attitudes result in lower expectations
towards these students, wrong assumptions and lowering students’ self-esteem, because
children do not see P/Cs as a cultural asset but as a barrier. Migge (2010) points out the
importance of providing positive support to students and avoiding excessive correction.
She also suggests that teachers should adopt a more contrastive approach. Migge (2010)
insists on how crucial it is that learners can express their feelings, and this happens
normally in their mother tongue. Banning P/Cs has shown no positive effects so far.
Talking about expression, there is a study about how code-switching in English -Spanish
speakers enhances learners’ expressive abilities. Becker (2001) conducted a piece of
research where bilingual students are observed performing tasks such as story-telling. She
states that mixing codes helps students provide more linguistic diversity and also helps
develop literacy. Bilingual students have access to different mental dictionaries which
improve their reading comprehension. She says that code-switching is not really explored
in education but that it should be considered as classroom practice because it enhances
bilingual students´ verbal skills.
As far as we have discussed here, there are basic differences between Pidgins, Creoles
and VP. But all these languages are often treated alike in education. There is a general
belief that these languages are inferior and that they hinder students' learning possibilities.
Nonetheless, there are many other factors to be considered around this assumption. My
attention has been drawn to the fact that similar situations are repeated across the globe
whenever students speak a language which is different from instruction. There is
something that must be considered in the first place: language is a vital part of an
individual´s identity. If identity is denied, bad outcomes can be forecast.
Contursi (2013) describes an experience that has been carried out in my province where
there was a collaboration between Argentinean and Brazilian schools to build a space
where languages and nations value each other’s culture and language. In the program,
teachers from each country crossed the board to have classes on the other side. The
schools belonged to Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) and Fõz de Iguazu (Brazil) and they were
called sister schools. It is noticeable how there is more presence of the Brazilian language
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and culture on the Argentinian side than vice versa. Therefore, Brazilian teachers had an
easier job to do and were more accepted than their Argentinean colleagues. What we can
learn about this project is the need for a different approach to teaching and learning on the
borders of our country. Most primary schools do not have Portuguese classes even though
there is a law about bilingual education. Contursi (2013) claims that the state does not
seek a deep solution and that cultural diversity is treated more like a problem than likr
cultural richness. Contursi (2019) highlights the need to think about identity as something
broad. Also, the need to promote literacy in mother-language and promote activities that
carry positive attitudes towards diversity.
METHODOLOGY
The hypothesis of this study is that the use of VP hinders academic performance in
students who enter secondary school in Alto Uruguay. In order to measure the effect
of VP on students’ performance and their socio-cultural background, different
instruments were used to gather information.
There were four:
1) A survey aimed to find out the participants’ socio-cultural background and reading
habits.
2) A paperwork where students were asked to correct mistakes about the use of capital
letters and punctuation marks.
3) Observation and analysis of tasks performed in English classes.
4) Interviews with teachers.
There are some comments taken from direct observation, considering that I have been
working in this context for more than 10 years.
The participants are students from first year of two EFA schools. The EFA “Espiritu Santo”
from El Soberbio, which has two different groups, 1° “A” and 1° “B” with around 25
students each group; and the EFA “Santísima Trinidad” from Colonia Alicia, which has one
group with around 50 students. Not all students were present both in the survey or on the
paperwork. The exact number will be provided while each research tool is explained.
The teachers who were interviewed were two Language teachers, one from each institution,
and two Science teachers again, one from each institution.
The survey
18
In this survey there were questions about which language students use to communicate with
peers or family and what TV programs they watch. There were also questions about how
much they read and what they prefer to read and what they usually see on the phone. See
appendix .1.1
The first question was about what language they used at home or with fiends. (See appendix
1.2). The results of each school will be shown apart.
EFA Sma. Trinidad.

In this case, the survey was conducted at the beginning of the year and the participants were
selected randomly in a group of 50 students. Only 15 students answered, 11 said they spoke
portuñol (73%), 3 said Spanish (20%) and 1 said Portuguese (7%).
EFA Espíritu Santo

Here, all the students who were present answered the survey. From a total of 38 students,
19 were girls and 19 boys. 15 students said they speak Portuguese (39.47%), 17 portuñol
(44.73%) and 6 Spanish (15.78%).
As it can be appreciated, the percentage of students that speak Spanish in Colonia Alicia
is greater, but the sample was smaller and this can affect the result. It can be discussed
whether 13-year-old students can differentiate if they speak Portuguese or portuñol.It is
normally understood that portuñol refers to the variety spoken in the Alto Uruguay and
Portuguese to a language more similar to BP. However, for the purpose of this study, we
are interested in the fact that there is less than 20 % of the students that speak Spanish as
a mother tongue. This will leave us with 80% or more bilingual students.
Type of TV programs watched at home

The next section is about the type of TV programs they watch. This aspect was
particularly interesting for the study because it is known that there is more influence of
Brazilian TV than Argentinean. Also, the educational value of the TV shows that people
watch will say more about the students and their family´s interests. Questions 2 and 3 are
about watching TV. Some students stated that they did not have or did not watch TV at
home. They were supposed to number the type of TV programs watched at home from 1
to 4. In many cases, they did not understand the question and ticked some options. In that
case, the same value was given to all the options. If the answer was replied correctly, the
19
program given number 1 was given the highest value and the option given 4 the lowest.
The results are shown below:
EFA Santísima Trinidad
Tipo de programas de TV que miran en tu casa

20
16
12
8
4
0
s s s s ix s s es no s
ro ña na no tfl ño no al la
s il
e l e ti ti e l e ti t nti ícu
si ge
n
ge
n n s i
ge
n e n g e l
br
a ra n ra ar pe
sb ar ar se sb ar cu
m
l es a a s es r i e o os o nto
na el el al se ad ad
d ie
ca nov nov c an i m i m im
n n n n
se
n sa sa te
ia a se jo jo tre
c i u u n
no
ti tic di
b
di
b r.
e
no rog
p
As it can be seen, Brazilian soap-operas and Brazilian News are the top watched type of
program.
EFA Espiritu Santo
Programas que más miran

