Experience of Teaching Portuguese as a Foreign Language:

inte(g)ration and mutual learning

Abstract

In this article, we discuss different perspectives of teaching Portuguese to non-native speakers, PLE, a growing demand to universities, which poses challenges but also opportunities for teaching, research and extension. Here we explain the experience of a project carried out in a Community University of Minas Gerais, in which we deal with exchange students of various origins and heterogeneous training – both in the country of origin and in the courses chosen in Brazil. Being common factors to apprentices the need for LP for daily uses, as well as the sometimes precarious previous contact with the language, it is necessary to deal daily with the planned (elaborated material, chosen methodology) and the unusual (punctual demands presented in class, in the face of a difficulty of the moment). Thus, in this article, we reflect on the course taught in one of the classes (online) of PLE, in the 2nd semester of 2022. We analyzed some data collected and the perceptions of actors involved (students and teachers) regarding the effects of the activities – the expected and the concrete ones. Based on records from our studies and discussions in the team of teachers and monitors, we evaluated this small sampling, which evidences the complex reality of PLE teaching, aiming to contribute to other teachers who work in the same area.