The formal process of learning Portuguese as a foreign language: representations and observations about the difficulty and the facility of Spanish speakers

• Grant number: 14/11390-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Rosa Yokota
• Grantee: Rafaela Silva de Souza
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to identify, through the use of questionnaires, what students (from intermediate to advanced level) consider either easy or hard concerning Portuguese as a second language, and how these impressions are expressed, or not, in their written texts during classes. By analysing the information obtained from both questionnaires and written texts, it will be possible to understand how much the representations about Portuguese language are expressed in texts written by Spanish speakers, and how these representations influence on the process of language teaching and learning. This way, the results of these project may contribute to the progress of learning and also for demystiying some of those representations. Besides, it is necessary to contrast, in the very production of non-native speakers, the materialization - or not - of the difficulties students claim to have, in order to provide proper orientation and more specific courseware.