UC Santa Cruz - Center for Teaching Excellence

Ana Maria Seara – Teaching Statement 2005-06
Lecturer, Language Program

For the past eight years I have had the privilege of starting, developing and teaching the entire Portuguese language curriculum on campus, a pedagogical challenge that includes designing classes of Portuguese for true beginners and for fluent speakers of Spanish or other Romance languages, at the first and second year levels. At UCSC I have also taught a literature class, which surveyed contemporary novels from Brazil, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa, and for the past few years I’ve been teaching a class on the recent film production of the Portuguese-speaking world. My primary responsibility, however, is towards the teaching of Portuguese language and Brazilian culture, which I consider an honor and my calling as a teacher. I started teaching Portuguese language as a teaching assistant, a few days after I first arrived in the US from Brazil to enroll in a graduate program. Over the years I have come to realize that, regardless of teaching methodology, a high level of motivation is a key element of learning, and that students will drop their fears and inhibitions about making mistakes in a foreign language classroom, and learn better and faster if they feel encouraged to sustain and develop the motivation they brought with them to the class in the first place. So, rather than relying on an “one and only” approach to language teaching, I believe in an eclectic approach that takes only the best ideas and techniques from various methodologies and applies them as appropriate to the situation and the group being taught. My ideal classroom, then, is a warm and welcoming environment, where students are encouraged to express from the start and in the target language as much as possible, their ideas and interests, both in spoken and in written forms, without the fear of committing “errors,” which are regarded rather as necessary stages in their progress towards proficiency. With the students’ help, I’ve tried to provide a creative and fun classroom atmosphere, to encourage independent thinking, to offer opportunities for intellectual development, and to foster a true enthusiasm for the language and the cultures studied in the class. The students’ constant feedback has been a major tool to achieve all that. Feedback not only improves my own teaching, but also helps the students themselves, the major agents of the learning process, to focus on identifying and achieving their language goals, while maintaining rigorous standards and high expectations of their performance. In the classroom, participation is essential, so there are pair and group activities, role-plays, and other opportunities for real communication to take place. The students are also exposed to various authentic materials, from texts to songs, and films, and by interacting with native guest speakers that occasionally visit the class. Since all the classes I offer are accelerated, the students are encouraged to grab every opportunity to practice inside and outside of the classroom, and that includes but is not limited to, going to our weekly bate-papos (conversation hour), participating in events promoted by the local Portuguese-speaking communities (many already do, such as capoeira, Brazilian jiu-jitsu or samba classes), or even approaching a native speaker when they hear Portuguese spoken around them.

As the sole responsible for the instruction of Portuguese on campus, I’ve focused on three areas, namely, program building, curriculum development, and my own professional development. To that extent, I have worked to keep the program going in these occasionally difficult times, by promoting extracurricular cultural activities on campus, and by cooperating with campus faculty in various departments to offer talks and bring invited speakers. I have kept in mind and tried to accommodate the students who come to Portuguese for a variety of reasons, ranging from mastering the basics for study in a program abroad, to connecting with their cultural heritage, to pursuing graduate-level research in a Portuguese-speaking country, or simply because learning a foreign language fosters personal and academic growth, and should be part of the university experience.

As for curriculum development, I’ve managed to keep in place and improve the dual-track, two-year accelerated language program in order to maintain the commitment towards offering instruction that brings the student to an Intermediate level of fluency. I’ve tested and adopted recent materials for the learning of Portuguese, and developed supplementary materials to make up for deficiencies in textbooks, and taken those opportunities to tailor those materials to the needs of each class. A continued goal has been to serve the needs of cross-divisional programs, with the most frequent ones being Language Studies, LALS, Anthropology, Community Studies, Environmental Studies, Global Economics, and the Education Abroad Program. And, regarding professional development, my goal is teaching excellence, so I’ve tried to develop my teaching skills by keeping current on new teaching technologies and methodologies, and research on cultural studies, which has made me more aware of the roles of race, class and gender issues in the selection of materials, as well as the needs and expectations of our diverse student clientele.

I am proud to have developed a program which, while providing the necessary tools for language and culture acquisition, also addresses the needs of the campus community—their interest in Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions, for example, and the specific need of preparing students for study abroad programs, and pursuing research interests at the graduate level in Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking countries.

The students’ response to my efforts has been enormously gratifying, as has been the support of many in our campus community. I’m so very pleased and honored to have been nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award.