Summer Intensive Portuguese Institute (SIPI)

Courses

About the courses (Portuguese 301 and Portuguese 302)

During the eight weeks of Portuguese 301 and Portuguese 302, you will quickly learn to put into practice Portuguese grammatical structures reflective of other Romance languages. You will develop a vocabulary base and pronunciation skills appropriate for a first-year student of Portuguese. This course is tailored for speakers and students of other Romance languages. We, therefore, strive for maximum use of Portuguese in the classroom. In order to concentrate on the practical use of language in class, you will be expected to learn vocabulary and verb conjugations overnight in addition to reading ahead about new grammar issues that will be necessary for in-class activities and discussions. Additionally, part of the course consists of content from Brazilian Civilization offered by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UW-Madison.

For Summer 2025, the classes will run from 9-11am and 12-2pm (CST), Monday – Friday. 

Portuguese 301

MTWRF 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (CST).
MTWRF 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM (CST).
Jun 16 – Jul 11

The goal of Portuguese 301 is to give you the linguistic and cultural tools to:

  1. Learn fundamental aspects of basic Portuguese grammatical structures, including agreement (gender and number; subject/verb; noun/adjective, etc.), tense (present; the different forms of past; future and conditional) in the indicative mode as well as some initial exposure to the imperative and subjunctive modes (more thoroughly covered in Portuguese 302).
  2. Deploy basic communicative strategies in Portuguese to address given topics and cover essential points as, for example, talking about yourself, your family, your home and your city, daily activities, sports, the arts, the environment, travel and vacation, food, clothing, work and business, means of communication, as well as to express yourself in past tenses, engaging, for example, in a narrative about your childhood or past experiences, and finally, talking about your expectations about the future and conditions related to achieving your goals.
  3. Acquire information about contemporary culture and habits of Portuguese-speaking areas.
  4. Develop a cultural awareness about the societies where your newly acquired language is spoken.
  5. Develop a linguistic awareness about how Portuguese functions and how it differs from your native language.

By the end of the course you will be able to understand and use most Portuguese structures in the indicative mode; you will have developed your aural, oral, writing and reading skills on basic, known topics as specified in the Course Description above; and you will have been exposed to a number of relevant facts and cultural information about the Portuguese-speaking areas of Latin America.

Portuguese 301 Syllabus for the Summer of 2022. Designed by Levi Cross.

Portuguese 302

MTWRF 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (CST).
MTWRF 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM (CST).
Jul 14 – Aug 8

The goal of Portuguese 302 is to give you the linguistic and cultural tools to:

  1. Continue to learn and add to the fundamental aspects of basic Portuguese grammatical structures you learned in Portuguese 301, including agreement, modes (Imperative and Subjunctive) tense (present; past; future; compound perfect tenses; and the personal infinitive).
  2. Continue to learn how to distinguish between the uses of the different moods of verbs.
  3. Deploy intermediate communicative strategies in spoken and written Portuguese to address given topics and cover essential points and express yourself in past and future subjunctive tenses, engaging, for example, in contrary to fact constructions.
  4. Continue to acquire information about contemporary culture and habits of Portuguese-speaking areas beyond those you learned in Portuguese 301.
  5. Continue to develop a cultural awareness about the societies where your newly acquired language is spoken.
  6. Continue to develop a linguistic awareness about how Portuguese functions and how it differs from your native language.

By the end of the course, you will be able to understand and use most Portuguese structures in the indicative, imperative and subjunctive modes, as well as the personal infinitive constructions; you will have further developed your aural, oral, writing and reading skills on basic, known topics as specified in the Course Description above; and you will have been exposed further to a number of relevant facts and cultural information about the Portuguese-speaking areas of Latin America.

Portuguese 302 Syllabus for the Summer of 2022. Designed by Jared Hendrickson.