I chose to discuss here the three major channels that you can use to develop the oral competence in Portuguese. There are many great materials to work out oral comprehension in Portuguese as a Foreign Language. I know best the offer proposed for the European Portuguese. Some include video, as in the authentic material spread through television channels on their web presence. Other than that, there are Youtube Channels, the podcasts on Soundcloud and also at Apple.
I have some preferences that I’m going to share with you here on my blog which help me a lot preparing my lessons of Portuguese as a Foreign Language at all levels.
Television channels
European Portuguese
RTP presents a rich media library of programs from news, to culture or science, which allow any Portuguese teacher the possibility to vary the type of material used in their lessons according to the interests of the students.
For students interested in contemporary art, we have a good program on RTP Grandes Quadros Portugueses, (Great Portuguese Paintings) with documentaries about the painters and accessible from the following link: https://www.rtp.pt/play/p1102/e419514/grandes-quadros-portugueses
Both SIC and TVI are private information and entertaining channels. Therefore I’d dedicate the following materials to more advanced learners.
If you watch SIC Notícias, for instance, it can be a great source of learning by merely going through the last news (últimas notícias).
On TV you can actually watch a current soap opera, such as Na Corda Bamba – it is a good listening exercise as the dialogues are not too fast. For this soap you’ll also find the summary of its chapters in specific blogs , which may help you to contrast the watched and listened to to the reading.
You can find a good example of an episode summary, which may be used in class by teachers or by the most autonomous students here.
For a weekly informed summary about geo-politics, it may be interesting to watch live a opinião de Paulo Portas (Paulo Portas’ opinion) on TVI and then compare information with news on the matter published in the students’ country public opinion.
Brazilian Portuguese
For the Brazilian Portuguese I’d recommend reading Estadão de São Paulo and watching the several soap operas available on the Globo website.
Youtube
Youtube and Vimeo channels present materials done by teachers to learners, and or to other teachers too. They are based on the sharing of knowledge. Several times I also tell the students to create their own videos or audio recordings to practice the language.
European Portuguese
On Youtube Practice Portuguese is a great channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRR8BOCXjSMU8O2TdzAFbww
Brazilian Portuguese
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs3vpdQWaAtmRv7hcNt1jIw
Podcasts em Português
There is an interesting variety of podcasts on Portuguese, but it’s necessary to pay attention to the variant: European or Brazilian. I found only a channel with African Portuguese – , and also to the instruction language of the podcast.
The most interesting for me are those podcasts completely spoken in Portuguese, the target language that you want to teach. However, there are learners that may feel more comfortable learning through English for instance, particularly beginners. These podcasts spoken in another language explaining the Portuguese language are also interesting for autonomous learners, or as a homework (for beginners).
European Portuguese (in English)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/practice-portuguese/ and the correspondent website: https://www.practiceportuguese.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portuguese-lab-podcast-learn-european-portuguese/
European Portuguese (in Portuguese)
Although it has an English title, the Say it in Portuguese is spoken in European Portuguese: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/say-it-in-portuguese/ and it has a very interesting blog too: https://blog.sayitinportuguese.pt/
Podcasts about traveling, travelers and about cosmopolitan people are very interesting. I usually choose some short (up to 20 minutes it is acceptable, but it’s advisable to make some cuts and focus on the important part to work in class in a meaningful way). https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/portugueses-no-mundo/
Brazilian Portuguese
To learn Portuguese, here is another interesting podcast: https://www.todomundopod.com
To talk about general topics and to set the tone of a lesson, here is Café Brasil podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/br/podcast/cafe-brasil-podcast/id191182582?mt=2
Borders of science are also super interesting topics for lessons, for tests and for exams: https://podcasts.apple.com/br/podcast/fronteiras-da-ciencia/id480542677?mt=2
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