Updated 4-13-98

 

General Syllabus: Spring 1999


Portuguese 1B--4 Units



Prerequisites: Portuguese 1A or permission of instructor
Fees: none
Instructor's Name: Dr. David Ross
Office Location: t.b.a.
Office Hours: t.b.a.
Telephone/Email: 278-2386/david_ross@csufresno.edu

Course Description: Second semester course in conversational and written Portuguese. Not open to students with two years or more of high school Portuguese. Satisfies General Education Breadth, Division 7, Languages.

Course Objectives: These are as follows:

1) Develop Linguistic Skills in Portuguese: Continued refinement of the Novice Low Level language skills begun in Portuguese 1A while working toward the Novice Mid and High Levels.* This includes greater accuracy in the use of increasingly more complex skills in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. This is characterized by the improved ability to understand and to produce appropriate responses in common situations utilizing learned materials. The student acquires an expanded ability to understand discourse on an increased number of topics, such as: educational systems, leisure-time activities, housing, daily routines expressed in a variety of modes (present, past, future, conditional actions). The student's listening/reading vocabulary expands to 1600-2000 words.


2) Develop Cultural Awareness of Luso-Brazilian-African Cultures:

Cultural awareness at the Mid or High Novice Level* is characterized by a familiarity with a broader range of Portuguese cultural topics, such as family relationships, national celebrations, attitudes toward health and fitness, work habits, the educational system, etc. Discussions concerning the 2000 word cultural assignment provides information concerning Portuguese-speaking countries (Portugal, Azores, Madeira, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Timor, Dio, Damao, Goa, Macao) to include geography, cultural diversity, etc. The Mid or High Novice Level is also characterized by the continued development of a sensitivity to cultural stereotyping, sources of cross-cultural misunderstanding, cultural aspects of language, and a sample of contributions of Portuguese-speaking cultures to science, the arts, and to American life including that of California.






Course Schedule and Content Using Portugal: Lingua e Cultura:

Week/ Chapter/ Content=Culture, Grammar, Conversation

1. Chapter 8:
Culture: The Portuguese educational system. The difficulty of university entrance exams. The University of Lisbon and the National Library. Differences in ways people dress by region.
Grammar: The imperfect tense (was ...ing), including 4 irregular verbs (ser, ter, vir, pôr). Imperfect vs. preterit when talking about the weather.
Vocabulary: Education, parts of the body, clothing, etc.

2. Chapter 8 continued.

3. Chapter 9:
Culture: The fado, soccer, and bullfight (the bull is not killed).
Grammar: More irregular preterit verbs (ver, vir, ser, estar, ter, poder, saber, querer). The future subjunctive in ordinary situations following certain conjunctions. O que? (What?) vs. Qual ? (Which?)
Vocabulary: Sports, etc.

4. Chapter 9 continued. Oral/Written Exam #1.

5. Chapter 10:
Culture: Portuguese comprehensive health system and medicine. Feminine liberation.
Grammar: Invariable tudo (everything) and adjective todo, toda, todos, todas (all). Forming the imperative (command). Direct object pronouns. Telling time.
Progressive tenses (estar a+infinitive). Expressing obligation with haver de+infinitive.
Vocabulary: medicine, health, etc.

6. Chapter 10 continued.

7. Chapter 11:
Culture: Telephone use in Portugal. Public/private means of transportation (subway, rail, air, boat/ship, taxi, auto, bicycle, etc.)
Grammar: Days, months, seasons. Por vs para (for, etc.) The use of qualquer (any at all). Demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, and contractions with prepositions. Comparison of adjectives.
Vocabulary: Terms related to using the telephone, means of transportation/travel, etc.

8. Chapter 11 continued. Oral and Written Examination #2.

9. Chapter 12:
Culture: Portuguese slang. Lisbon at night: night clubs, bars, discotheques, movie theaters.
Grammar: Indirect object pronouns. Verbs using an indirect object. Verbs using both indirect and direct object pronouns. Contractions with object pronouns. Uses of faltar (miss), doer (hurt), importar (matter), interessar (interest), paracer (seem), dar (give). The superlative.
Vocabulary: nightlife, etc.

