Learning Portuguese Research Articles

Venezuelan migration to Brazil: teachers and students co-constructing multicultural education inside classrooms

PurposeThis study aims to show the complexities of engagement between students - Venezuelan and Brazilian - and their teachers. This qualitative ethnographic study documents the everyday pedagogies and practices that take place in elementary schools with high levels of refugee and immigrant children. While Brazilian law ensures the basic right to public education, forbidding discrimination based on nationality or immigration status (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação, 1996), the barriers remain. Through the frameworks of multicultural (USA) and intercultural (Brazil) education, this paper shows how Brazilian teachers and students of Venezuelan and Brazilian backgrounds engage, learn from one another and build welcoming spaces, but also how stereotypes are reinforced inside classrooms and schools.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative study uses ethnography to understand how recent Venezuelan migratory flow influences Brazilian and Venezuelan children’s educational experiences in elementary education. Participants were Venezuelan (N = 57) and Brazilian (N = 76) children in two elementary schools in the city of Boa Vista. Data sources for the study are school observations in four elementary classrooms (1st and 2nd grade) and semi-structured interviews with caregivers, teachers, administrators and other educators. This paper also collected children’s drawings and writings and documents like curricula, strategic planning, guidelines, policies, grades, reports and any other textual or photographic material made available at the city level.FindingsIn the field of education, there is a critical need for understanding children’s education experiences. This paper focuses on the experiences of teachers and students in two elementary schools in Brazil. This paper focus on two findings: first that teachers promote the learning of Portuguese to show care toward their Venezuelan students. Second, children in the classroom show solidarity with one another and resist some of the more rigid Portuguese-only practices enacted by teachers. This work uses the frameworks of intercultural (more commonly used in Brazil) and multicultural education to inform the analysis.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, this paper puts these frameworks of interculturalism, multiculturalism, language use and solidarity into conversation to understand the dynamics of two elementary classrooms in the city of Boa Vista, Brazil. While this paper shows the shortcomings of a seemingly multicultural and multilanguage classroom, it also shows how children actively resist the rigidity of teaching and learning in elementary schooling.Originality/valueThis study is a response both to the increasing South–South migration trend in Latin America and its consequences on public education systems. Through multicultural and intercultural lenses, this research highlighted the complexity of interactions within multicultural classrooms by delving into a two-year ethnographic study conducted in Boa Vista, Brazil, focusing on Venezuelan and Brazilian children in two local elementary schools. This paper focused on two main observations this paper refers to as “Teaching Portuguese as a Way of Caring” and “Children's Solidarity Work.” Teachers primarily centered their instruction on teaching Portuguese to migrant children, believing it to lead to quicker integration in the classroom and beyond – thus as a way of caring for their migrant students.

Statistical Insignificance is not wholesale transfer in L3 Acquisition: an approximate replication of Rothman (2011)

Abstract This study was an approximate replication of Rothman (2011),examining the determiner phrase syntax of a large sample (n = 211) of L3 learners of Portuguese who spoke English and Spanish. Rothman (2011) investigated whether L3 Italian or Brazilian Portuguese speakers are differently impacted by another known Romance Language, if it was their L1 or L2. The original study concluded that groups did not perform differently on experimental tasks on the basis of a null effect, and that the typological similarity of Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian predicts transfer in the initial stages of L3 acquisition. The present replication recreated all materials, which were unavailable, and examined the same population and questions. However, rather than examining L3 Italian and L3 Brazilian Portuguese, the present work maintained a constant L3 Portuguese. Learners were divided into two groups in a mirror-image design (n = 96 L1 English-L2 Spanish, n = 115 L1 Spanish-L2 English), and data were collected online. Like the original study, there was no main effect of group in any of the two-way analyses of variance. However, results show that it should not be assumed that experimental groups behave equivalently based on a null effect: Of the four total post hoc tests of equivalence, only two were significant when the equivalence bounds were set at a small effect size (d = $ \pm $ .4). Ultimately, it is argued that determining the smallest effect size of interest and subsequent equivalence testing are necessary to answer key questions in the field of L3 acquisition.

