Due to the specific characteristic of the Portuguese program, this is an accelerated program. Students who don't know any Romance languages will be assisted by their teachers to help them keep up with the class. Comparing Portuguese to other Romance languages is often used as a pedagogical tool. The following levels may not be limited to a semester, very often overlapping within a semester. The names of the levels indicate the level the student is supposed to be at the beginning of the semester.
Novice Portuguese (908.710, Level 1)
In the Novice level the students will begin to develop their skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing in Portuguese. Students should learn the basic vocabulary and grammatical structures necessary to satisfy most survival needs and limited social demands. The vocabulary relates to the person and his/her relationships to family, school, and the world. At this level, the students should be using short sentences and a string of sentences for an extended discourse and be understood by natives used to dealing with foreigners. The student will be able to speak about present, past and future events. The Portuguese used in class is the one they would use in real life. The class is conducted, as much as possible, in Portuguese, with English being used in specific situations.
The use of music as a pedagogical tool begins at this level, as well as limited oral presentations at the end of the semester.
Intermediate Low Portuguese ( 908.720, Level 2)
At this level the student will be able to expand and increase the knowledge of more complex grammatical structures. These include the introduction of the imperfect indicative and the subjunctive (present, past, and future), and the use of the conditional.
Articles taken from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet will be used at this level. The vocabulary content will shift to subjects relating to the student ' needs and interests at SAIS (economics, politics, environment, security). This level might be reached at the end of the first semester, depending on the student previous knowledge of Spanish. Beginning at this level, oral weekly presentations will be a part of the workload at this point, as well as TV watching and listening. Oral presentations are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE READ.
At this level, students should be able to use circumlocution more easily, be understood without much difficulty by speakers not used to non-native speakers, and use paragraph discourse. From this level on, Portuguese is the language of instruction.
Intermediate Mid Portuguese (908.721, Level 3)
At this level, the students will begin using the SAIS Readers in International Affairs.The student will review grammatical structures and at the same time polish his/her knowledge of more complex grammatical structures. The main grammatical structures will include the usage of the passive voice; regular and irregular past participles; adverbs and prepositions; indirect discourse; relative pronouns; compound tenses.
The vocabulary will continue to relate to specific-SAIS areas of study through the use of authentic materials. Weekly oral presentations, TV watching and listening will continue to be an integral part of the program in this level. One text per week is to be discussed, with arguments for and against its content, by the class as a whole.
Beginning with this level, taking advantage of the speakers coming to SAIS, the Portuguese Program requires its students to make at least one presentation to the class about an external speaker's lecture. And occasionally, the class, as a whole, will be required to attend a lecture and then to discuss the main points of the lecture during the next Portuguese class.
Intermediate High Portuguese (908.722, Level 4)
An extensive grammatical review begins this level. The personal infinitive and reduced clauses will be introduced at this level.
At this level, fluency and the correct use of grammatical structures should be the norm. Students should be able to use extended discourse in order to support opinions and make hypothesis. Weekly oral presentations, TV listening, and class discussions continue at this level, deepening the students command of the language, increasing their confidence in the use and understanding of the language. The external speakers approach begun in the Intermediate Mid Level will continue at this level.
TV miniseries, geared to a better understanding of Brazilian society and dealing with Brazil's history and/or historical figures, can be presented at this time.
Conversational Portuguese (908.730, Level 5)
In addition to the previous four basic levels, the content of this 2-hour course is decided by the students themselves, depending on their interests. A power-point presentation about a subject of their choice is to be made at the end of the semester. The student will receive a letter grade for this presentation.