Learn Portuguese at the CCLS Brazilian Portuguese Language School of Houston

The goal of CCLS Portuguese Language School Houston is for each student to develop fluency in Portuguese. Through the interactive approach of CCLS Portuguese Language School Houston, graduates confidently represent their business with a natural form of speech, which will build relationships with business associates and clients.

All classes utilize an interactive approach to enhance fluency in Portuguese in each student. Teacher interaction incorporates proven techniques to reinforce classroom and multimedia instructions, such as role-play, storytelling, information transfer, games, reports, problem-solving, interviews, and discussions. Learning materials provided by CCLS include workbook and culture-related texts.

CCLS Language School Houston teaches the Brazilian Portuguese, which is a set of dialects of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil. Portuguese is the predominant language of South America. Upon completion of the seven levels of instruction at CCLS Language School Houston, basic to advanced, students are tested for competency to communicate accurately and effectively in Brazilian Portuguese to ensure the best results in social and business interactions.

APPROACH: Communicative. Grammar is used to aid in the development of communication skills.

PLANNING: The planning of the course is based in the "Novo Avenida Brasil 1" book, the cultural aspects (interpersonal interaction, politics, economy, music, arts, etc.) involved in learning Portuguese from Brazil and the students’ needs and interests. The main objective of the course is to enable students to communicate appropriately in social and general business situations with correct pronunciation and grammar. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing is part of the integrative program. Phonetic training and self-monitoring play an important role in the course.

TECHNIQUES: Small classes enable interaction between teacher and student(s), and pair work for student-student interaction. Tasks and activities in the classroom range from highly guided exercises (answering questions from a text) to very communicative (saying why one liked or disliked something). Some techniques used are role-playing, brainstorming, storytelling, information transfer, games, reports, problem-solving, interviews, and discussions.

MATERIALS: Bem-Vindo” activity book, CDs, and culture related texts. These materials are authentic, provided by CCLS.

TEACHING STAFF: All CCLS instructors are qualified and experienced teachers certified by CCLS.

EVALUATION: Students’ and teachers’ performances are periodically evaluated. Students take oral and written evaluations throughout the course in the form of exercises. The evaluations are mainly diagnostic and indicate strengths and weaknesses. They also identify areas in need of improvement.

COURSE DURATION: There are seven levels of instruction, from basic to advanced. Each level takes approximately 50 hours for English speakers; for speakers of Romance languages, the improvement could be faster. For optimal results, we strongly recommend classes take place at least twice a week for at least 100 minutes each.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: At the end of the course, the students should be able to communicate effectively and accurately in Portuguese. They will have learned enough language functions to be able to participate in social and business interactions with Portuguese speakers.