Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

Level A or equivalent. Students who have previously taken Level A Portuguese are advised not to proceed to Level B unless they have achieved at least 40% in the module. Note: Non-SML students are advised not to proceed to Level C unless they achieve at least 40% in this module.

Co Requisite Comment

None

Aims

In consonance with the overall aims of the degrees offered in the SML, this module will:

1.Focus on developing the students' written and aural/oral communicative competence in the foreign language (including fluency, grammatical and lexical accuracy and range; register and pronunciation).

2. Prepare students for the future study of the language (in reading, written and communicative skills oral/speaking and aural/listening in the target language).

3. Facilitate students' ability to establish and maintain effective social and working relations with speakers of the foreign language in written and spoken media during their intercalary year. This includes students’ ability to use and understand authentic material and produce their own written and spoken output.

This module is available to all students with Level A or equivalent in Portuguese. This is a general language module offering students the opportunity to study and practise all four language skills fully integrated (listening, reading, writing and speaking). All skills will be assessed.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics: Students cover a variety of topics based on contemporary Lusophone society including: media, advertising, culture, politics, immigration, environment, tourism, inclusive language, consequences and tensions of colonization.

THIS COURSE WILL BE TAUGHT AND ASSESSED IN PORTUGUESE.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have had the opportunity to learn about:

- Sentence and text structure, grammatical categories and their exponents and use, lexical fields and registers and their usage.
- All areas of grammar, vocabulary and background knowledge related to the skills listed below.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Subject- Specific skills:

By the end of the course, students will have had the opportunity to learn by:

- using varied lexical and grammatical structures in spoken and written communication.
- reading for information using a range of different materials (including authentic texts) of appropriate complexity and length and responding appropriately.
- writing and/or typing in the target language (e.g. reports, essays, summaries)
- listening for information using different types of authentic sources in the foreign language and responding appropriately in written and/or oral form.
- conversing, discussing directly with target language speakers and producing and giving presentations in Portuguese by using an appropriate range of vocabulary, on agreed topics.
- using different autonomous learning strategies as well as various types of technologies (raging from VLE to collaborative tools online and/or smartphones and other gadgets).

Cognitive/intellectual skills:

Students will learn:

- to locate, make use and critically evaluate materials for this level other than those provided by the teacher.
- to select and apply different language learning technologies to develop strategies to enhance their language skills appropriate for this level and module.
- to evaluate their own performance.
- to apply a range of strategies for language learning appropriate for this level and module.
- to work independently and confidently on their own or in a group, either within or outside the classroom.
- to locate information from different authentic sources (e.g. Internet) in order to contribute their own materials and ideas to the course.
- to study grammar systematically, either autonomously or in collaboration
- to investigate and analyse grammar structures and concepts.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Teaching & learning in the language classes will focus on communication and the formal structures of the language. All language skills listening, reading, writing and speaking are fully integrated in the language classes and will be assessed from an integrated skills approach to reflect the learning environment and practices. Learning and teaching activities design is underpinned by a blending approach of the social constructivism pedagogy, reflective practice (Farrell, T.S.C), TEL and the communicative approach.
Small group teaching Language Seminars ON CAMPUS (2h/week) focus on reproducing authentic learning environment and promoting group identity and interpersonal skills through the means of group work, debates, presentations and an array of in person constructivist activities.
Small group teaching ONLINE (1h/week) aiming to develop professional skills required by todays modes of work, focusing on collaborative language projects, the ODS, by using TEL tool available on CANVAS, Office 365 and various alternative applications. By the end of Semester 2 students will be able to showcase the development of digital collaborative and problem-solving skills applied synchronously and as synchronously, online and in campus. These sills applied onto Formative and Summative assessment. The ONLINE seminars are important to familiarise students with the working place and academic digital assessment environments.
Structure Guided learning fosters independent learning and learner autonomy, encouraged through the means of the use of various language learning technologies (grammar videos, H5P materials and other learning materials to be explored by students, developed by the module leader and available on Canvas/Teams), collaborative on-line projects, pair and group work and self-study at home and in the Language Resource Centre.
Initiative is expected from students at this level, e.g. course participants will be asked to contribute with their own materials to the classes.
THIS COURSE WILL BE TAUGHT AND ASSESSED IN PORTUGUESE

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

- Written Examination 1 (30%), at the end of semester 1, requires students to produce a written output of 300-words (+/- 10%) in the target language. The output is based on motivational written sources (1 source or a combination of sources), the input will contain a total of 1250 words (+/- 10%) in the target language. This is to assess students’ ability to read, analyse, interpret, and compare written sources in Portuguese and to respond appropriately in written (or typed) form in the target language. Students may be allowed to type their own answers provided that spell check / grammar check has been disabled. Students will receive feedback so that they can assess their progress and identify their strengths and areas for improvement before the final written examination in Semester 2.

- Oral Examination 1 (30%): the sources (input-content) for the oral component (30%) include audio, video and visual materials related to the themes investigated during the academic year. This oral component will test students’ ability to listen and read audio-visual sources (audios, videos and images) and understand audio-visual sources (excluding written text, as for instance subtitles or video transcripts and summaries). This examination tests students’ ability to respond appropriately in the target language by collaborating with a partner to complete problem-solving tasks and to develop independent critical-analytical discussions about a given topic. This assessment provides summative information to staff and students on student’s achievement to employ their listening, speaking and intercultural skills to collaborate, stablish responsive dialogues, critically compare, analyse, interpret, evaluate, assess, discuss and resolve problems, presenting solutions to hypothetical situations in the target language.

- Written examination 2 (40%), at the end of Semester 2, will test the students’ reading grammar and written skills. Students may be allowed to type their own answers provided that spell check / grammar check has been disabled. This formal examination provides summative information to staff and student on student's achievement in reading, grammar and writing in the target language in this module.

Both digital exams have 5 mins leeway in case of technical difficulties.

General Notes

N/A