I met Lúcia Barbosa for the first time in 2015 when she was invited by the Finland-Brazil Culture Center to give a workshop at the University of Helsinki. She spoke about her research in the linguistic field and briefly introduced her current work – teaching Brazilian Portuguese to immigrants and refugees. Lúcia spoke with so much passion about this work, that I was motivated to study more about this “new” topic. After our first meeting, I got more curious about teaching refugees in Brazil and decided to study more about it.
After I read some articles and Lúcia’s research in the linguistic field, I applied to the master’s degree program at the University of Helsinki. Now I have an opportunity to do an internship with Lúcia Barbosa at University of Brasilia. She works at the Teaching and Research Center in Portuguese for Foreigners (NEPPE) which provides regular language courses and hosts module courses. I have been working in the host module courses, a course specifically for immigrants and refugees in Brasília.
This experience has been so important to me as a master’s degree student and as a language teacher. Lúcia’s work is admirable and I hope I will be able to do similar work in the future.
What was your academic path like?
I first worked as a high school teacher in 1984, the same year I graduated in Language Studies at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. At the time, I was a shorthand typist as well (since I was 18 years old) at the Court of Auditors. However, I thought that being a teacher was a profession that I really wanted, so I chose to follow this career. In 1995, I concluded master’s degree in Literature, then I went on to work with teaching Portuguese to foreigners at the University, which is located far from my hometown.
Since I encountered this subject, teaching Portuguese to foreigners, until today, many things have changed, but the subject and the happiness to learn about other cultures and teach my own haven’t changed.
I did my PhD at the Université Paris in 2005. Since then my academic path has been about teaching students from different nationalities, as well as master’s degree and PhD students.
I am happy about my decision to become a teacher. I am committed to working with language and labor integration of immigrants that have arrived in Brazil.
What is your work at NEPPE like?
NEPPE belongs to one sector of the University that provides Portuguese language courses to foreigners. I supervise the academic part, so I focus on teaching and researching about teaching Portuguese to foreigners. On the other hand, the administrative section of NEPPE is under a technical consultancy. I really enjoy being part of this environment where I do valuable and productive work.
How did the hosting module begin? And, in your opinion, how important is the hosting module course?
The course was created to meet the demand for new teaching approach. Firstly, we organized all the immigrants in the same class room where other foreigners (students, diplomats, exchange students) were. However, we noticed that there was a specific demand that called for different teaching practices (it was new to us). The teaching material was different and the immigrants’ needs were urgent, so the heterogeneity was considerable.
We had to learn how to deal with this new situation, and also noticed that only a “regular” language course wouldn’t be enough to assist this new student group. A language course is just one way to help them to integrate to the society. I believe that the course is important to them and to us. In their case, the students that came to Brazil as immigrants and refugees need to learn how to live in this new place and culture that can be so different. And for us, the language teachers, it is also a great challenge to meet to help them to face this new situation in the host country.
Which concepts from intercultural studies are present in your research and work at the host module, in NEPPE?
I understand interculturality as a practice that can help us to understand each other – someone different than me – and my own culture, and to acknowledge that this encounter of diverse cultures can cause misunderstandings. When understanding interculturality as an encounter, I also recognize that this encounter requires from me and this Other a different action so we can understand and get along. In conclusion, interculturality is an important keyword when studying the encounter of cultures and it is also present in our work at NEPPE.