The first presentation of this panel will be done by João Marcos. In his presentation, Marcos is interested in the intersection of theoretical and philosophical discussions related to language to illuminate and complexify classroom discussions. While trying to teach Portuguese intermediary speakers literature and language, Marcos had an impasse: much of the sensibility towards literary creation is apprehended by an immersion unto the subjectiveness of the self, hence, they had to develop a greater self-awareness of their own inclinations towards style to work in a meaningful level with a wide range of original texts. Thus, he proposed a conjunction of two different scholar traditions in the classroom: at the same time that I submitted the students in Roland Barthes’s (1982) effort in talking about aesthetical appreciation without using adjectives, he also used Barbara Rosenwein (2006) linguistic approach to history of emotions in which she proposed to closely discriminate the words regarding to the performance of an emotion. In his assessment, Marcos found that the activities showed to improve both student’s vocabulary and understanding of literary analysis. Moreover, because they were so immersed under the debate on emotions and feelings, they were simultaneously capable: to have a meaningful input into the idea that Portuguese speakers are more emotional beings; to express significant criticism under many cultural theories on Emotions and Brazil; to significantly enhance their vocabulary and writing skills; and to be particularly more self-aware when in conversations.
The second presentation of the panel, performed by Nuno Brito seeks to integrate music in the context of teaching Portuguese language and cultures. Brito is interested in the use music in the classroom, more specifically, in the context of advanced Portuguese language courses. He is also looking at the use of music in the context of culture courses of the Lusophone countries. Using his experience at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese the University of California, Santa Barbara, Brito has developed his courses, more specifically Portuguese advanced grammar and composition 1 and 2, around music as cultural expression and medium for discussions of the cultures of the Portuguese speaking countries. In this presentation, Brito also seeks to reflect on how music can serve as a starting point for creative writing exercises that allow thinking and using more creatively the structures of different language registers.
The third presentation, by Professor Renato Alvim, introduces his authored projects Partner Language Exchange and Partner Culture Exchange, in which both language and cultural aspects of Portuguese are practiced through a series of interviews amongst his students and students from two different universities. The projects are structured using backward design to privilege learning outcomes associated with both Portuguese language and cultural aspects of Portuguese-speaking cultures as participants include learners of different levels of proficiency as well as native speakers from Brazil.
The last presentation, by Professor Marcus Brasileiro, aims to reflect on an ongoing project (Projeto Outras Palavras) produced with students from the Portuguese program at Utah State University. This project is characterized by the development of a translation metodology that seeks to translate a series of contemporary Brazilian chronicles. Using a group project aproach, Outras Palavras is implemented as part of the Introduction to Translation Studies in Portuguese course, offered every Fall semester at USU. In this course, students are introduced to theoretical and practical concerns related to the translation process in general - and to the literary translation in specific terms - in order to broaden their linguistic, cultural and literary knowledge of both Portuguese and English languages. The objective of Brasileiros’s presentation is to reflect on the pedagogical systematization developed for the course in order to point out the challenges and achievements that such methodology entails.