Clitic Attachment in Brazilian Portuguese

This is the published version. Copyright 2006 Johns Hopkins University Press.Teaching and learning the placement of clitics in Brazilian Portuguese is a challenge, especially in written language, because of the many rules of clitic placement that characterize Portuguese normative grammars. These normative rules are applied more uniformly in Portugal than in Brazil because they were based originally on Peninsular Portuguese prosody. But regardless of how uniform they may be in Portugal, normative rules of clitic placement are a challenge to non-native speakers of Portuguese. The present study proposes a simplified approach to teaching normative rules to non-native students of Brazilian Portuguese, in the written and spoken language alike, based on a single rule of pronoun attachment

Phonetics in Second Language Acquisition: An Acoustic Study of Fluency in Adult Learners of Spanish

This is the published version. Copyright 1996 Johns Hopkins University Press.A phonetic definition of fluency in natural discourse makes it possible to develop a set of procedures to measure fluency empirically. An analysis of changes in oral communication skills of five American adult learners provides an illustration of how these procedures work. These adults participated in a five-week study abroad program in Spanish. Their overall language proficiency before their departure ranged from Intermediate Low to Advanced, on the ACTFL's OPI scale. Four participants moved to higher intra-major levels, but not to higher inter-major levels. The subjective analysis of the recordings shows that most of these changes are reflected in vocabulary acquisition and more ease in discourse interaction of the four participants. According to the procedures developed in the present analysis, only two participants improved their pronunciation. The results using the present procedures correlate with OPI results

Baticum! Curso avançado de português brasileiro, língua estrangeira, a partir de textos da MPB

Baticum! is a textbook for advanced learners of Brazilian Portuguese. It is divided into chapters, each with its own table of contents. This record contains the entire work in one file, as well as the work divided into chapters for easier downloading. It is anticipated that changes will gradually transform this printable textbook into an internet-based course taking greater advantage of the multimedia and interactivity available on the web. The project is the result of a 1999 grant provided by the United States Department of Education under the International Research and Studies Program, when José L. Martínez was the program officerUnited States Department of Education, under the International Research and Studies Progra

Evaluating the Usefulness and Properties of a Subjective Assessment of Brazilian Portuguese

This is the published version. Copyright 2002 Johns Hopkins University Press.This is an evaluation of a Brazilian self-assessment test. All questions on the test guide the students to evaluate themselves on their linguistic and socio-cultural skills in Brazilian Portuguese. The main points discussed in this article are (1) an item analysis, (2) the reliability of the test to determine the consistency of the results obtained by the instrument, (3) the construct validity, and (4) the creation of cutscores. Our analysis of the BP self-assessment was supported by the use of descriptive statistics, by a factorial analysis and by a reliability test to determine the psychometrics characteristics of the test. The major claim in this study is that this test is useful, valid and reliable, if used appropriately, especially with an audience of motivated students such as students going abroad, instead of students who take language classes only as a requirement in their school program

Collective gas sensing in a cyber-physical system

This paper discusses a novel collective sensing approach using autonomous sensors specially designed to monitor gas leaks and search for gas sources. The proposed collective behavior aims to improve the gas-source search by sharing information between mobile sensors and reducing the risks associated with gas leakage. The group acts as a composite sensor that can move independently to search for an optimal sensing zone. The autonomous searching behavior is bio-inspired by colonies of bacteria that continuously seek energy sources throughout their existence. Each sensor makes its own autonomous search decision, considering the group sense, to move in the direction of a better energy source. The collective approach is based on autonomous agents sharing information to achieve a collective sense of gas perception and utilizes more intelligent searching. The method is evaluated in a cyber-physical system specially developed to safely experiment with gases and mobile sensors while reproducing the realistic dynamic behavior of the gas. Experiments are performed to clarify the collective gas-sensing contributions, and the gas search is compared through multiple mobile sensors with and without collective sensing. The proposed approach is evaluated in an unhealthy environment to elucidate its effectiveness. In addition to presenting the related differences between collective and individual sensory approaches, this work contributes with analyzes of the scalability of mobile gas sensing systems. This work also contributed as a simulated semi-physical experimental system to test algorithms' performance before applying it to practice. © 2001-2012 IEEEinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O processo de aquisição das vogais semi-abertas "é, ó" / ε, Ɔ / do portugues (brasileiro) como lingua estrangeira

This is the published version. Copyright 1991 Johns Hopkins University Press.There is no abstract available for this work

Performing Meditation: Vipassana and Zen as Technologies of the Self

The aim of this dissertation is to reflect on technologies of the self, a term coined by Michel Foucault to study western practices of self-formation. Influenced by his work on subjectivity and by Science and Technology Studies (STS), I explore two forms of meditation – Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S. N. Goenka and Thich Nhat Hanh’s practices of mindfulness – in order to analyze the entanglements between technologies, associations and subjectivity. Two research questions guided this study. First, how do Vipassana and Zen assemblages bring forth subjective transformations? Second, what are the politics of meditation practice, considering that Vipassana and Zen perform particular paradigms of subjectivity and aim at transforming the “social”? In order to address these questions, I relied on qualitative research methods, developing a multifaceted methodology that included participant observation at four meditation retreats, semi-structured interviews with meditators, the analysis of relevant literature and my own personal experiences as a beginner. I argue that the mechanisms of subjectification employed by meditation rely on two main devices: the transformation of habitual webs of associations, including couplings between selves, other humans, nonhumans and spaces and the installation of new automatisms. Vipassana and Zen technologies invite subjects to become aware of particular automatisms – regular ways of eating, sitting, walking and breathing - and to direct their attention towards them in novel ways, installing specific ways of managing their selves (stopping and breathing whenever they hear the sounds of bells; developing an attitude of equanimity when they are looking for sensations in their bodies). Vipassana and Zen are mediators that generate new experiences and ways of being informed by meditation, as well as a number of social applications that rely on the paradigmatic changes enacted by these practices. Informed by the dualism between modern and nonmodern, I argue that Zen and Vipassana can be understood as technologies of the nonmodern self (Pickering, 3 2010), suspending the dualism between body and mind, self and others, humans and nonhumans, contributing towards the establishment of nondual paradigms of selfhood and innovative forms of social organization that include new ways of performing human reformation, social action and humanenvironment couplings. The theoretical contributions of this dissertation are threefold. First, I want to extend current STS scholarly work on the self. Second, I want to contribute towards a post-humanist understanding of meditation assemblages. Finally, I am informed by Michel Foucault’s insights on technologies of the self to study meditation, but instead of focusing on the history or genealogy of the western self, I analyze a number of devices of subjectification mobilized to operate subjective changes and to transform the social.Foundation for Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Science, Portuga