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
s s as os lix os os s o as é r
e ro ña tin tin etf eñ tin ta
le tin ul im rro
s il is le n n n i l n n ge
n l í c an te
br
a a ge ge n as ge e
ar pe e
s br ar ar se br ar cum o sd
le a s
la
s
le
s ri e o s o s
do n t rie
na el ve na se ad ad ie se
ca nov o a i m m i m
n n c n ni en
se s en osa sa ret
ic a ia j j o t
ti tic bu bu en
no di di de
no a
m
g ra
o
pr
20
Again, Brazilian soap-operas and news are very popular but they are also followed by
series or films. It was not included in the description, but they normally watch series and
films on Netflix in Portuguese.
Most of the content watched is in Portuguese, although there has been a shift during the
last 10 years and more Argentinean TV programs are being watched nowadays. As it can
be seen, news and soap-operas in Spanish are also on the list, as well as documentaries.
Reading habits
Students were asked how much they read and also what type of reading they preferred.
The question was: how much time do you devote to reading?
In Apendix 1.3 it can be observed that, in general, students stated that they spend some
time reading. They expressed that they sometimes read news or comments (gossip on
social media) but most of them do not have access to books at home.
The type of reading they prefer is expressed bellow
Efa Santísima Trinidad
Material de lectura preferido
Cuentos
12%
Noticias
18% Novelas
Historietas y cómics
59%
12%
As stated above, this survey was conducted at the beginning of the school year, it did not
have the option of numbering from 1 to 3 according to the preference. Therefore, many
participants ticked one option.
Efa Espíritu Santo
21
Material de lectura preferido
Cuentos
Noticias
8%2%
Novelas
12% Recetas
42% Material de estudio
10% Historietas y cómics
Artículos en revistas
17%
8%
In this case, participants were allowed to number the type of reading material from 1 to 3.
It can be appreciated that, in general, short stories, novels and news are the most popular
in both cases.
Content watched on mobile phones

The first question was whether they had their own phone, while in the next case they had
to state themselves what they used the phone for. Even though kids might not have their
own gadget, they usually borrow it from their parents.
In the EFA Sma. Trinindad, 9 (60%) students stated that they had a phone whereas 6 (40
%) did not.
The type of content mentioned was: music, Tik Tok, games (Minecraft, Free Fire),
Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google. Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube are the most
popular. The number of participants and their comments in this section were few. It is not
the case with the other school.
In the EFA Espíritu Santo, 26 (68%) students had their own phone while 12 (32%) did
not.
The most popular apps and sites, in this case, are expressed in a graph.
22
¿Qué contenido ves en el celular?
kaway
facebook
Música
Youtube
Instagram
Juegos
google Tik tok

Netflix
whatsapp
WhatsApp, YouTube, Google and Instagram are the most popular. Many participants
expressed that they used Google for doing their homework.
Free writing
In the last part, students had to write about what they had done the previous weekend. The
task said they had to write 40 words but most of them did not write even 20.
EFA Sma. Trinidad

After reading the students’ contributions, some recurrent mistakes were spotted.
1) Wrong or no use of punctuation,
2) Mistakes in inflecting the verb andar ( using “ande” instead of anduve),
3) Wrong use of prepositional phrases: fuí en mi tía instead of fuí a lo de mi tía ( see apendix
1.2 a)
4) There are several spelling mistakes: fuy instead of fuí; juge instead of jugué
It can also be observed that those participants who said that they spoke Spanish at home
wrote a better description of their weekend activities. However, punctuation and spelling
mistakes are also present among Spanish-speaking students.
EFA Espíritu Santo

In this case, there were 38 short writings to analyze and it is noticeable how many
characteristics and mistakes are recurrent.
23
1) Many participants wrote their weekend experience as a list and not as a text (jugué
pelota, visité mi tía, comí asado). They omit the use of “tilde”, so in fact they wrote
jugue, instead of juegué. (see appendix 1.3 a , b)
2) Although this group completed the survey after doing a piece of paperwork on capital
letters and punctuation, many of them made mistakes regarding these aspects. In most
cases, there was a total lack of punctuation marks or wrong use of them, over use of
the conjunction “y” and little use of linkers such as : después, primero, luego. ( see
appendix 1.30 d)
3) Spelling mistakes such as: fuy instead of fuí. Selular; instead of celular; verb ending -
ava instead of -aba; ise,iso instead of hice, hizo. (see appendix 1.3 e)
4) Wrong use of prepositional phrases like: fuí en mi tía, meaning fuí a lo de mi tía.
5) Andé instead of anduve.
ANALYSIS AND FINGINGS ABOUT THE SURVEY