10. Chapter 12 continued. Project concerning an aspect of Portuguese, Luso- Brazilian, or Luso-African culture due.

11. Chapter 13:
Culture: Portuguese traditional festivals and celebrations (Carnival, Christmas, New Year's, Holy Week, St. John's Night, etc.)
Grammar: More on comparisons of adjectives. More on the progressive forms. Negative expressions. Estar + past participle.
Vocabulary: holidays, etc.

12. Chapter 13 continued.

13. Chapter 14:
Culture: Lisbon earlier in the 20th Century and now. Its museums, parks, parking problems, rush hour. Overview of Lisbon's history since the 12th Century.
Grammar: Indirect commands (a use of the subjunctive). Forming the subjunctive. Subjunctive use with impersonal expressions. Use of mesmo. Exclamations.
Vocabulary: Items related to history, etc.

14. Chapter 14 continued.

15. Review for oral and written components of the final examination covering cultural, grammatical, and word study portions of this course.

16. Final Examination.


Required Student Activities:

1) Daily Preparation:
Student will prepare assignments for class daily by reading the text, Portugal: Lingua e Cultura, listening to tapes, and doing exercises in the workbook, Cuaderno de Trabalho.

2) Class Participation: He/she will participate in communicative pair and group activities in class in the target language with a positive attitude.

3) Use of Materials: Make use of supplementary materials, such as CD Roms, interactive computer programs, WWW hyperlinks, etc., available in the Language Laboratory as indicated by the instructor.

4) Attendance Policy: Attend class! Notify instructor promptly of absences due to extraordinary and extenuating circumstances. Class attendance is vital to class participation which is graded (see below) .Unsubstantiated absences will negatively affect the student's participation grade.

5) Late Homework Policy: Turn in homework assignments on the date they are due. Late homework will be marked down.

6) Practice for Fluency: Study and practice speaking with a classmate to augment fluency.


Grading Policy and Examinations:

There will be three examinations which include oral as well as written elements.
The quality of the student's homework, project and class participation are also used in determining the student's final course grade.

Exams: 50%; Homework: 20%; Participation: 20%; 2000 Word Project: 10%.

Project/Writing Requirement: May be fulfilled by 5 compositions in Portuguese or one 2000 word project written in English on a topic related to Luso-Brazilian- African culture.

Grading scale: 90-100%=A; 80-90%=B; 70-80%=C; etc.

Extra Credit: Students may earn "extra credit" points by attending selected Portuguese cultural activities.

Required Text: Tom Lathrop and Eduardo Dias, Portugal: Lingua e Cultura, Newark , Delaware: Lingua Text (1995). A writing and laborary manual, Caderno de Trabalho e de Laboratorio, accomany this textThis course will cover chapters 8-14. This is the only current text using European (rather than Brazilian) Portuguese. It is appropriate to use this text in recognition of the large population of Valley residents having family origins in the Azores and Madeira Islands which are autonomous regions of Portugal. Lathrop and Dias are professors at the University of Delaware and at UCLA respectively.

Tapes:

Students may need to purchase at least two good quality 90 minute audiotapes for recording material. Consult instructor.

Other matters:

1) Students with disabilities are asked to identify themselves to the instructor at the beginning of the course so that reasonable accommodation for learning and evaluation within the course can be made.

2) University policies concerning cheating and plagiarism as announced in the University Catalog and in the Schedule of Courses apply to this course and will be observed.

3) The content of this syllabus is provided as a guideline for the student. It should be recognized that extenuating circumstances may occasionally require some
reasonably minimal changes in it.

* Definitions of Novice Level s (Low, Mid, and High) are those adopted by the American Council of Foreign Language Teachers in policy statements concerning standards and guidelines for the teaching of foreign languages in the United States.

 

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