"Truly Bilingual": An Analysis of Discourses on Bilingual Education in Private Schools in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the discourses embedded in advertisements produced by private bilingual schools in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, through the lens of Foucauldian discourse studies. First, the concepts of bilingualism and bilingual education are discussed in order to provide an overview of the relationships and possibilities within these categories, contextualizing their practices and implications in the Brazilian educational landscape. Next, the theoretical and methodological framework is presented, highlighting the notions of power, knowledge, and truth production as mechanisms of control (Foucault, 2007), while also examining the relationship between power and language in order to understand the discursive practices under investigation. Finally, the study analyzes advertising materials published by private bilingual schools in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, on Instagram. The advertisements were selected according to predefined criteria, including the recurrence of specific terms, meanings, and keywords. The findings indicate that these advertisements constitute discourses that reinforce particular power relations, ideals of success and exclusivity, and contribute to the construction of meanings surrounding bilingual education and its subjects.