The results showed that around 80% of the students surveyed spoke Portuguese or portuñol in
their daily life. This confirms that there is a salient characteristic in the population entering
EFAs schools in the Alto Uruguay; basically, most of them do not speak Spanish regularly,
which is the language of instruction.
Regarding the type of TV programs watched, it was supposed that they mostly watched
Brazilian Television, which is true. However, there has been a shift over the years as many
people are now watching Argentinean TV programs such as news or soap-operas.
Nonetheless, the top types of shows are, in both cases, Brazilian soap-operas and Brazilian
news. It can be added that soap-operas in any language, do not provide a wide variety of
language and that they contribute very little to expand the knowledge of the language.
However, the news tends to handle more complex discourse but, here lies the question to
what extent the exposure to this type of content modifies the use of the language. We also
need to consider what was said by Lipski (2017) that people from the Alto Uruguay do not
try to emulate the standard Portuguese heard in the media. We may assume that the same
situation might be repeated when they are exposed to Argentinean TV shows. This may
enhance their comprehension of Spanish, which is important, but this is not enough to
improve their linguistic performance. Another curious aspect is that many participants
expressed that they watched films or series. This aspect is also salient because not many years
ago people from the area did not have access to this type of content, but with the arrival of the
Internet almost everywhere, the landscape has changed. The fact that a teenager can watch a
24
film for two hours implies that he or she is engaged in a story, understands the plot and the
time sequence of the story. This habit is much more positive than watching soap-operas, for
instance.
Regarding the students’ reading habits, it must be said that the time per day should have been
included next to the categories: nada, poco, algo, mucho. Apparently, most of the participants
stated that they devoted some time to reading because of the fact that they have to complete
homework for school, but most of them scarcely read for pleasure, only the ones who said
they read a lot. If we compare the results in EFA Sma. Trin 60% said they devoted some
time, whereas in EFA Esp. Santo 57%. In the first school, 12 % said they read a lot, while 16
% in the second school. In EFA Sma Trin, 18% said they read little while in EFA Esp. Santo
26 %.
What is interesting about this survey and a comparative analysis is that some students who
stated that they devoted a lot of time to reading, then performed badly in the punctuation and
capital letters paperwork and also wrote about their weekend with many of the mistakes
explained above (see appendix 1.3). Besides, when students saw the teacher in the following
class, many of them asked how they had done in the survey. It was explained again that it was
only a survey and that they were not marked for that task and they looked a bit crossed. It can
be said then that some of the information might be biased. In appendix 1.3 b, the participant
writes a list with many mistakes and at the same time states that he/ she reads a lot.
Moreover, when we analyze the paperwork, the mark got by this student was 40%.
Nonetheless, another participant that stated he/she read a lot, also got a low mark on the
paperwork, but mostly for leaving spaces uncompleted, besides the writing (appendix 1.3 d)
is much better than the previous one. We need to consider that even though teenagers may
perform badly at school, this might be caused by different factors. In The EFA Espiritu Santo,
there are many cases of behavioral problems, weak parental authority and form tutors who do
not actually fulfill the role. Whereas in the EFA Sma. Trinidad, this aspect is quite the
opposite. Quite often, form tutors over scaffold students to ensure they comply with the
school´s expectations. None of the extremes are recommendable, but first year students in a
boarding school need a clear and constant guide as well as limits and figures of authority.
Related to how much adolescents read, there was the question of what they preferred to read.
If we look at the results, in both cases, short stories are at the top of preference. As was
explained before, the results were not gathered in the same conditions because, in the first
25
case, students could not number that type of reading material they preferred. The group which
answered the survey in the EFA Sma trin was smaller and it was conducted at the beginning
of the year. However, the preference for short stories and novels is noticeable. Furthermore, it
is interesting how in the EFA Espíritu Santo many participants stated that they liked reading
study materials. What is valuable about this section is that if teachers want to increase the
amount of reading among students, they should begin by asking them what they enjoy
reading. It can be inferred that, as they have started reading more since they entered
secondary school, and that they basically read short stories for Language and study material
for Science or History; they had probably checked these options in the survey because they
are more familiar with these types of reading.
We are now going to talk about the type of content teenagers from these groups watch on the
phone and we might say that YouTube, Tik Tok, games or Instagram are not quite
educational. In any case, almost every teenager from different backgrounds uses these kinds
of apps. It is noticeable how they included Google as a tool for completing tasks. In the past,
students from rural areas did not have much access to the Internet or information at all. Many
used to visit their old primary school and ask their former teachers for help in order to
complete assignments for secondary school. Technology now comes as a great help but also
as a great distractor. Students are not allowed to have their phones while they are at school
and they seem not to understand how to use connectivity productively because although
many state that they have a phone or use their parents’ mobile, they do not hand in
assignments properly or on time. Many teachers have WhatsApp groups with each class, in
order to send materials or clarifications for paperwork, but again, there are kids who just do
not do their homework.
In the next section we will talk about the task students did on capital letters and punctuation.
Task on capital letters and punctuation
The task consisted of short texts with mistakes, where the capital letters were missing and the
punctuation marks too. There were extracts in Spanish and in English because it was an
integrated work between the two subjects (Language and English). Before performing the
activities, the teacher revised the rules for the use of capital letters both in Spanish and
English and wrote some tips on the board. The same was done about punctuation marks.
Then the students had to complete the tasks (see appendix 1.5)
Each capital letter was given a point as well as each punctuation mark. If the student
committed spelling mistakes or changed the text, a point was deducted. The total was 34
points, which was turned into a mark by percentage. For example, if the participant did 17
26
points out of 34, he/she got 50%, which equals 5. Marks are from 0 to 10, where 10 is
excellent and 0 is poor.
The results regarding marks are shown in the graphs below. Here the number of students that
got the same mark were grouped. In the EFA Sma. Trinidad, there were 48 participants. The
tendency is that the majority got a passing mark; 14 students got 6 and 15 students got 8.
Then 8 students got 7 and 5 students got 9. Only 4 students got 5 and 2 students 3. That is to
say, that the general performance of the group goes from pass to very good. There is a small
group who underperformed and a smaller group which outperformed. 89% of the group
passed the task while only 12 % did not.
EFA SMA TRIN
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
In the EFA Espíritu Santo 45 students completed the task. They were from different classes
because in this school there are two first years; but the results here are shown altogether.
27
EFA ESP. SANTO
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
It can be observed that the results are more heterogeneous, although again the majority
passed the task. The group of the ones that did not pass is greater and the ones that
outperformed too, if we compare both schools. There were 12 students that got 7 and 10
students who got 9. Then 9 students got 6 and 5 students got 8. The underachievers were
distributed as follows: 1 student got 5, 3 students got 4, 2 students got 3, 2 students got 2 and
1 student got 1.
In this group, the 80% got a passing mark while 20 % did not.
It can be said that the results are not alarming at all, but we need here to analyze some of the
points in the task (see appendix 1.5).
As regards the use of capital letters, in general the performance was good. Some participants
failed to write Saturday with a capital letter even though they were told about the rules. In
some cases, students placed capitals where they were not supposed to, like in mamá. The
most critical part of the task was point 2 b, which was a series of instructions where the
punctuation and conjunctions were missing. Few students did this part well and partially well.
This is interesting because it shows difficulty in understanding instructions, separating ideas
and sequencing tasks. It makes sense how they struggle when they need to follow written
instructions to do their homework. If they fail in understanding the instructions, they will
probably fail the paperwork. Another salient feature was that they seemed to ignore the use of
quotation marks and semi-collons, as in exercise 2 c. There was over use of the conjunction
“y” in Spanish and failure to transfer how to use “and” in English. Even though in EFA
Espíritu Santo they did this task and then performed the survey, many students wrote about
their weekend making mistakes in the use of capital letters and punctuation. It can be seen
that the skills are not well learned or that they are not connected to different contexts,
28
knowledge and skills seem to remain in separate fields to be used in class in each subject.
This is a feature that is mentioned by teachers when they answered the interview which is
going to be discussed later.
PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

