View Content #23424

Objectives:

• Students will describe the standard rules for distribution of “r” sounds in Brazilian Portuguese words.
• Students will observe and note dialectal differences among pronunciation of “r” sounds.
• Students will share their impressions of perceptions of different accents in Brazil.

Procedure:

1. Have students listen to the dialogue on Lesson 14 of the Tá Falado series from COERLL, available at http://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/tafalado/lesson.php?p=14. The dialogue starts at 1:46 in the recording and ends at 2:21.
2. Students fill in a chart (available here) with the different sounds of “r.”
3. Distribute the transcript of the dialogue (http://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/tafalado/pdf/tafalado_14.pdf)  and listen to the explanation beginning at 8:43 on the podcast and ending at 10:49. Have students compare their conclusions with those on the transcript.
4. Watch the video about Paulista accents on YouTube, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpuTDZjsGvg. Repeat the segment between 0:59 and 1:03 of the pronunciation of “porta.” Then play the segment between 0:16 and 0:40. Which speakers sound more like Michelle, and which sound more like Valdo?
5. For more advanced students, watch this segment from a talk show in which Jo Marcelo Adnet does impressions of different accents from São Paulo state, between 1:45 and 2:41: https://youtu.be/Vp0pMLsTSk0. What are the four types that he imitates? Which ones does the audience find the funniest? Can any conclusions be drawn about attitudes towards different accents in Brazil?

Note: This activity can be adapted to any language that has dialectal differences in pronunciation, especially those that have a strong presence on the Internet so that the teacher can find good examples of language in use.

The entire Tá Falado series of podcasts is available at http://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/tafalado/index.php. For more detailed sociolinguistic analysis of Brazilian Portuguese, see COERLL’s wonderful Conversa Brasiliera series at http://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/cob/.