THE BILINGUAL LITERACY ROAD TO ACADEMIC SUCCESS: A STUDY OF THE "GLOCALIZED" LITERACY PROGRAMS THAT ARE CHANGING THE EDUCATIONAL SCENARIO IN BRAZIL

In the past 15 years a significantly growing number of bilingual institutions have been brought into the Brazilian educational scenario, notably in the capital cities of the 26 federal states, the strongest economical and cultural centers of the country. Such private institutions have as their main educational purpose, the development of citizens aware of their important roles both in the local and global societies. Knowledge and communication as well as cultural identity and global performance are the main issues approached in these programs based on an intensive literacy instruction for the development of the speaking, reading and writing skills. By promoting more interdisciplinary teaching-learning strategies, these "new" private Brazilian bilingual school projects have been having a strong and positive effect upon the country's private education sector, therefore somehow leading the scenario of education in Brazil to a desirable progressive turning point.

The aim of this presentation is to report and discuss the practical and research-based findings as well as the pedagogical implications of this "bilingual literacy road to academic success" adopted by the bilingual schools in Brazil.

A case study of a project implemented in a bilingual school in the capital city of São Paulo ; a project entitled A escola de Raimundo - cidadão do mundo (The school of Raimundo – a global citizen) will be presented to introduce and illustrate the linguistic and educational concepts of bilinguality , glocalized cultural identity, local language of instructions (LLI) and global language of instruction (GLI).