In both schools, students have English as a compulsory subject from first year to fifth year,
which is the end of secondary school. Pupils who enter this level of education in the Alto
Uruguay have not learned anything of the foreign language in primary school. They normally
have difficulties with understanding grammar because of their lack of formal knowledge of
their first language (VP) or second language (Spanish). We are going to analyze the marks
students got on two simple tasks that were completed in both schools. The first one consisted
of a test about subject pronouns (see appendix 2.1), while the second one was a task in which
they had to form sentences with the verb to be using a chart (see appendix 2.2).
In the test about pronouns, students had to study the pronouns and complete the chart. This
was worth 16 points. Next, they had to match the subjects to the pronouns (18 points).
Finally, they had to replace the underlined words for a pronoun and re-write the sentence (10
points). The total value of the test was 44 points. Pupils completed the first exercise quite
well, but many failed in the other two tasks. The main problem was to differentiate plural
pronouns. There was confusion among we, they and you (plural). On the last task, many
students did not understand how to replace the underlined words and left some items
incomplete. The results are shown in the graphs.
EFA Espíritu Santo

1 to 3 4 to 5 6 to 7 8 to 9 10
10%
17%
25%
19%
29%
Marks 1 to 5 mean failed, while 6 to 10 passed. From a total of 48 students, 31 (64.58%) got
a passing mark and 17 (35.41%) failed.
29
EFA Sma. Trinidad
1 to 3 4 to 5 6 to 7 8 to 9 10
13%
33%
17%
37%
In this case, from a total of 46 students, only 6 failed (13%), while 87 got a passing mark.
Besides, the number of students that got 10 is higher in EFA Sma. Trinidad (32.60%) than in
EFA Espíritu Santo (10.41 %).
The task about the verb to be will be analyzed here in general. Many students in both schools
did not hand in the task. From those who did, many made the same kind of mistakes. They
had problems understanding which form of the verb to be matched each of the subjects and
made mistakes such as
- Combining is with all the subjects. (My friends and I is at school)
- Omitting the verb. (The children at school)
- Making sentences that had no sense like: My cat is cloudy.
In both schools, around 30% of the students failed the task.
Analysis about students’ performance in English

According to the results, there is a greater group that passed the pronouns’ tests in the Efa
Sma Trinindad and they also got higher marks. This could be due to the several reasons. First,
as was mentioned before, form tutors in this school are more dedicated and are always
reminding pupils about their responsibilities. Second, the socioeconomic factors are different
in this area. In Colonia Alicia, most families are farmers or/and they smuggle crops to the
neighboring country. Whereas in the rural areas in El Soberbio, there are many families that
live on social assistance and do not have a solid income from their farming activities.
However, this appreciation would need further investigation.
30
As regards student’s performance, there are recurring mistakes related to the structure of
language. They confuse the plural pronouns in every language. This was also pointed out by
Carissini Da Maia (2022) in her study where people changed eles for nois. Pupils have a hard
time understanding the rules of any language. When they learn the verb to be, they barely
know how to conjugate the verbs ser and estar in Spanish. Therefore, when they need to
complete exercises and understand phrases in English, they struggle and quite often fail.
The little understanding of language pupils have is because they speak VP, which has no
written form. It is also due to their basic knowledge of Spanish and the poor instruction they
have received in primary schools. These concerns are not valid only for the English class, but
for other subjects too. Many teachers express their worries about students’ poor linguistic
competence. Therefore, we are going to analyze teachers’ opinions next.
INTERVIEW WITH TEACHERS

