Bianconi Publishes Piece in The Portuguese Newsletter
Celia Bianconi, Master Lecturer in Portuguese, has published an article in The Portuguese Newsletter (published by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish & Portuguese) describing an online student conversation project developed by herself and a colleague at the University of Florida. From the article:
“Conversa Fiada (ChitChat) is a project based in Elementary Portuguese Foreign Language online class settings with the main goal of offering proficiency interaction and active information exchange, just as real life small talk does. Conversa Fiada’s specific objective is to foster intercultural competence through chats (interpretive and interpersonal) and journals (presentational). Silvia Sollai, University of Florida (UF) and Palm Beach State College (PBSC), and Celia Bianconi, Boston University (BU) partnered in this project, using video conference platforms to chat about everyday life. The instructors’ motivation was learners’ lack of opportunity to use unrehearsed content in a realistic cultural context. Learners receive instruction and are able to practice in a familiar context, interacting with partners as in real life.”