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PORTUGUESE 106: ACCELERATED FIRST YEAR PORTUGUESE FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Instructor: Dr. Hélade Scutti Santos Room: HUM 327 Office: 320 Class time: MWF 10-10:50pm Email: helade.santos@rice.edu Office Hours: MW 1-2pm and by appointment

PREREQUISITE

No previous knowledge of Portuguese is required. Students need to have an advanced level or to be a native speaker of Spanish.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS

Required: Brasil Intercultural: língua e cultura brasileira para estrangeiros. Ciclo Básico – Níveis 1 e 2. Casa do Brasil. ISBN: 978-987-27201-3-1. Brasil Intercultural: língua e cultura brasileira para estrangeiros. Livro de exercícios. Ciclo Básico – Níveis 1 e 2. Casa do Brasil. ISBN: 978-987-27201-2-4. Recommended: Carvalho, O. L. S. & Bagno, M. Gramática Brasileña Para Hablantes de Español. São Paulo: Parábola Editorial, 2015.

COURSE OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Description: PORT 106 is a 3-hour credit course designed as an accelerated introduction to speaking, listening, reading and writing in Portuguese. This class aims at developing basic interactional competence (sociolinguistic and sociocultural knowledge) as it applies to communicating and interacting with the Portuguese-speaking world. In this class, as well as throughout all levels of Portuguese, students construct and analyze a body of language (corpus), learn a series of linguistic structures of Portuguese and become better acquainted with the social and cultural milieu of Brazilians. This is implemented through a student-centered, critical-thinking approach to language and sociolinguistic analysis. Objectives: PORT 106 has a twofold objective; acquisition of knowledge as it relates to the development of interactional and communicative competences in Portuguese (vocabulary, grammar, culture, sociolinguistics, reading, writing and conversation practices) as well as the acquisition of skills relating to the development of analytical competence (e. g. critical thinking, language analysis, communication strategies, metalinguistic and sociocultural awareness). Outcomes: By the end of PORT 106 students should be able to

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• Communicate in Portuguese about familiar topics in a variety of settings in an appropriate and informed manner

• Interact in Portuguese in order to satisfy personal and habitual needs incorporating conversation strategies and sociolinguistic and sociocultural cues to maintain short conversations

• Read, understand, analyze linguistically, and capture the main idea of texts in a variety of social contexts such as menus, schedules, advertisements, personal letters/emails, social media postings, blogs, news pieces and short stories

• Listen, understand, analyze linguistically, and capture the main idea of oral texts in Portuguese such as personal messages, commercials, songs, news stories, interviews, film scenes and real conversations.

• Write short texts in Portuguese such as emails, reports, summaries, personal messages and stories and descriptions

• Develop awareness and think critically about language and language use • Develop awareness and think critically about the dialects of the Portuguese-speaking

world and about cultural differences, similarities, and ambiguities in relation to the Portuguese-speaking world

COURSE RULES AND REGULATIONS

Participation: Students are expected to come to class every day and actively participate in class. Good participation means:

a) You are prepared. b) You use Spanish as much as possible in class. c) You are proactive and attentive. d) You have a positive attitude. e) You listen respectfully to others. f) You participate actively in individual, small group, and whole class activities and

discussions. Simply showing up for class is not enough to earn a good participation grade. No grade is given for simple attendance. Behavior that will negatively affect your participation grade:

• Texting and other use of cell phone (cell phones must be off or turned to vibrate) • Side conversations • Sleeping • Coming to class under the influence of substances • Laptop use not related to the class

Any behavior considered disruptive or that does not contribute positively to the learning environment of the classroom will be sanctioned as stated in the Student Code of Conduct. Violations of the Code of Conduct will not be tolerated. http://www.students.rice.edu/students/Conduct.asp Attendance: Attendance to class is absolutely essential. All students are allowed 3 unexcused absences. More than 3 unexcused absences will drop the final grade by one third level (i.e. from A to A-) per missed absence beyond 3. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to catch up with what was covered in class that day. Excused absences are ONLY allowed in the case of participation in university-sponsored activities, observance of religious holidays, interviews for graduate school, jobs or medical school, or a serious illness. When you miss class, you must email your professor either before missing or the day you return. Missing class to study for another course is not acceptable. Punctuality is required. Chronic late arrival and/or early departure will negatively affect your participation grade.

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Late work and make-ups: If you know in advance that you will not be able to take a test, you must make arrangements with your instructor prior to the missed test to take it. If you have an unforeseen emergency on the day of the test, you must contact the instructor ASAP or BEFORE you miss the scheduled time for the exam to make other arrangements. Make-ups will only be allowed if you contact the instructor (by phone, e-mail, or in person), and your justification is one from the excused absences list. Late work will not be accepted except in case of an emergency. If late work is accepted, it will be with a penalty (decided by your instructor).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Participation: Students will receive a monthly participation grade, which will include a brief comment. Students will be informed of their individual participation grade through owl-space and are welcome to discuss it and possible ways to improve it during official office hours and with a previous appointment. Participation will be evaluated using the following numeric scale:

4-5 points Good/outstanding

3 points Satisfactory

1-2 points Poor/ needs improvement

0 points Unacceptable/not assessable

For complete criteria see “Class Participation Criteria.” (Under class documents in Owl-space)

Homework: Homework in PORT 106 takes many forms. The most important ones, which are not necessarily “assigned” but should be done on a daily basis, are studying and preparing for class. This is necessary in order to create a good foundation starting on the first day of the semester. Homework will also include: - Exercises form the Brasil Intercultural: Livro de exercícios. These will be assigned daily

and must be completed before the next class meeting. - Journal entries (Diarios). Journal entries will be due at the end of every book chapter.