The interview consisted in 4 simple questions that they were asked to answer as they wished,
in a written form (both Language teachers chose this form) or sending an audio message
through WhatsApp (both Science teachers did this way). The questions were the following:
1) Do you think that Portuguese influences the academic performance of students?
2) What common characteristics do you see in first year entrants? Difficulties, strengths,
things that have changed over the years.
3) What other factors apart from language affect the academic performance of first-year
students?
4) What should we do as a school and as teachers to help students?
As regards the first question, there are recurrent aspects mentioned in the four interviews (see
apendix 3.1,2,3,4). All of them claim that students have a hard time expressing ideas verbally
and writing. Difficulty to express ideas, spelling mistakes, grammar inconsistency are some
of the aspects mentioned. Marisol mentioned the difficulty of understanding tasks. Leandra
talked about the importance of reading and speaking in Spanish, whereas Débora mentioned
how there is little interest in improving language competence and how this is translated into
superficial knowledge of each subject. This point is particularly interesting, because if there
is a barrier in understanding content, in this case a communicative barrier, knowledge does
not consolidate properly.
31
As for the second question, the difficulty with writing and oral expression is mentioned again,
as well as difficulty to understand instructions. It is interesting how language teachers
highlighted some problems in punctuation, association of graphemes and morphemes,
coherence and mixing types of letters when writing. It is wise to agree with Leandra on the
idea of knowledge as something disconnected from reality, as if problem solving in Maths
works only in the classroom or as if understanding how a cell works is just for the Science
class. When talking about strengths, only Débora omitted this aspect; the rest mentioned the
availability of technology as something positive, although Débora stated that it works as a
distractor and that the constant use of the phone implies that teenagers do not devote enough
time and effort to their studies. Because technology brings everything so fast, kids do not
learn to make efforts to complete homework or study. Leandra and Cristina mentioned that
bilingualism means a cultural asset, that students can resort to both languages to understand
messages. It is also mentioned that today kids have a better socio-economic status than, may
be, 10 years ago.
In the third question, some of the topics mentioned above are explained again. It is interesting
how Marisol stated how students do not have a habit of studying, Debora stated that they do
not practically read and Leandra mentioned the influence of Brazilian television and, most
importantly, the poor instruction children receive in primary school. Marisol mentioned
before that in primary schools, children do not usually have exams, therefore it is very
challenging for them to have a test for each subject in secondary school. It is also a recurrent
topic, the lack of motivation of some students to learn and the poor support they receive from
their families.
Finally, in the last question, it is present the importance of integrating subjects so that
knowledge consolidates and children can relate skills learnt at school to their daily life. The
need for constant teacher training is also mentioned and the importance of engaging families
in the process of improving students’ academic performance.
This aspect of the investigation proved to be particularly interesting because teachers saw
many things that were observed during the research and they also added some aspects which
are worth considering. The difficulty with oral and written expressions is undeniable and the
importance of the family too. It is also interesting how the necessity of doing interdisciplinary
work, came as a common possible solution to the problem of low academic performance. It is
gratifying to read that teacher training is another important factor as well as the correct use of
32
technology, which is something that is being slowly implemented in both schools. Both are
starting to work with moodle platforms.
LIMITATIONS
This study has proved to be revealing and at the same time limited. In the first place, because
many of the implicit ideas in the hypothesis have been confirmed while other unexpected data
arise. In the second place, there have been many limitations as regards the survey because
some of the data was inaccurate. The recommended way of gathering this information might
be to perform the survey one by one and check on the different fields oneself. Because of
time constraints, this has not been possible. Apart from the measuring method, there are
limitations concerning the problem itself. To start, it would be valuable to understand the type
of instruction children receive in primary school in order to suggest improvements and work
accordingly in secondary school. It has been shown that the main difficulties arise around the
skills of oral and written expression. Next, to approach the problem in a more global manner,
an investigation of the methodology used in each subject and the collaboration of all the
teachers from first year would be needed. Finally, to see if any of the ideas proposed by the
teachers help improve students’ performance, we would need to conduct a series of
pedagogical strategies followed by some kind of periodical testing. The whole matter sounds
incredibly interesting and at the same time demands great effort and organization.
Nonetheless, many actions are being taken as interdisciplinary work is now a subject of
general concern.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The problem of the influence of VP on academic performance has always been a popular
matter in the educational environment. The investigation started by trying to understand the
nature of the so-called portuñol and it seemed as if light was shed on many preconceptions.
Language is a cultural asset. People in the Alto Uruguay speak a particular variety of
Portuguese which is not a random mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. It is part of their
identity and it would be much more productive to start to benefit from this than try to deny its
existence. After this was settled, the question of why bilingual students usually struggle more
at school than monolingual ones arose. Reading Taszi’s (2021) thesis showed that it was not
just a random idea and that this problem could be measured. At the climax of the
investigation, many aspects appeared suggesting that in many cases, VP itself is not the
problem. There are other aspects to consider. First, the poor instruction children receive in
33
primary school where the idea that VP is wrong prevails and that they should speak Spanish.
Children are taught to read and write in a language they have not mastered. Secondly, the
lack of social pressure to speak Spanish in many environments and the influence of the
neighboring country’s culture through the media. Next, the lack of reading habits and the
necessity of teachers to coordinate their work to tackle this matter.
So far, it has been shown that students from rural areas who start their first year of secondary
school have difficulties such as:
-Expressing ideas orally
-Writing cohesively
-Understanding instructions
-Using capital letters and punctuation marks correctly
-Understanding the use of pronouns in English.
-Making simple sentences in English.
- Reading comprehension in general
However, these problems are not caused mainly by the fact that they speak VP but because
there is a general mistaken approach to teaching and learning. Schools are not a hundred
percent responsible for this, but they can do more than usually expected to change the
landscape. Governments may start to consider that bilingual students need a different type of
instruction. Families need to get involved in their children’s education by promoting reading
habits, speaking Spanish in certain environments or encouraging kids to learn instead of just
passing to the next level.
Regarding schools, we have a lot of work to do. Secondary schools’ teachers need to start
from the basics, teaching things that children should know at this level and they also need to
work interdisciplinary to guaranty that knowledge is connected from one subject to the other
and that it can be transferred to real life situations. Finally, EFA schools are characterized by
accompanying students and families through the process of educating teenagers; therefore,
form tutor’s roles need to be revised as it is one of the most powerful tools these types of
schools have to enhance communication among teachers, learners and families.
I would like to end this piece of research by expressing my predisposition to continue both
investigating and working on improving the conditions in which students learn.
Understanding that this task is not a simple one and that it needs collaborative work from the
whole educational community.
34
APENDIX
1.1
Encuesta
1) Cuando estás con tu familia y amigos: ¿Qué idioma utilizas para comunicarte?
a) Español
b) Portuñol
c) Portugués
d) Alemán
e) Otro:_____________________________
2) ¿Tú y tu familia miran televisión?
A) SÍ
B) NO
Si contestaste sí en la pregunta anterior contesta las siguientes preguntas.
3) ¿Qué tipo de programas miran? Marca del 1 al 4 donde 1 es el que más miran y 4 el que menos.
a) Noticias en canales brasileros (ej: globo)
b) Programas de entretenimiento argentinos ( ej: los 8 escalones)
c) Novelas brasileras
d) Novelas argentinas
e) Noticias en canales argentinos
f) Dibujos animados en canales brasileros
g) Documentales
h) Series policiales en Netflix o televisión
i) Dibujos animados en canales de habla hispana
j) Películas en Netflix o televisión
k) Otro:________________________
l) Otro:________________________
4) ¿Dedicas tiempo a la lectura?
a) Mucho
b) Algo
c) Poco
d) Nada
5) ¿Qué tipo de cosas prefieres leer? Marca hasta 3 cosas y enumera del 1 al 3
a) Cuentos
b) Noticias
c) Novelas
d) Recetas
e) Contenido de estudio ( ej: historia, biología)
f) Historietas o cómics
g) Artículos en revistas
6) ¿Tienes teléfono celular propio?
a) sí
b) no
7) Cuando usas el teléfono ¿qué contenido miras? _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
8) Cuéntame brevemente qué hiciste el fin de semana (40 palabras)
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________
35
1.2 Efa Sma. Trin
idioma hablado en casa y con tus amigos

