Resources for Secondary or Intermediate to Advanced Students
For intermediate to advanced students we have:
- Books
- News Sources
- Online Textbooks
- Archival Material
Books
The first book I recommend is Portugués ou Brasileiro? by Marcos Bagno. This text explores the pedagogical differences between teaching Portuguese and teaching “Brazilian”. In the introduction, Bagno invites us to understand the difference between learning strict grammar and pronunciation rules to adhere to traditional language-learning practices and learning Portuguese as a holistic practice that incorporates the ever-changing aspects of this diverse language.
The other book I would recommend looking out for at your local library is Pois Não by António Roberto Monteiro Simões. This book is designed for Spanish speakers who are learning Brazilian Portuguese. This author uses a variety of lessons to show students how to leverage their Spanish skills and transfer them to learning Portuguese. This book is great if you have native-Spanish speakers in your classroom or students who have both Spanish and Portuguese as target languages.
News
Next, I would recommend incorporating current news into your lesson plans, so students can interact with Brazilian culture while studying the language at the same time. Make sure to include activities for students to complete as a part of their search process on the websites so they have learning goals attached to this assignment. These assignments can be adjusted to the students level and can be used for language-learners of all levels. Some of my favorite online news publications are shown below.
Virtual Textbooks
Another valuable free resources for Portuguese-learners are the online textbooks that are available. I have two textbooks shown below that can be great for intermediate and advanced students. One of the biggest benefits of having a virtual textbook is that it can be more interactive than a hard-cover and your students can take advantage of the listening and speaking parts of the textbook.
This textbook from The University of Washington is best for intermediate students who need practice on their comprehension and speaking skills. The interactive activities in this textbook provides guides for in-class activities that students can lead themselves.
This second online textbook from UW-Madison is another great resource for intermediate students wanting to fine-tune their grammar and conjugation skills. The first few lessons are more appropriate for beginner students and then the lessons get progressively harder as you move through the text. This textbook provides different interactive activities and gives immediate feedback to the student so they can check their progress. Each lesson also includes a dialogue section, so students are receiving both reading and listening input as they go.
Archival Material
Finally, we have a more non-traditional resource that can be found at some libraries. Archival material is an outstanding source for first-hand documentation of Portuguese and can be an exciting scavenger hunt for older and more advanced students to try out. If your library has an archive, I would highly recommend speaking to the archivists or looking for an online finding aid to see if it includes any material in Portuguese. You may even be able to take your class on a field trip to the archive to learn about the process! Below are some of the materials that I found in the Smith College Archive.
