66986 - Portuguese 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of this module, students should be able to reach Level B1 of the language proficiency levels described in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Course contents

The course (Introduction to Portuguese Linguistics) aims to offer a synthetic but up-to-date overview of Portuguese at the various levels of linguistic and socio-cultural analysis, both synchronic and diachronic. In the first part, the contemporary language in its different varieties will be analysed, not only reconstructing the main stages of their historical evolution, but also the "trend lines" inherent to the prospects of their possible future transformations. The second part, on the other hand, will provide an essential description of the main structures of this specific linguistic system (phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax), always taking care, however, to highlight the particularly significant aspects of a variational character, such as those that distinguish the two main varieties (European and Brazilian).
The theoretical description of these structural aspects, both in a static and dynamic sense, will be flanked by practical exercises, led by a mother tongue teacher, whose aim will be to develop the students' communicative skills according to the parameters provided for this specific year by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In order to facilitate this learning process, which is often conditioned by transfer and interference phenomena, contrastive analysis techniques centred on the comparison between Portuguese and Italian will be used, especially in the morphosyntactic area.

 

 

 

Readings/Bibliography

- Roberto Mulinacci, Introduzione alla fonetica e fonologia del portoghese, Canterano (Roma), Aracne Editrice, 2018;

- Alina Villalva, Morfologia do Português, Lisboa, Universidade Aberta, 2008;

- Maria Helena Mira Mateus et alii (orgs.), Gramática da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa, Caminho, 2006.

 

A booklet with some chapters of the portuguese above-mentioned books will be available at the beginning of the course.

Slides of the course will be available through the "Virtuale" platform.

Further bibliographical references will be provided during the lessons.

Teaching methods

The course consists of a series of lectures (30 hours) whichwill be integrated with Portuguese language classes.

Assessment methods

 

The examination will take place in three distinct stages. Learning of the knowledge related to this specific course will be tested by means of an oral interview, in Italian, with the lecturer responsible for the subject, in which the student will have to demonstrate that he or she has acquired an organic vision of contemporary Portuguese, responding, with synthesis skills and language property, to questions focusing on the geography, phonology, morphology and syntax of this language. This essentially theoretical part of the examination (at the end of which the student will obtain a partial grade in thirtieths) will then be supplemented by a practical assessment of linguistic competence, to be carried out in both written and oral form, with the mother-tongue teacher and concerning the grammatical topics addressed during the language classes. In particular, the written test - which is preparatory to the oral test, which can only be taken if a minimum mark of 18/30 is obtained - will consist of a series of grammar exercises, as well as comprehension and text production exercises, aimed at assessing the student's mastery of the basic tools of the current Portuguese language. Those who have passed the written test inherent to the language practice course will then be admitted to the oral test, which will consist of a dialogue with the teacher in order to demonstrate their level of interaction and communicative skills, in portuguese.
The final mark is an average of the mark of these three components.

 

Teaching tools

Computer based presentations (Power Point) and multimedia resources.

Links to further information

http://www.facli.unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Mulinacci