Preconceitos do Brasil (Text)

This text in Portuguese and its English translation accompanies the illustrated podcast in Portuguese 'Preconceitos do Brasil' created by James Letts, a student of Spanish and Latin American Studies at the School of Languages and Area Studies, University of Portsmouth, as a part of a research project entitled ‘The Role of Student Audio Casting and Production in the Language Learning Curriculum’. The recording and text are based on the student’s own original research carried out in the year 2008. Both present commonly held stereotyped images and beliefs about Brazil, and the actual reality of Brazil as a modern industrial nation, with information about the nation’s technological innovations and social programmes. The podcast and text can be used as a learning resource in several different ways: as a focus for discussion, aural and written comprehension or as a base for further research by students in the field of Lusophone, Brazilian and Latin American studies.