“(Not) the same as it was”: Parents’ and teachers’ perception of the impact of COVID-19 on a bilingual elementary program

This article examines teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning on the implementation of a Portuguese-English Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) program in an elementary school in the U.S. Drawing on the literature on language orientations and in/equity in DLBE, this study hones in on the results of two surveys, involving 66 parents and 18 teachers, conducted as part of a three-year mixed-methods project. Our analysis points to the contrasting perceptions of parents regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their children’s education. English-speaking parents believed that the benefits of DLBE such as foreign language learning diminished, leading some to withdraw their children from the program. In contrast, Portuguese-speaking parents expressed commitment to the program and vouched for its positive impact on their children’s learning of Portuguese and English during the pandemic. Teachers reported the negative impacts of remote learning on all students’ language learning, but Portuguese-speaking students were perceived as struggling more due to a lack of parental support. This study contributes to research on in/equity in DLBE by showcasing how varying perceptions of parents and teachers during a crisis can accentuate inequitable dynamics for racialized bilingual students and families.

THE INCLUSION PROCESS IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

In this qualitative study conducted with 11 Latin American migrant children and adolescents who are students in the basic education network in the city of Rio de Janeiro, our aim is to understand how the group develops inclusion strategies within the school environment. We hereby seek to understand the broader insights that these strategies may provide regarding the migration experience of this community in Brazil. Initially, we discuss the distinction between including and integrating migrants. Subsequently, we propose an intercultural methodology, child-centered approach and grounded on Socio-Historical Psychology, for analyzing such phenomenon. Finally, we identify and discuss three inclusion strategies that the participants mobilize in their interaction with peers, teachers, and the Brazilian social context: marking of differences, attempting to blend into the group, and demanding equity. These strategies provide us with indications of their initial impressions in Brazil, challenges of their inclusion in the school, and the challenges faced when learning Portuguese.

As Semelhanças e Diferenças Semânticas: Uma Análise contrastiva do Futuro Simples em Português Europeu e o advérbio temporal “jiang” em Chinês

This study aims to describe the semantic properties that characterize the Future Simple tense in European Portuguese, considering its complex nature, which encompasses both modal and temporal aspects. In contrast, in the Chinese language, there is not the same compatibility between the use of morphological tense and interphrasal communication. In this regard, we propose to conduct a contrastive analysis with its counterpart in Chinese, the temporal adverb "jiāng" based on corpus comparison, to identify possible convergences and discrepancies, weighting the hypothesis of potential changes in its linguistic behavior. This study contributes to the understanding of semantic nuances between the two languages and to improve the teaching and learning of Portuguese and Chinese.

O ensino eficaz do Português como Língua Estrangeira na educação infantil: estratégias comunicativas, mediadores pedagógicos e realia

This work discusses didactic strategies - based on the Communicative and Competency – based Approach – and the use of authentic materials to promote the Meaningful Learning of Portuguese as Foreign Language in early childhood to stimulate the development of the Intelligence Quotient and the Executive Functions. Considering the contributions of Sociocultural Constructivism and Conversational Pragmatics, we propose playful collaborative activities based on the use of webtools and realia to expose students to authenticity of the language and encourage the zone of proximal development, fundamental in the process of learning a foreign language.

Portuguese language learning and capital access: a study on university students in Macau

This paper reports on an inquiry into a group of students’ Portuguese language learning with a focus on their access to economic, social, and cultural capital. The inquiry problematizes the traditional uncritical assumption of a shared pursuit of linguistic competence among students. Drawing on individual in-depth interviews with 14 participants at a university in Macau, this article illustrates how local and mainland Chinese students related their Portuguese language learning to the acquisition of different forms of capital, respectively. Specifically, our analysis reveals that economic capital dominated in the local participants’ pursuits, with cultural and social capital being less influential, whereas among mainland Chinese participants the influence of economic capital was weak and unsustainable, with a balanced distribution of cultural and social capital. The findings also suggest that the participants’ family contexts and social networks shaped their pursuits of different forms of capital in Portuguese learning, implying that educational institutions and teachers need to reframe their learning resources and pedagogical strategies for Portuguese language learners in Macau, placing greater emphasis on reinforcing students’ social connections with Portuguese or local Macanese communities.

