Fulbright Uesc 2014 ETA bio

Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz - UESC

Departamento de Letras e Artes - DLA

Projeto de Extensão Dinamizando o Ensino da Língua Inglesa na UESC

Coordenação geral: Prof. Isaias Carvalho

Programa de Assistente de Ensino de Língua Inglesa

Projeto "Língua Inglesa e Seus Aspectos Culturais: a Recepção do Outro na Construção de Si"

Convênio Fulbright – Brasil / CAPES

Coordenação Geral: Profa. Tatinay Pertel (até fevereiro de 2013); Prof. Isaias Carvalho (a partir de março de 2013)

Coordenação dos Cursos de Língua Inglesa: Prof. Isaias Carvalho

Assistentes de Língua Inglesa - 2014

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant - Christina Moriah Smith

Hi! My name is Moriah (pronounced just like Mariah Carey's name!). I am from Boston, MA, which boasts of having the largest populations of Brazilians, Portuguese, and Cape Verdeans (among others from Portuguese-speaking nations) in the US! It's not a surprise then that my family is Cape Verdean, which also speaks to why I am so interested in the Portuguese-speaking world, especially Brazil! Unfortunately, I've never met my Cape Verdean family, but my heritage as a Cape Verdean descendent has fueled my passion to learn about my culture and Portuguese. So I studied abroad in Brazil from March to June, 2012 and Cape Verde from June to August, 2012 to do just that. I also researched the connections between race and education in the lives of Afro-Brazilians in Salvador. So I won't be new to Bahia!

During college I studied education within the context of Peace and Justice Studies to learn how education can be used to end social injustices such as racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and homophobia, among others. That's why I was so interested in the lives of Brazilians of African descent. I also studied Portuguese for 2 semesters at MIT, 1 in Brazil, and during an intensive immersion program at Middlebury College for 7 weeks this summer. I wasn't allowed to speak a word of English for 2 months! Então, eu falo, pelo menos, num nível avançado, mas ainda não falo direito. Mas vocês também podem ser meus professores, especialmente porque eu acredito que numa aula o/a professor/a e os alunos devem se identificar como professores e alunos ao mesmo tempo, concordando com a obra de grande Paulo Freire!

I hope that I will come to know you all well during my year with you! I am overall really excited to return to Brazil, to meet you all, to see Ilê Aiyê during Carnaval, beaches, dancing, açai, feijão verde, and goiaba! Also if any of you know how to surf, I've always wanted to learn!

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant - Dimetri Duckrey

My name is Dimetri Duckrey and I am 21 years old - 22 as of December 13th. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I now live in Southern New Jersey. In May 2013, I graduated from Rutgers University - New Brunswick and majored in Political Science and Spanish with a minor in Portuguese. I had always wanted to study abroad during my four years at Rutgers, but didn't get the chance to - so I am pretty excited to finally be headed to Brazil. Some places that I have gone before include the Dominican Republic and Mexico as well as many places within the United States If I had to rank myself on a scale of 1-10, I would say that my Portuguese skills are about a 6 thanks to studying it in college. In my free time, I love to cook (and to eat). I plan to try lots of new foods during my stay in Brazil and look forward to making some of my favorite dishes to share with students, staff and friends. When I'm not in the kitchen, I'm probably outside keeping busy or listening to music. Still have more questions? Feel free to contact me via email. See you all soon!

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant - Tucker Bungard

I found my love for language when my family moved from Johnson City, Tennessee to Tucson, Arizona in 1998 when I was 10 years old. Actually I would not call it love at first sight. Everything was a shock, including the natural environment. Imagine the change of scenery moving from the Appalachian Mountains to the Sonora Desert! My mom’s brother Pat received us and showed us around Tucson. He had lived here for some time and spoke Spanish fluently; it helped him at his various jobs as a social worker and made quite an impression on me as a boy. When he took us on tours of the city I was also impressed by how many street signs had Spanish names with different pronunciations. “Ah-ho Way goes all the way to Mexico,” I remember him saying, even though it’s spelt A-j-o. He even showed us a side of town where the advertisements were all in Spanish and the road signs changed to kilometers.

