20 2 Teaching Portuguese as a Heritage Language in Montreal Fabio Scetti Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III McGill University In a context of globalization where languages are regarded as an added value in economic terms (Duchêne & Heller, 2012), the Portuguese language is presently reinforcing its position internationally, leading its historical dominion over the five continents. In fact, a study conducted in Portugal about the economic potential of Portuguese, underlines the importance of Portuguese in the world as it is currently spoken by around 250 million speakers, or 3.7% of the world's population (Reto, 2012). Meanwhile, in terms of communication, Portuguese is the fifth most used language on the Internet (Statistics ITU, 2016) and the language may become a real tool for business in the future, which reinforces its presence in terms of education, from school to universities, in Portuguese-speaking countries as well as in non-Portuguese-speaking countries. In East Asia, for instance, the promotion of Portuguese in education has increased (Matos, 2016; Araújo, 2008). In fact, institutions such as Instituto Camões, IPOR or IILP within the actions of CPLP, together with public and private institutions such as language schools and universities, have played an important role in promoting the Portuguese language and culture abroad. Since 2005, QuaREPE (Quadro de Referência para o Ensino do Português no Estrangeiro) (Grosso & al., 2011) was created in order to consider the diversity of contexts and learners where Portuguese is taught (Silva, 2016). Considering this phenomenon, it is important to highlight how Portuguese is taught within migrant communities of the diaspora, envisioning for their members the maintenance of the identity of these communities through time. I suggest that in order to describe how Portuguese, being a Heritage Language (HL), is maintained and promoted in Montreal through the impulse of the local community, it is necessary to explain how the economic and commercial environment of our globalized era has influenced its spread. Furthermore, in analysing discourses about language, its status within the group, its position and practices, I aim to