The present study assesses the linguistic development of Portuguese-Umbundu bilingual speakers in Angola by focusing on the production of plural forms. In particular, we analyse if changes in the degree of language exposure, after entering into the school, favor the occurrence of attrition in Umbundu, the home language, in parallel to the development of Portuguese, the dominant school language. A group of 28 bilingual students (14 3rd grade primary school students and 14 teenagers attending the 9th grade) and 28 age-matched monolingual speakers of Portuguese participated in a picture-based oral production elicitation task. The results show that the 3rd grade students have more difficulties in producing the plural in Portuguese, especially in situations where they have to apply particular rules (e.g. replace -ão with -ões), compared to Umbundu, the language that forms the plural by changing nominal classes. However, older students (9th graders) show more difficulties in forming the plural in Umbundu. Although this is not a longitudinal study, the data suggest that the change in the degree of language exposure, as a consequence of schooling in Portuguese, may have contributed to this inversion, which leads us to infer that the family language is vulnerable to attrition effects.

In this study we reflect on the teaching of Portuguese language in the Angolan schools. We assessed primary and secondary students knowledge at the end of their high school, regarding the processing and use of pronominal clitics. We seek to understand the teachers attitude throughout the development of their classes and their influence on student learning. Therefore, we administered a grammar judgment test, a correction of sentences and pronominalization, two questionnaires (one to 62 students and one to 10 Portuguese language teachers) and we observed 10 classes. As a result, it was found that more than a half of the students are unaware of the standard form of pronominal clitics placement and have greater difficulty in processing the mesoclisis, in recognizing elements that favour the occurrence of the proclisis, and in replacing terms with pronouns, in sentences where the verbal form ends in consonant. Even though, teachers use the European grammar model in their lessons as regulated, which further inhibits students’ willingness to participate in classroom discussions. As a methodological suggestion, we use the grammar workshop method proposed by Duarte (1991, 1997, 2008), with the respective adaptations.

Este estudo é um contributo para a discussão sobre o futuro da língua portuguesa e a constituição de uma norma em Angola. Através de um questionário aplicado a 335 participantes, entre professores e estudantes do ensino superior, foi possível verificar a perceção destes informantes sobre o assunto; os resultados evidenciam diversas atitudes e sentimentos em relação à variedade não padronizada do português falado em angola, sendo que uma parte significativa destes participantes a considera errada e, por isso, deva ser abandonada, em detrimento do padrão europeu, e outra considera que, apesar de não corresponder ao ideal, é nela que se devem basear os angolanos para a constituição da sua norma. Conclui-se, recomendando estudos representativos um pouco por todo o país para constituir uma norma.