Around mid-2014, while I was working at an accredited binational center in my city, I vividly remember watching a TEDx talk by a charismatic Irishman who called himself Benny, the Irish Polyglot. In fact, I was already familiar with Benny from my time at Cultura Inglesa, another excellent center I worked at. I had previously …
High Proficiency in Weeks? It Can be Done, but not the Way you Think Read More »
I’m privileged to say that I’m part of a team of lecturers who is qualifying the first generation of bilingual education professionals according to the demands of recent legislation – yet to be approved – recommended by the National Education Council of Brazil. In this 120h course, our aim is to discuss important subjects about …
The Five Pillars of Language Evolution – and Why we Mustn’t Neglect them Read More »
Written by André Hedlund and Rodolfo Mattiello The idea that multilingualism develops cognitive potential and influences perception is well explored in the specialized literature. Linguists and cognitive scientists have long proposed the notion that language determines thoughts or at least shapes them depending on how adept they are to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Boroditsky, 2001). Several …
Language, Thought, and Time Perception: How far-fetched is the movie Arrival? Read More »
Adapted from my text for PolicyBristol Blog. Don’t forget to access the first part of this series “Challenging. The Brazilian Educational System is Huge” This is written on the website of Todos Pela Educação (All for Education), an NGO that provides information about the Brazilian educational scenario in order to help boost quality and access to …
Bilingual Education in Brazil – Part 2: History of Education and English Teaching Read More »
In recent years, an important debate has been taking place on the concept of bilingual education and how it fits in the Brazilian educational system. With rare exceptions until recently, additional language learning, particularly English, was restricted to a few hours of contact a week at a regular school or in a language center outside …
Bilingual Education in Brazil – Part 1: What options are there? Read More »
