Conversation, fundamentals of grammar, pronunciation, reading, and writing.
Athena Title
Elementary Portuguese
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will be able to engage in interpersonal communication in Portuguese about personal routines, ongoing activities, and plans, demonstrating accurate and level appropriate use of vocabulary, verb tenses, and sentence structures in both oral and written communication. Through guided conversations, pair and group activities, students will initiate, sustain, and respond to interactions regarding everyday contexts.
Students will be able to use communication strategies to handle essential real-life situations. By engaging in interactive tasks, such as writing a letter in response to a pen friend or an email to a study abroad director, students will be able to communicate their needs in an organized manner while demonstrating cultural awareness.
Students will be able to demonstrate awareness of Brazilian geography and culture, drawing comparisons with their own culture, especially regarding different regions and end-of-year traditions in Brazil. Through the delivery of oral presentations in Portuguese, students will demonstrate level appropriate use of language and cultural understanding to convey information, make comparisons, and discuss cultural practices across contexts.
Students will engage in group activities to compare/contrast Brazilian cultural practices with their own, developing awareness of cultural differences. By engaging with course materials and tasks through guided interpersonal communication, students will evaluate stereotypes about Brazilian culture, especially regarding family structure, holidays’ practices, and shopping.
Students will be able to reflect on their own progress by reviewing feedback from instructors and peers, identifying strategies to improve pronunciation, grammar, and fluency.
Students will demonstrate familiarity with vocabulary related to their field of study.
Topical Outline
Language issues: ar, er, ir verbs in present, past, future. Irregular verbs in present, past, future.
Contrastive cultural topics, concepts of time, family, social situations, numbers, cultural comparisons of family, school etc.