A Case Study of Chinese University Students' Portuguese Learning Strategies in a Multilingual Environment in Macau

Aiming at the phenomenon of a large number of Chinese students studying in Macao in recent years, this study investigates the language learning strategy behaviours of two Chinese international students at University A in Macao as well as two mainland students who went to Macao for a one-year exchange as case studies. Based on the relevant theories of second language acquisition, the interviews and observation records were qualitatively analysed, and the characteristics of Chinese international students' implementation of language learning strategies in a multilingual environment and the related influences were explored. The findings suggest that language learning strategy behaviour is a dynamic process of continuous interaction between the learning context and individual learners, reflecting individual variability and uncertainty. International students need to weigh the relationship between Portuguese and English learning strategies, and to complement each other's strengths in order to improve their learning strategies. Students who come to study in Macau should make full use of the multilingual environment in order to obtain the positive effects of this environment.

A comparative analysis of online English language dictionaries and online Portuguese language dictionaries from the perspective of learning Portuguese as a foreign language

There are studies that have analysed Portuguese language dictionaries and that have highlighted the importance of the presence of examples in dictionaries (Santiago, 2012; Lu, 2018). Owing to this importance, it was decided to compare the frequencies of examples of two sets of words, namely, contrastive words and verbs that may convey recommendation or advice. These frequencies were obtained from a sample of the main body of Portuguese language dictionaries that are available online and from a sample of the main body of online English language dictionaries that have an orientation towards learning English as a foreign language. This comparison was carried out by using a search bar and a software application created by the author. From the analyses of the data which had been collected, it was argued that, in some cases, learners of Portuguese as a foreign language would have to make use of other sources of examples to learn to use the target words. On the other hand, in similar cases, the need to use sources of examples apart from those presented in the main body of the target English language dictionaries, while learning the English language, could be reduced. The pedagogical implications of this argument for learning and teaching Portuguese as a foreign language were presented. The limitations of the present study and future research possibilities were also discussed.

Efeitos do realce do input no noticing e na aprendizagem da gramática em PLE: um estudo de rastreamento ocular

This work aims to investigate the effects of input enhancement vs. input flood on noticing and grammatical development in Chinese learners of Portuguese as a foreign language. Thirty-six participants were divided in two groups: the experimental group (n = 18) performed a reading task with enhanced input and the control group (n = 18) read the same text without enhancement. The target form was the present subjunctive used in three specific contexts. A pretest/ posttest design was used, and four eye tracking measures were selected (first fixation duration, gaze duration, total fixation duration and fixation count). Grammar correction increased significantly in the posttest of both groups. In the unenhanced group (i.e., input flood group) learners’ noticing on the target-form was significantly higher through first fixation duration. Thus, the input enhancement hypothesis (Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993) was not confirmed, as enhancement did not promote noticing nor a deeper processing of the input. Pedagogical implications of this research are discussed.

Social networking and cultural identity among language minority learners of Portuguese during study abroad

Abstract Research in intercultural communication studies has demonstrated that social networking (SN) can affect language minority learners’ cultural adaptation/identity process. Furthermore, internet usage preferences play an important role in the cultural adaptation of mobility groups. Drawing on these two lines of development, the current paper aims to further examine the role of SN in the home and host cultural adaptation/identity process of Chinese language-minority learners in Portugal. Through collecting and analyzing questionnaires focusing on three cultural identity dimensions, participants’ use of SN for academic purposes, and their cultural adaptation and language minority learning, we found that the affordances provided by SN contribute positively to enhancing both the host and the home cultural identity. Furthermore, the academic purpose of language use on SN indicated a positive relationship between the use of SN and cultural identity. The findings shed new light on factors that influence participants’ Portuguese language learning during study abroad.