portuñol español portugués
7%
20%
73%
Efa Espíritu Santo
Idioma que hablan en casa y con amigos
15.78%
39.47%
44.73%
Español Portuñol Portugués
1.3
EFA Sma. Trin
tiempo dedicado a la lectura

nada 1
poco 3
algo 10
mucho 2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
36
EFA Espíritu Santo
Tiempo dedicado a la lectura

nada
poco 11
algo 24
mucho 7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
1.4 EFA Sma. Trinidad

a)
b)
c)
37
d)
1.4 EFA Espíritu Santo

a)
b)
c)
d)
38
e)
39
1.5
Trabajo integrado: Lengua y L.E. Inglés- 1er año
1) Lee los siguientes extractos y coloca las letras mayúsculas donde corresponde y pasa en
limpio debajo.
a)
Era un día de verano y hacía mucho calor en ituzaingó, corrientes. habíamos ido allí con mi
familia a pasar unos días. estaba sonia ,mi mamá; pedro, mi papá y mi hermanita luisana. en
la playa conocimos un chico de paraguay que se llamaba danilo.
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
b) my sister is 13 years old, her name is laura. she plays football on saturdays. she is a student at
santa maría school in posadas.
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2) Coloca los signos de puntuación ( ¿? : . , ), así como también la conjunción “y” donde
corresponde (en inglés es “and”)
a) Hoy es un día soleado cálido tranquilo__________________ _________
___________________________________________________
b) Una vez terminado el trabajo los alumnos deben guardar sus pertenencias levantar las
sillas salir al patio después es hora del almuerzo deben lavarse las manos
_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________
c) Ella me preguntó “Cuál es tu grupo sanguíneo?” y yo no supe

responder________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
d)
I like reading playing football watching videos
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
e) What´s your favourite color

________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
40
2.1
2.2
Make 8 sentences using the chart
My grandmother at school
I am in the park
My house very big
Today is 75 years old
The children a secretary
My cat happy
My friends and I are a student
My brother and my sister in class
Mr. Gonzalez Saturday
It Black and white
You and your friends cloudy
41
3.1
Interview to Marisol Science teacher EFA Espiritu Santo
1) ¿Crees que el portugués incide en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos?
El portugués incide en el rendimiento académico porque a los chicos les cuesta expresarse en
español sería… Y cuando escriben también hay palabras que ellos no saben cómo escribir en español
y te escriben en portugués… otra cosa es los errores ortográficos que tienen. Y también le cuesta a
veces comprender la consigna por no entender el Idioma, digamos claramente el que hablan el
castellano o el español sería.
2) ¿Qué características comunes ves en los ingresantes de primer año? Dificultades, fortalezas,
cosas que hayan cambiado a través de los años.
Las dificultades del ingresante son: comprensión del texto, Comprensión de consignas…Y, por
ejemplo, en el momento cuando tiene que hacer una exposición, hay algunos que no saben hacer
una exposición. También he escuchado que este año, por ejemplo, cuando le di evaluaciones, que
ellos no tuvieron evaluación en su primaria, entonces como que le cuesta la consigna, comprender
las consignas.
La fortaleza es que para mí es… que ellos, algunos, ponen ganas de comprender, de hacer bien las
cosas, no ese interés por ahí de preguntarte las cosas…es también para mí una fortaleza de ellos,
pero no todos lo tienen algunos.
3) ¿Qué otros factores además del idioma inciden en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos de
primer año?
Yo creo que otros factores son, por ejemplo, es organizarse en el estudio, sí. Por ejemplo, tener hora
de estudio y veo que, por ejemplo, no están acostumbrados a tener hora de estudiar, es decir,
sentarse y hacer sus tareas ¿no? Por ahí dejan todo para el último momento. Otro es que dicen ellos
que tienen que trabajar en la chacra. Entonces, tiene pocos momentos para para hacer sus tareas.
4) ¿Qué deberíamos hacer como escuela y como docentes para ayudar a los alumnos?
Yo creo que la escuela debería tener talleres u horas de estudio, pero hora de estudio donde el
alumno con dificultad en cierta materia, que reciba el apoyo para él comprender eso. Para mí serían
talleres o... No sé si talleres o más bien clases de apoyo. Para que ellos puedan expresar sus dudas o
a veces también de ellos tienen vergüenza de preguntar muchas veces. Yo como docente daría
clases de apoyo en contra turno. Y hacer usar más diccionario o también, por ejemplo, que distintas
materias se relacionen, pero de una manera comprometida, por ejemplo, de lengua con otras
materias. Que ellos puedan. No sé un texto que se le da en cualquier otra materia puedan hacer un
resumen, puedan hacer una síntesis, un cuadro sinóptico. Técnica de estudio no, también estaría
bueno que puedan tener técnicas de estudios.
42
3.2
Interview to Cristina Language teacher from EFA Espíritu Santo
En mi experiencia y opinión como docente, considero que inside un 50% en el rendimiento
académico y esto lo digo por razones como: dificultades para expresarse oralmente,
construir textos o materializar sus conocimientos en la escritura.
2) ¿Qué características comunes ves en los ingresantes de primer año? Dificultades,

fortalezas, cosas que hayan cambiado a través de los años.
Las características comunes en los ingresanted de primer año son:
Dificultades
- Expresar sus conocimientos verbalmente.
- Construir oraciones o enunciados correctamente.
- Usos de signos de puntuación no adecuados.
- Manejo del funcionamiento de las normas y reglas gramaticales.
- Dificultades en la lectura en voz alta ( pausas, entonaciones, etc.).
- Dificultades en incorporar nuevos conocimientos.
- Entre otros.
Fortalezas
- Un mercado lingüístico ( de una variedad lingüística) disponible.
- Competencias ideológicas y culturales de su contexto.
- Conocimientos instrumentales de las tecnologías.
- Un porcentaje de alumnos predispuestos a aprender.
- Entre otros.
primer año?
En mi opinión, los otros factores que influyen en el rendimiento de los alumnos son:
Las tecnologías: la circulación en las redes sociales de información de manera fragmentada o

