Goldsmiths - University of London

Ana Souza PhD

Email: geb.anasouza@yahoo.co.uk
Ana Souza is a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is involved in the ‘Becoming Literate in Faith Settings’ project, which is co-ordinated by Professor Eve Gregory. Besides supporting the team, Ana develops her own research on the issues of language and identity in three Brazilian faith settings: Catholic, Pentecostal and Kardecist. Ana has also been involved in the ‘Creativity in the community languages classroom: pedagogies and professional development’ project, which is co-ordinated by Dr Jim Anderson.

Ana graduated in Language Teaching and Translation (Portuguese/English) in Brazil, where she taught EFL for 10 years. She did her MA in English Language Teaching at Thames Valley University, London. She has taught ESOL and Portuguese in London and is regularly invited to present workshops to the Brazilian community on bilingualism and issues about the language and identity of immigrant mothers and their children.

Ana is a member of the Community Languages Research Group, whose convenor is Dr Charmian Kenner. She is also a co-founder of ABRIR, the Brazilian Association of Educational Projects in the UK, which supports the teaching of Portuguese to adults and children in the UK and the teaching of English to Brazilian immigrants.

Ana's research is in the field of bilingualism, code-switching, community language schools, language and identity. She completed her doctoral study at the University of Southampton and her thesis is entitled “Should I speak Portuguese or English?” - Ethnic and social identity construction in the language choices of Brazilian mothers and their mixed-heritage children at home and in a community language school in the UK'.

Ana’s work has been presented in conferences such as BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics), ACIS (Association of Contemporary Iberian Studies), ICML (International Conference of Minority Languages), Sociolinguistics Symposium and International Conference of Portuguese-speaking Diaspora.

Major Publications

(2010) ‘O Papel da Familia e de Organizacoes Civis no Ensino de Portugues para Criancas (Anglo) Brasileiras’ In Revista Travessia, São Carlos-SP: Centro de Estudos Migratórios

(2010) ‘Migrant Languages in a Multi-Ethnic Scenario: Brazilian Portuguese in London’ in Portuguese Studies, vol 26, number 1, pp. 79-93

(2010) ‘Language choice and identity negotiations in a Brazilian Portuguese community school’ in Lytra, V. & Martin, P. (eds) Sites of Multilingualism: Complementary Schools in Britain Today, London: Trentham, pp. 97-107

(2008) ‘How Linguistic and Cultural Identities Are Affected by Migration’ in Language Issues, London: NATECLA, vol 19, number 1, pp. 36-42