Exploring the motivational profiles of Macao Portuguese LOTE learners: a tale of eight local adult learners

ABSTRACT While the chronological dimension of L2 motivation has been widely emphasised, there is little empirical research examining the context-based and dynamic languages other than English (LOTEs) motivational profiles. To fill this lacuna, the current study investigated the motivational trajectories of eight local adult learners of Portuguese in Macao with reference to the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, informal interviews and written journals. The findings indicate that Portuguese learning experience is of great importance in LOTE motivation. The convergence of the instrumentality of Portuguese for future career and the interest in Portuguese culture played a significant role in sustaining LOTE motivation. The findings further reveal that active personal engagement and metacognitive strategies use are two main motivating components in LOTE learning experience. The study sheds new light on the complexity of LOTE motivation.

Language immersion effects in the use of tú and usted by L1-French and L1-European Portuguese learners of Spanish

AbstractThe use of the Spanish pronouns of address tú and usted is an intricate matter for L2 learners due to the many factors that influence their selection at the discourse and interactional level. Although the literature has traditionally focused on the challenges experienced by L1-English learners of L2-Spanish in learning these forms, less is known about speakers whose L1s also present similar (but not identical) pronouns of address. This study thus analyzes the use of tú and usted by L1-French and L1-European Portuguese learners who learn Spanish either in their home countries (i.e., France and Portugal) or in Spain as part of a study-abroad experience. Results indicate that learners in both L1 groups used tú more often while in Spain than in their home country. Additionally, students in immersion started adopting more similar criteria to those of L1-Spanish speakers in determining whether tú or usted would be appropriate in certain contexts.

Refugee “calouros” during the Covid-19 pandemic: effects on Portuguese learning in higher education in Brazil

ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the problems faced by refugee students during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer semester 2020) as calouros, i.e. freshmen during their first year, in a public university in Brazil. Through a content analysis of their personal accounts, collected electronically by their teacher of Portuguese for academic purposes (the first author), we describe how five students (a Syrian, two Haitians, a Venezuelan and a Togolese refugees) (re)visit their experiences, in which several dynamics intersect: being ‘calouro’, being refugee students, learning the shelter language in loco, and experiencing social distancing due to the closing of universities. Because learning the language of the host country is not the only factor affected by the pandemic, we also observe how language learning (settings) intersect with other aspects characterising the refugee status: housing conditions, availability of learning materials, and the uncertainty attached to the present and future of their own lives and of other family members.

The role of resumption in the acquisition of European Portuguese prepositional relative clauses by Chinese learners

This article reports on an experimental study on the acquisition of prepositional relative clauses in second language European Portuguese by Chinese native speakers. It focuses on the role of resumption, mandatory in prepositional relative clauses in Chinese (the native language of the learners) and non-conventional in European Portuguese (the target language). Results of an oral production task and two online acceptability judgment tasks indicated that resumption does not transfer from the native language, and that Chinese learners of European Portuguese employ movement structures to produce and process relative clauses. Additionally, results showed that resumptive pronouns do not rescue or ameliorate ungrammatical extractions from islands, contrary to what is traditionally assumed in grammatical theory. This finding was kept constant across participants, native and non-native. Overall, we conclude that second language speakers are able to select and reassemble movement features in their non-native language and use similar processing mechanisms as native speakers to analyse island configurations.

Increasing the reasoning demands of a task and task sequencing on the oral production of Chinese learners of Portuguese as a foreign language

RESUMO Este estudo teve dois objetivos: (1) investigar o impacto do aumento das exigências de raciocínio de uma tarefa narrativa monológica no desempenho oral de aprendizes chineses de português como língua estrangeira e (2) testar o modelo pedagógico Simplificação Estabilização Automatização Reestruturação e Complexificação da Hipótese da Cognição (Robinson, 2010, 2011, 2015). Neste trabalho, participaram 52 aprendizes universitários de Português como Língua Estrangeira (PLE). Foram feitas duas comparações: (1) uma intrassujeitos, que implicou o desempenho de duas tarefas (simples e complexa) em duas condições (sequenciação simples-complexa/sequenciação complexa-simples) e (2) intersujeitos, que pressupôs a realização das duas tarefas na sequenciação simples-complexa vs. o desempenho individual de uma das tarefas (tarefa simples ou tarefa complexa). Foram usadas medidas de complexidade linguística, correção e fluência para quantificar a produção oral. A Hipótese da Cognição foi parcialmente confirmada, uma vez que os resultados demonstraram que o aumento da complexidade cognitiva da tarefa afetou positivamente a correção, a diversidade lexical e a produção de orações coordenadas, mas com efeito negativo no tamanho das orações. O desempenho de tarefas na sequenciação simples-complexa teve um impacto positivo na correção.

