The role of additional language competence in the internationalization of Brazilian Graduate Programs according to CAPES’assessment documents

In Brazil, the Coordination for the Advancement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) is responsible for assessing the graduate programs in the country in terms of the education and research delivered, including their level of internationalization. Considering the internationalization process and co...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Esperandio, Isabela Beraldi, Sarmento, Simone
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Repositorio:ETD - Educação Temática Digital
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8676719
Acesso em linha:https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/etd/article/view/8676719
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Internationalization
Languages
postgraduate education
Quality control
Internacionalização
Línguas
Pós-graduação
Avaliação da qualidade da educação
Internacionalización
Lenguas
Posgrado
Evaluación de la calidad de la educación
Descrição
Resumo:In Brazil, the Coordination for the Advancement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) is responsible for assessing the graduate programs in the country in terms of the education and research delivered, including their level of internationalization. Considering the internationalization process and competencies in additional languages as intertwined, this paper analyzes CAPES’ assessment documents regarding the role of additional languages in the internationalization of Brazilian graduate programs. The documents were coded, with the help of NVivo, according to a pre-designed coding system, and the different weights given to internationalization in the assessment were recorded. Differences were noted between the three broad disciplinary areas – Life Sciences; Humanities; and Exact, Technological, and Multidisciplinary Sciences – in the weight assigned to internationalization and the coding presence. The results show that activities specifically related to the teaching or learning additional languages or additional language proficiency are not priorities for the disciplinary areas. Therefore, in order to receive high grades in CAPES’ assessment, graduate programs are expected to reach a high level of internationalization without, however, being evaluated by how much effort they are investing to improve the level of additional language proficiency of their faculty and students, which does not reflect the close connection existing between the internationalization process and competencies in additional languages.