%0 Journal Article %T Ensino e aprendizagem do Portugu¨ºs L¨ªngua N o Materna: necessidades e representa es dos alunos %A Carolina Gon£¿alves %J Revista Portuguesa de Educa£¿£¿o %D 2012 %I Universidade do Minho %X It's extremely relevant that teachers know the needs and interests of students with whom they work daily in the sense that they are the main focus of learning development. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present to everyone concerned with education, specially teachers, the representations and needs that students of African origin when learning the language spoken at school, as a curricular subject in 3rd Cycle of Basic Education. Besides that, it is also important to highlight the influence that language development has on other curricular subjects. In this paper we will present a study carried out with students, in order to give an account of their opinions on how to improve their language proficiency. We will also present student¡¯s suggestions of what can be done to improve their learning experience in language class as well as in other classes. %U http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37425191005