Portuguese Program

Welcome to the Portuguese Program at the University of Washington!

The Portuguese Program at University of Washington offers many ways to study Portuguese and the cultures of Brazil, East Timor, Portugal and Lusophone Africa: Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe. We offer a Minor in Portuguese Language and Luso-Brazilian Studies in collaboration with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Mission Statement: The Portuguese Program at the UW strives to promote excellence in the teaching and learning of Portuguese in an inclusive environment, promoting compassion, justice, and dignity.

In order to reduced textbooks costs, students taking first-year Portuguese classes use open educational resources (OERs), including an e-text available through Press Books with the UW Libraries: Bate-Papo - An Introduction to Portuguese - Available at: https://uw.pressbooks.pub/batepapo/

Offering first, second, and third year Portuguese language classes, our language program follows the theoretical and pedagogical guidelines developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the World-Readiness for Language Learning, and the main goals of instruction are as follows:

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Communication: Communicate effectively in more than one language. Cultures: Interact with cultural competence and understanding. Connections: Connect with other disciplines and acquire information. Comparisons: Develop insight into the nature of language and culture. Communities: Participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.

In our efforts to promote the standards above, we work in partnership with the local community and other educational institutions to provide students with opportunities to connect with Portuguese speakers and to experience the cultures of Portuguese speaking countries. We are currently offering real-time classroom interaction with Brazilian university students through the Teletendem Program and with the local community through the Seattle Portuguese Meetup group.

We also encourage students to take part in events in the Seattle area involving the arts and cultures of Portuguese speaking countries and in events related to their own cultures:

• The Voice of Indigenous and Heritage Speaker Students at the UW
• Information on events in the Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle
• Bate-papo conversation groups on Meetup.com

Portuguese is considered a critical language in the US and there are opportunities for federal grants to learn the language in the U.S. and overseas.

Lisbon, Portugal

For course information, please visit our current course listing.

Please contact Eduardo Viana da Silva, Portuguese Program Coordinator, if you want to know more about the classes offered in the Portuguese Program at UW at evsilva@uw.edu

Current Instructors:

• Eduardo Viana da Silva, Ph.D.
• Felipe Carneiro de Figueredo (Predoctoral Instructor)
• Johnson Gôuvea de Oliveira (Predoctoral Instructor)

Zambezi River Valley, Mozambique