descontextualizada.
Los padres: la ausencia en el acompañamiento de su trayectoria escolar por razones particulares.
Los contenidos y la metodología de enseñanza: Falencias en las formas de enseñar, ya sea en los
contenidosmuchas veces no actualizados, falta de nuevas metodologías de enseñanzay la falta de
enseñanza de las normas desde “el uso y funcionamiento” y no desde la repetición.
Desinterés en los alumnos: es notable por muchas razones el desinte´res de los alumnos en realizar
las tareas.
Considero que como docente e institución deberíamos:
- Cambiar las formas y metodologías de enseñanza según el grupo social que nos toca.
43
- Aprovechar las herramientas tecnológicas disponibles y los conocimientos de los
alumnos.
- Buscar de involucrar a los padres.
- Trabajar en una formación constante como docente, es decir, actualizarnos.
- Armar un currículo escolar donde ilustre una secuencia en los contenidos según los años,
ciclos e interdisciplina (escritura, oralidad y lectura).
- Poner al estudiante en el centro, sus realidades particulares.
- Trabajar desde sus conocimientos, su mochila y a partir de allí, avanzar con los nuevos
aprendizajes, siempre explicando desde sus funcionamientos sociales para que el
estudiante pueda entender el porqué de estos contenidos.
3.3
Interview to Débora Language teacher from EFA Santísima Trinidad
1) En el contexto geográfico en el que estamos insertos el idioma portugués tiene

mucha influencia, puesto que aparece la variedad lingüística denominada “portuñol”. Este
factor conlleva a que los estudiantes, en su mayoría, hablen constantemente en portugués y en
español, y mayormente en portuñol. Además, esa mayoría tiene como lengua materna el
portuñol. Por ello, el impacto en su rendimiento académico se hace muy notorio, la mezcla de
palabras entre los dos idiomas, la formación de nuevas palabras que no corresponden al
español y tampoco al portugués; en las cuatro macrohabilidades: leer, escribir, hablar y
escuchar, se observan las falencias gramaticales y léxicas. Por otra parte, se considera una
riqueza cultural saber más idiomas, además de la lengua estándar del país, pero en esta zona,
esto último, de manejar la lengua estándar, se observa en un número bajo de estudiantes que
ingresan al nivel medio; transmiten la sensación de que saben un poco de todo, a medias, y
no en profundidad; que manejan esos idiomas de manera superficial, sin reflexionar
mucho sobre el uso, dado que para ellos lo importante es que igual se los entiende si se
comunican de esa manera, entonces: ¿para qué van realizar el esfuerzo de consolidar saberes
y usar los idiomas por separado, sin mezclarlos, realizando un uso correcto de ambos?
2) Se observa que los estudiantes ingresan al nivel medio con ciertas falencias y/o
dificultades mayormente en la escritura, pero también en la lectura y en la oralidad. En el
caso de la escritura, las mezclas entre cursivas e imprentas, mayúsculas y minúsculas, faltas
de ortografía, signos de puntuación, confusión entre grafemas y fonemas, aparecen en un
nivel muy elevado. Con el transcurrir de los años, eso se está agravando; en cierto sentido,
por el uso de dispositivos móviles, apps de mensajería, videojuegos, y varias distracciones
disponibles en la web, que captan la atención de nuestros estudiantes, consume su tiempo, y
los lleva a resolver situaciones en pocos clics, sin pensar mucho; los conduce a entender que
todo es fácil, práctico y rápido. Cada vez se alejan más de la cultura del estudio, de entender
que los aprendizajes se alcanzan a través de un proceso que requiere lectura, tiempo,
dedicación, concentración, reflexión, estrategias de estudio, etc.
44
3) ¿Qué otros factores además del idioma inciden en el rendimiento académico de los
alumnos de primer año?
3) Además del idioma, otros factores que inciden en el rendimiento académico de
los estudiantes de primer año son: el hábito prácticamente nulo de leer, de practicar lectura,
de pensar a la hora de hablar, de revisar sus escritos, de dudar, de buscar definiciones en el
diccionario; en síntesis, el hábito de estudiar. Todos esos factores, también acarrean
dificultades de comprensión de consignas, de textos, en la capacidad de establecer relaciones,
de ejemplificar, etc.
4) Como escuela y como docentes, debemos trabajar más de manera

interdisciplinaria, enfocarnos en objetivos puntuales, proponer actividades que motiven y
despierten el interés en aprender; enseñar, guiar, acompañar y también analizar y evaluar el
logro de los aprendizajes; hallar los medios para que la mayoría o a lo mejor todos los
estudiantes alcancen aprendizajes completos, significativos y no se conformen con
aprendizajes segmentados, incompletos, que quizá ellos sentirán que son suficientes para ese
momento, pero no para aplicarlos más adelante, con el pasar del tiempo. Todo lo
mencionado, lo estamos implementando o lo venimos haciendo, pero siempre es bueno
reforzar, revisar, replantear nuestra práctica docente, detectar aquellas acciones que suman,
que aportan y reformular aquellas que no resultan. Desde el área le Lengua, se procura
favorecer el aprendizaje de todas las demás áreas del conocimiento, apuntando hacia el
alcance de una competencia lingüística que proporcione a los educandos una autonomía
intelectual para organizar sus propios procesos de construcción del conocimiento.
3.4
Interview to Leandra Science teacher in EFA Santísima Trinidad
1) ¿Crees que el portugués inside en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos?
El portugués incide en el rendimiento del alumno, principalmente en la escritura y en la

