Fall 2014 Course Descriptions

Portuguese 110
Intensive Basic Portuguese I
Staff
See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
Portuguese 110 is a first-semester introductory language course for students who have not studied Portuguese before, or who have had very little exposure to the language. The course will emphasize the development of foundational reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities within a cultural context. Students will participate in paired and group activities designed to elicit meaningful and accurate exchanges of information. The course will introduce students to Portuguese and Lusophone culture through a variety of authentic materials, including texts, songs, films, and other audio and video material. Classes will be conducted in Portuguese.

Objectives:
At the end of this course, students will be able to produce oral and written language to speak about themselves, their likes and dislikes, families, and daily activities, make simple descriptions, and narrate in the present tense.


Portuguese 114
Portuguese for Spanish Speakers I
Staff
See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
Portuguese 114 is designed for students who are proficient in Spanish. The course begins with exposure to basic vocabulary and structures, advancing at an accelerated pace. Classroom activities will emphasize pronunciation, spoken production, as well as language structures and vocabulary. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities that focus on the meaningful and accurate exchange of information. The class will be conducted in Portuguese.

Objectives:
At the end of the course, students will be able to produce language to talk about themselves, their interests and professional preferences. In addition, students should be able to perform some linguistic tasks, such as talking about everyday needs, using a limited vocabulary to describe family relations, meals, professions, likes and dislikes and other day-to-day activities. Students will be exposed to exercises to develop their written skills and should also be able to produce short texts in Portuguese.


Portuguese 130
Intensive Intermediate Portuguese I
Staff

See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
Portuguese 130 is an intermediate course designed for students who have taken at least two semesters of Portuguese (PRTG110 and PRTG120). Classroom activities will emphasize pronunciation, spoken production as well as language structures and vocabulary to develop students’ linguistic skills and its creative use in Portuguese. Students will explore movies, music and other authentic media to further develop reading, speaking and interpretive skills in Portuguese. They will read short stories by Brazilian, Portuguese and African authors, and prepare a final presentation about a topic of their choice and that relates to the Lusophone culture. The course will be conducted in Portuguese.

Goals:
At the end of this course, students will be able to manage a variety of communicative tasks in Portuguese. They will be able to participate in conversations about a variety of topics, narrating in all tenses, describing and supporting opinions. Students’ written and oral expressions will develop as they use complex structures and prepare a longer presentation.


Portuguese 134
Portuguese for Spanish Speakers II
Staff
See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description and objectives:
Portuguese 134 is an accelerated intermediate course designed to students who have taken Portuguese for Spanish Speakers I or its equivalent. Classroom activities will emphasize the development of pronunciation and spoken production, the use of language structures and vocabulary at the advanced intermediate level. In addition, students will explore movies, music, short stories, and other media as they further develop reading, speaking and interpretive skills in Portuguese. The course will be conducted in Portuguese.


Portuguese 202
Advanced Portuguese
Prof. Flannery
See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
This course is designed for students who have already taken basic and intermediate levels of Portuguese. It complements student’s knowledge of Portuguese by emphasizing the use of advanced grammatical structures and vocabulary. Classes will focus on practicing such advanced language structures by reading a diverse range of texts, including short stories by different authors of the Lusophone countries, and two novels; speaking and writing about a variety of contemporary texts; watching movies and documentaries; and listening to news, songs and other authentic audio material. The emphasis will be on language usage and culture. This course will be conducted entirely in Portuguese. Prerequisite: PRTG134 or its equivalent.

Goals:
By the end of this course students should be able to express themselves with precision and in detail about a variety of topics in Portuguese. Students will be able to describe and narrate personal experiences, participate in conversations about a variety of topics, explaining, narrating, describing and asking questions. Students’ written expression will develop to allow them to describe events handling the different tenses of Portuguese and employing complex structures and vocabulary.


Portuguese 217
Portuguese for the professions II
Prof. Flannery

See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
Portuguese for the professions II is a second semester course designed to provide advanced-level students with exposition to, and practice in, a wide variety of technical vocabulary, and to develop their communicative skills on topics related to Brazil’s economic, social and historical context, given the country’s new role in the world scene. Classroom activities will be based on the readings and discussions of articles, papers, the viewing of documentaries and other visual media, covering an array of topics within the proposed themes. The course will be conducted in Portuguese. Prerequisites: PRTG 202.

Goals:
At the end of this course, students will have developed their ability to express themselves in detail, using a formal, technical vocabulary in Portuguese, as well as their ability to discuss and present on a variety of topics related to the economic, historic and social contexts of Brazil.


Portuguese 240
Brazilian contemporary cinema: representations of Brazil
Prof. Flannery
See Timetable for time(s)

Course Description:
This course will explore elements of Brazil’s cultural and sociopolitical contexts as seen through its film production in different periods of the 20th and 21st centuries. Starting with films produced in the 1960s – with an emphasis on those belonging to the then innovative “Cinema Novo” movement— and moving on to consider those representative of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000’s, the course will discuss the political and cultural influences on the esthetics of their time. Class discussions will center on readings and on the viewing of movies by the Brazilian directors Gláuber Rocha, Nélson Pereira dos Santos, Walter Salles and Carlos Diegues, among others. Some of the assigned movies will be “O pagador de promessas” (1962); “Deus e o diabo na terra do sol” (1964); “O bandido da luz vermelha” (1968); “Macunaíma” (1969), “Bye Bye Brasil” (1979); and “City of God” (2002). This course will be conducted in Portuguese. Pre-requisites: PRTG 202.

Objectives:
The goal of this course is to acquaint students with important Brazilian films, representative of their period, while developing their ability to discuss relevant contextualizing information about these movies in Portuguese. In addition to the development of oral linguistic abilities at the advanced level, students will gain further practice on written and reading skills, as they will read articles and book chapters, and write response, analytical papers pertaining to the assigned movies.