Portuguese is in! From less commonly taught to critical to world language

Sílvia Sollai is a professional in languages with a 30-year experience in teaching and curriculum mapping English, Portuguese, Italian, and French in Brazil, Italy, and France. In the U.S., Sílvia has taught 1000 to 5000-level courses, including Intensive Portuguese for Spanish speakers, intermediate and advanced levels of reading, writing genres and composition at Florida State University and at Florida Mechanical and Agricultural University. Currently, Sílvia is the Curriculum Specialist and Project Coordinator of the K-12 Portuguese programs at The University of Georgia.

Moreover, Sílvia is a Ph.D. candidate at the Curriculum & Instruction Program of the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University. Her doctoral dissertation "Reading the World beyond the Word: The Enactment of the Culture of Reading in English-Portuguese Biliterate Settings" describes early childhood biliteracy of heritage speakers at home, community, and school.

Sílvia acquired her Master’s Degree at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in Brazil. Her thesis is about the 600-hour/year intensive Portuguese as a Second Language course for graduates Silvia thoroughly designed and administered. Before that, Silvia acquired a graduate level Specialist Degree in Translation and Interpretation with a 416-hour course load. Her thesis is on puns in animated films subtitles. Her Bachelor’s Degree focused on interface languages (Portuguese and Spanish) perception of verb tense, aspect and mode.

All in all, this is the summary a lifetime dedicated to being informed by the latest schools of thought in order to design work that will incite the love for learning to communicate in a second language in students. 

Assistant Professor of Portuguese & Spanish

Department of Philosophy & Modern Languages

One University Circle

Turlock, CA 95382

ralvim@csustan.edu

 +1(209) 664-6704

Department of Romance Studies

Portuguese Senior Lecturer

Head of the Portuguese Language Program

718 Commonwealth Ave.

Boston, MA 02215

cbianc@bu.edu

+1(617) 358-58-53