This unique world became all the more fascinating when I started 5th grade. I remember the first few days trying to wrap my mind around the low reading levels of some of the students. Watching my classmates Julio, Ana and David struggle with books I had read years ago, I honestly did not understand their situation stemmed from learning English as a second language. We read a book in that class called The Giver by Lois Lowry about a boy who lives in a blackand-

white world and is tasked with slowly administering color to his life via the transmission of his town’s memories. I feel like hearing Spanish spoken by native speakers was something like when the protagonist of the book saw red for the first time – uncomfortable yet thrilling.

To ameliorate the academic sluggard of the Arizona school system, my mom chose to put me in a new, state-funded charter school called BASIS. I stayed at BASIS from 6th grade until I graduated 12th grade as valedictorian. The year I graduated, BASIS was ranked the second best charter school in the nation by Newsweek magazine. The school’s focus on math, science and AP testing left me very well-prepared for college, or so I thought.

At the University of Arizona, I started with so many AP credits that I ended up registering for classes that were too difficult for me and my GPA in math and physics suffered. My Spanish GPA remained nearly flawless except for one semester when all of my efforts were stymied. I was robbed and assaulted one block from campus as part of a Latino gang initiation ritual. All of my books were taken. For weeks I felt uncomfortable leaving my house.

By the end of that morose semester, I triumphed over my fears. I filled out my application to study in Chile where I would go to fall in love with Latin America and teaching. I remember tutoring my “host-brother” in physics and helping him pass his hard university exams. His family, along with the classroom of students I volunteered to teach, encouraged me to continue with my degree, that ultimately I can affect a positive change. I studied abroad again in Guatemala where I taught young adults who in turn taught me the value of English: the goodpaying jobs belonged to the young bilingual people who worked as tour guides or in call centers. This empowered me to teach English because I saw the positive, real-life effects it can have.

In my junior year I started taking Brazilian Cinema and my world was imbued with a new hue; never before was I as enthralled by music, dance and entertainment as I am by the culture of Brazil. For these reasons I sought out an internship teaching Portuguese at a Brazilian martial arts school called Capoeira Mandinga. In Brazil, I want to continue to learn to spread this message of anti-violence. I believe President Rousseff’s attempts at improving human rights coincide with my interests. Her stance, coupled with Brazil’s advances in physics, genuinely intrigue me. I would like to be there to take part or at least give a first-hand report. I want to go so I can come back and be a stronger member of the Tucson community that taught me to love.

Texto adaptado da publicação da Assessoria de Comunicação Social da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes)

Quinta, 20 de Janeiro de 2011 12:49

Divulgado no dia 20 de janeiro de 2011, o resultado do edital que seleciona instituições públicas de ensino superior (IES) anfitriãs do Programa de Assistente de Ensino de Língua Inglesa para Projetos Institucionais. Ao total foram selecionados projetos de 16 universidades, entre as quais a UESC, cujo projeto - "Língua Inglesa e seus aspectos culturais: a recepção do Outro na construção de si" (ver arquivo anexo abaixo) - é coordenado pela professora Tatiany Pertel Sabaini Dalben.

A iniciativa é uma parceria entre a Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) e a Comissão para o Intercâmbio Educacional entre os Estados Unidos da América e o Brasil (Comissão Fulbright). Os projetos possuem caráter institucional e contemplam ações voltadas para os cursos de graduação.

A duração dos trabalhos é de até quatro anos e contemplam a inserção de um falante nativo, na condição de assistente de ensino. O assistente deve ser cidadão estadunidense, recém-graduado com alguma experiência em ambiente educacional e em ensino em sala de aula. Deve ter proficiência oral e escrita em uma língua neolatina, algum conhecimento de português e disponibilidade para permanecer no Brasil de fevereiro a novembro. As duas candidatas aprovadas para o curso de Letras da UESC em 2011 são: Amalia Zeidman e Carolyn Wright.

O objetivo do programa é contribuir para a elevação da qualidade dos cursos brasileiros de letras, inglês. A iniciativa pretende valorizar a formação e a relevância social dos profissionais do magistério da educação básica, por meio do fomento a experiências metodológicas e práticas docentes de caráter inovador. Há o estímulo a propostas que promovam o desenvolvimento das habilidades de comunicação e o incentivo a propostas que contemplem a inclusão de conteúdos culturais, sociais e históricos da sociedade estadunidense na formação dos futuros docentes.

É uma grande oportunidade de intercâmbio linguístico e cultural para os alunos e professores de Letras - Língua Inglesa da UESC.