Author: David Domingos
Format: pdf
Number of Pages: 132
Illustrator: AI ao estilo Studio Ghibli
Publish Date: 2025
Version: 1.0
Language Level: A1– European Portuguese as a Foreign Language
Price: 25.00
Caravela A1 is a European Portuguese as a Foreign Language manual focused on communication. It offers a new approach to both learning and teaching European Portuguese.
To write this manual, I began by analyzing existing content and separating the essential from the accessory. I considered what was practical and immediately applicable to be essential, and everything else was accessory. At this stage, I realized that most of the existing content was accessory, and even the communicative content wasn’t truly practical and/or didn’t have immediate applicability. Most of this content served more to practice conversion within the classroom than outside of it. This was because the choice of topics was fundamentally based on the grammar and vocabulary to be covered, rather than communication.
That said, I eliminated everything accessory and focused on the essential. As a result, grammar, while present, was relegated to the background, serving only as a facilitator of understanding and expression at specific moments.
The result was highly communicative, practical, and essentially oral content. I also observed that the most difficult component to develop is listening comprehension, as students could construct good sentences but, outside the classroom, had difficulty interacting orally because they couldn’t understand native speakers. Therefore, the manual focuses on listening comprehension. Phonetics also focuses on listening comprehension.
The manual is organized by thematic units. As a general rule, each unit begins with useful vocabulary and phrases to be studied, preferably in advance. Listening exercises follow to check oral recognition of the vocabulary learned. Then, example dialogues are presented, followed by test questions. Essential grammar is then covered in a simple and concise format. There are appendices with more detailed information on grammar and phonetics, as well as vocabulary.
Next, oral interaction/conversation exercises to practice specific topics and gain automatism and confidence for communication activities. These activities consist of simulation exercises with guideline scripts and supporting vocabulary. This is where this manual stands out, as most of its exercises are oral (roleplay), allowing students to practice real-life classroom situations. To date, there is no comparable manual on the market.
At the beginning of the manual, there is an index of the units with their respective programs, and at the end, there are the exercise solutions and audio transcripts.
With approximately 2 hours of audio and 60 conversation and oral interaction exercises, the manual has all the resources necessary for the student/teacher to learn/teach without needing anything more than a pen to write and a device to play the audio.