Students may write on any topic they wish, but should be able to connect their writing to a central topic covered during the chapter. Each journal entry should be about 15 complete sentences in length and will be graded based on completion, credit/no credit.

- Other assignments will include language analysis tasks, exercises from the textbook, language data gathering, activities that include reading, writing and listening comprehension, etc.

Exams and quizzes: Tests will cover all materials worked on in class and will include reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks. Oral production will be evaluated separately from the other three abilities. Quizzes will be taken in class and will focus on vocabulary and grammatical content of one chapter at a time. THERE WILL BE NO FINAL EXAM. Writing: Writing assignments will include description, narration, comparison, etc. They will start as one paragraph in length and will move on to a full page or page and a half towards the end of the semester as your language ability progresses. Each essay will consist of a first and second revised version. To encourage students to produce a well-written and well-articulated first version, the final version can only be improved by up to 10% of the maximum grade.

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Conversations with native speakers: In order to assess conversational/interactional speaking skills, you will be required to have conversations with Portuguese native speakers on campus. Here are the steps for this project:

1) Pick a classmate as your conversation partner. 2) Find a Portuguese native speaker on campus with whom you and your partner will

meet 4 times. 3) Plan your meetings accordingly. 4) Bate-papo # 1 will be for completion credit only but it MUST be video recorded so that

you can get feedback on your performance. If is not completed; your final conversation grade will have 10 pts. deducted. A self-assessment sheet must be completed and a short reflection must be written to receive completion credit.

5) Bate-papo # 2 and 3 will allow students to continue refining their conversational/ interactional speaking abilities in Spanish. These do not have to be recorded, but students will be asked to submit a short written reflection for each. These interactions will be for completion credit only. If not completed, the final conversation grade will be lowered by 10 pts. for each bate-papo.

6) Bate-papo #4 MUST video recorded. Since the first three interactions were graded based on completion credit only, this one will be assessed using a 100-point rubric. Final self-assessment and reflection must also be turned in. These will be part of the homework and will be worth 10 pts.

Final project: Toward the end of the semester, students will work on a final group project related to themes examined throughout the course. In groups of two, students will create a non-profit organization whose main goal is to raise awareness about a social, economic, political, issue in a Portuguese-speaking country or an issue that affects Portuguese-speaking communities in the United States. As part of their presentation, students will try to convince their classmates to get involved and become volunteers in their non-profit. The presentation will last approximately 15 minutes (10-12 min presentation and 3-5 min Q&A). Care should be taken to do an organized, well-structured and appropriate presentation. You can use PPT or Prezi but these can only have images or isolated words that help the rest of the class to better follow the presentation. You can use index cards but DO NOT write a script to be recited. Note: If you know in advance that you will not be able to turn something in time because of university-sponsored events or religious holiday, the assignment should be completed and turned in prior to the due date or make special arrangements with the instructor in advance.

GRADE DISTRIBUTION Participation – 10% Homework – 15% Writing – 15% Conversations (Bate-papo) – 15% Final Presentation – 15% Exams and Quizzes – 30% Total: 100%

A+ 99-100 B+ 88-89 C+ 78-79 D+ 68-69

A 94-98 B 84-87 C 74-77 D 64-67

A- 90-93 B- 80-83 C- 70-73 D- 60-63

An average below 60 constitutes an F

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RICE HONOR CODE

In this course, all students will be held to the standards of the Rice Honor Code, a code that you pledged to honor when you matriculated at this institution. If you are unfamiliar with the details of this code and how it is administered, you should consult the Honor System Handbook at http://honor.rice.edu/honor-system-handbook/. This handbook outlines the University's expectations for the integrity of your academic work, the procedures for resolving alleged violations of those expectations, and the rights and responsibilities of students and faculty members throughout the process. All work is bound by the Honor Code unless instructed otherwise. You may consult with your classmates, friends, your professor and/or tutor for projects and homework. You may use a dictionary or textbook in everything except quizzes and exams. All tests and quizzes must be exclusively your own work. You may not copy someone else’s work, information on the Internet, or have someone else write your assignments for you. All sources in written work and presentations must be properly acknowledged. You may not submit a writing assignment already submitted in another class for a grade.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Tutors: The Rice CLIC offers tutors free of charge to all language students. Span 141 students are encouraged to use this resource as often as possible either to consult about assignments, to review material and ask questions, or simply for conversation practice. Students will be asked to meet with a tutor if the instructor feels it is needed. Schedule of hours available in the CLIClab website. Disability Support Services: If you have a documented disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with Disability Support Services (Allen Center, Room 111 / adarice@rice.edu / x5841) to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me during the first two weeks of class to discuss your accommodation needs.

SYLLABUS CHANGE POLICY This syllabus is only a guide for the course and is subject to change with advanced notice.