verbalización de los conocimientos, esto no significa que el idioma no sea una fortaleza que tiene la
persona… ¿sí? va a depender mucho de la exigencia que tenga el alumno y la familia en cuanto al
interés… ¿sí? Y la exigencia que él tenga del idioma español desde la casa, desde la primaria, desde
el inicio de su formación y lógicamente siempre fomentando la lectura y la escritura. ¿De esta
manera no tendría dificultades, pero tendría que ser bastante disciplinado para desarrollar estas
áreas, ¿no? Que comprende la lectura y la escritura.
Como fortaleza los alumnos tienen muchos recursos, se nota en el aula los recursos materiales que
traen en sus mochilas ya no son lo mismo que años anteriores. Son alumnos que manejan
tecnologías y participan mucho en clase. Se notan mejoras en cuanto al idioma español, ya son
grupos bastante diversos. Y hay un importante número de alumnos que si hablan el idioma el idioma
45
español. En cuanto a las dificultades, lo que observo año tras año es el conocimiento fracturado,
estructurado, encasillado en una materia o en un área, le sacas del contenido y relacionadas con el
ambiente o con el mundo en que vive…eh. Siente que nunca dio, que nunca escuchó, es porque
están acostumbrados a estudiar separado, matemática, por un lado; lengua por otro; biología por
otro; siento esta dificultad que hay que ir trabajando día a día en el aula. Y eso hace que ellos tengan
dificultades para tomar nota, por ejemplo, que todo tiene que estar estructurado. De tal manera
para que ya no se pierdan en el transcurso de una clase.
primer año?
En nuestra zona hay mucha dificultad en cuanto a la base que viene, los alumnos de la primaria…eh.
Es una base mínima donde dificulta el docente de la secundaria seguir una planificación, seguir un
diseño curricular. Y… eso…eh, con el tiempo se pueden minimizar, pero deja secuelas, digamos, en el
aprendizaje. Hay muchas herramientas que deberían ya manejar y no lo hacen ¿s?, y hay que
empezar de cero, digamos cuando se quiere lograr.
Otro factor son los canales televisivos que, si bien hubo en la zona mejoras, todavía sigue siendo un
factor limitante. Hay mucha influencia de informaciones de otro país y no de nuestro propio país.
Otra cuestión que sigue existiendo y en algunos puntos bastante fuerte. El tema de los tabús, las hay
familias que están bastante aferradas, digamos a tabús, y en ciertas áreas ciertos, ciertos temas
también se presentan muchas dificultades y desafíos.
En cuanto al punto número cuatro que deberíamos hacer como escuela y como docente de ayudar a
los alumnos, a mí me parece importante las capacitaciones involucrando a las familias. Porque
tienen un rol importantísimo en el rendimiento de los alumnos, principalmente en la lectura,
fomentar desde la casa la lectura, la investigación y nosotros desde la escuela orientar cuáles son las
fuentes confiables. También hacer trabajos en equipo que fortalece los conocimientos de grupos. Y
un punto fundamental importante es el nacionalismo en nuestra zona es un desafío, digamos llevar
adelante… tenemos mucha influencia del otro país y sería lindo e importante que la escuela también
trabaje sobre eso.
46
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Sessarego, Sandro y Melvin González-Rivera (eds.), New Perspectives on Hispanic Contact
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Final Research Project:

The Influence of Vernacular Portuguese in Secondary

Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación

Key words: Vernacular Portuguese, socio-cultural background, Linguistic competence,

Analysis and findings………………….…………………………………29

Interview with teachers…………………………………………………..38

Discussion and Conclusion………….……………………………..……..41

In his study Portuguese or Portuñol? Language contact in Misiones, Argentina, Lipski

Languages and Education

Subsequently and fortunately, I came across a colleague, a psychology teacher who

EFA Sma. Trinidad.

EFA Espíritu Santo

Type of TV programs watched at home

EFA Santísima Trinidad

Tipo de programas de TV que miran en tu casa

EFA Espiritu Santo

Programas que más miran

The type of reading they prefer is expressed bellow

Efa Santísima Trinidad

Material de lectura preferido

Efa Espíritu Santo

Content watched on mobile phones

google Tik tok

EFA Sma. Trinidad

EFA Espíritu Santo

ANALYSIS AND FINGINGS ABOUT THE SURVEY

EFA SMA TRIN

PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

EFA Espíritu Santo

Analysis about students’ performance in English

INTERVIEW WITH TEACHERS

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Si contestaste sí en la pregunta anterior contesta las siguientes preguntas.

idioma hablado en casa y con tus amigos

Efa Espíritu Santo

Idioma que hablan en casa y con amigos

Español Portuñol Portugués

tiempo dedicado a la lectura

tiempo dedicado a la lectura

Tiempo dedicado a la lectura

tiempo dedicado a la lectura

1.4 EFA Sma. Trinidad

1.4 EFA Espíritu Santo

c) Ella me preguntó “Cuál es tu grupo sanguíneo?” y yo no supe

e) What´s your favourite color

1) ¿Crees que el portugués incide en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos?

2) ¿Qué características comunes ves en los ingresantes de primer año? Dificultades,

Las tecnologías: la circulación en las redes sociales de información de manera fragmentada o

Los padres: la ausencia en el acompañamiento de su trayectoria escolar por razones particulares.

Considero que como docente e institución deberíamos:

Interview to Débora Language teacher from EFA Santísima Trinidad

1) ¿Crees que el portugués incide en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos?

1) En el contexto geográfico en el que estamos insertos el idioma portugués tiene

4) Como escuela y como docentes, debemos trabajar más de manera

1) ¿Crees que el portugués inside en el rendimiento académico de los alumnos?

El portugués incide en el rendimiento del alumno, principalmente en la escritura y en la

Becker R. (2001) Spanish-English Code Switching in A Bilingual Academic Context

students of Federal University Dutsinma. https://www.projectreserve.com/2018/01/the-role-

Carissini da Maia I. (2022) Estudio sociolingüístico del portugués que se habla en la

Cerno, L. (2019) Portugués, español, alemán y brasilero. lenguas y variedades en contacto en

Contusi D. (2013) Lengua y derechos. políticas de educación bilingüe en la escuela n.°2 de

Contursi D. (2019) Construcciones identitarias a través de la lengua en la triple

Fromkin,,V; Rodman, R; Hyams,N (10th ed.) (2014) An introduction to Language. Calder