Malaysian university students’ mental images of Portuguese-speaking countries and their motivations to learn Portuguese

This study investigated the mental images of Portuguese-speaking countries held by 91 students learning Portuguese in two large public universities in Malaysia. It also explored the factors that motivated them to learn Portuguese. This is the first such study to present findings on the mental images associated with Portuguese-speaking countries apart from Portugal and Brazil. The data analysis revealed that the students held a wide array of images of Portugal. The country was strongly associated in their minds with football, food, and the shared history of Malaysia and Portugal. The images of Portuguese-speaking countries, with the exception of Brazil, were less diverse and were at times erroneous. The students’ main motivation for learning Portuguese was to broaden knowledge about Portuguese-speaking countries. The students were also interested in learning more foreign languages. The findings suggest that the images of the target language countries had some influence on the language learners’ choice to learn Portuguese. The pedagogical implications of these findings are also discussed.

“Poder” and “Conseguir”: A Study on their Usage by Learners of Brazilian Portuguese

Resumo Estuda-se neste trabalho o uso dos verbos “poder” e “conseguir” entre aprendizes de nível básico de português como língua estrangeira (PLE). Esses verbos em contexto são discutidos sob uma perspectiva semântico-pragmática, sob a luz de teorias modais como as de Kratzer (1977; 1981; 1991; 2008; 2012) e outros, além de noções clássicas de “accomplishment” e de “achievement”, conforme Vendler (1957; 1967), Dowty (1979), Abusch (1985) e Smith (1997). Pelo fato de o par de línguas português brasileiro (PB) e espanhol divergirem em vários aspectos, o objetivo é verificar se ocorre ou não uma transferência não facilitadora do espanhol para o português, conforme Cabrelli et al. (2020). Analisados exemplos de sala de aula, o estudo sugere a possibilidade de adoção de práticas de awareness raising sobre essas diferenças entre o PB e o espanhol para que os aprendizes possam utilizar essas formas de modo apropriado conforme o contexto de uso.

Entre a invisibilidade, o branqueamento discursivo e a hipersexualização: imagens de controle sobre o termo negro e o seu lugar na enunciação

ABSTRACT Based on the statements that (1) the word in interaction manifests itself as an ideological sign, oriented to a precise social audience, circumscribed in a given historical time; (2) that race is a language and (3) that geographic displacement involves a clash between different systems of meaning, I interpret data from the cultural translation process for the term black [negro, in Portuguese], based on the enunciations of two Portuguese language learners in a course for immigrant mothers held in Southern Brazil. The data presented were generated as part of an ongoing ethnographic investigation.1 The discussion points to controlling images that persist in the social imaginary from effacement procedures, discursive whitening and hypersexualization of the term negro [black]. Data also reveals that the processes of attributing meanings around race are in full dispute in the current socio-historical context.

Telecollaboration and Linguistic Gains in Postsecondary Non-Native Portuguese Learning

This study sought to investigate linguistic gains and crosslinguistic influence (CLI) from English and Spanish on the oral production of postsecondary L3 Portuguese learners, comparing the effects of two pedagogical approaches: oral synchronous telecollaboration between Portuguese learners and native speakers (Teletandem), and group work among learners in the L2 classroom. Participants met weekly for eight weeks, after which gains in oral proficiency were measured using an Elicited Imitation Task (EIT) and a listening comprehension test (LCT). Linguistic development was also measured by various indices of oral complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Results showed significant improvement in proficiency and all CAF measures over time, but no differences between groups. Spanish CLI was significantly higher than English CLI for both groups and the only type of CLI to significantly decrease. Participants' perceptions and beliefs, and the lack of differential performance across groups is discussed, considering different pedagogical and theoretical approaches to telecollaboration.