ClicaBrasil: Portuguese Language and Culture for Intermediate Students

Reviewed by Jacob Eliseo, Master Instructor, Howard University on 12/17/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This textbook does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive overview of grammar and language practice for intermediate-level students of Portuguese. The book is very thorough in offering a review of all the verb tenses in Portuguese, but at an intermediate/advanced level. This would be an excellent textbook for students taking the final semester of a lower language level sequence or for a bridge course where students need to review grammar at a more advanced level. The textbook is very well organized and easy to use, however, it is important to note that the textbook needs to be used in conjunction with the Clica Brasil website, which contains the readings, videos, and other content needed to complete the activities in the textbook. The content and activities on the website are the same as those in the textbook, so students could choose to use the website on its own since it functions as a multimodal version of this textbook.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content in this open textbook is accurate. I did not find any errors to do with the grammar explanations or with the activities related to verb conjugations and grammar.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I feel Clica Brasil is a relevant website and textbook, especially for language programs that want to offer real world content for their students that weaves together videos and readings by native speakers with grammar and vocabulary lessons and activities. Clica Brasil feels like a textbook for the 21st century with the multimodal components and hyperlinks that are found on the website.

Clarity rating: 5

The content in each chapter is introduced in a clear and very accessible manner. The website that accompanies the textbook always includes a list of key terms with the videos for the students to practice when learning the content for each chapter.

Consistency rating: 5

The framework of the textbook is consistent with each chapter having the same structure to ensure that cultural and grammar content are being introduced at every level. The terminology to do with grammar and culture-specific vocabulary is introduced in a consistent manner in each chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook provides a consistent structure throughout, with each chapter having the same structure with a cultural background section, a reading, a grammar section, and a zoom in section where students can learn more in depth information about theme of the chapter through videos of native speakers. Dividing the chapters into these smaller modules makes it easy for the instructor to choose which content to assign when preparing their courses.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The grammar and verb tense units are organized in a way that aligns with best practices in foreign language teaching, especially for Portuguese language courses. The beginning of the textbook has a clear table of contents and index that highlights how the book and website is organized according to cultural and grammar content.

Interface rating: 4

The website that accompanies this textbook is designed very well. It is very easy to navigate and the culture/grammar units are organized in a clear and logical manner. It would be nice if the PDF version of the textbook were updated to include hyperlinks to the accompanying sections on the ClicaBrasil website to make it easier to navigate back and forth between the textbook and the website.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The grammar lessons and activities are accurate, and I did not find any errors in the text. This is important for a grammar textbook where students are learning the language at a more advanced level and want to perfect their grammar and writing skills. ClicaBrasil is an excellent resource to use in bridge course for students wanting to improve their grammar.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

ClicaBrasil does an excellent job of organizing the chapters of the book based on cultural themes since culture and language are not isolated from each other. The cultural content is relevant by focusing on issues that are relatable to language learners, such as everyday routines, what people do on the weekend, and the role of technology in our life. Additionally, the textbook does a good job introducing students to cultural content unique to Brazil, including histories tied to immigration and questions of identity tied to space in terms of where someone lives in Rio de Janeiro. However, if the author were to release a new edition of ClicaBrasil in the future, I would recommend including cultural content that reflects the dramatic changes that have occurred in Brazil in the last 15 years with underrepresented populations gaining more access to education, professional jobs, and more representation in the media. Brazil has the largest Afro-descendant population outside of Africa, so including videos in the future to do with these experiences would be important.

Reviewed by Felipe Fiuza, Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University on 10/31/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

To say that ClicaBrasil, by Vivian Flanzer, is a textbook would not only be inaccurate, but an understatement. ClicaBrasil is a complete intermediate/advance Portuguese program developed at the University of Texas at Austin, and it has been in use at that institution since 2010. The textbook is available for download at the OpenText book network, but it is actually meant to be used together with the website. The textbook itself does not provide audio, videos, or the readings that are referred by each chapter, and the students need to find them at the program website. Also, while the videos are available at the site itself, some of the readings need to be access through hyperlinks available there. Here is the example from lesson 1: https://laits.utexas.edu/clicabrasil/lesson/todos-os-dias/pano-de-fundo.html. In order to read Chico Buarque's “Cotidiano,” the reading for lesson 1, the reader needs to click on the link that takes them to Chico's own website. So, the textbook is actually not meant to be comprehended by itself hence the grade.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The program/textbook is accurate and error-free. There is, however, some bias that appears when looking at the book from the perspective of gender and race. There is an attempt to discuss key issues from Brazilian culture and society, such as the role of the “área de serviço” and the differences between “bar” and “boteco”, but the book falls short at discussing the prejudice, which is sadly a component of Brazilian culture, that arises from discussions such as what is better a “feira,” an inclusive and diverse kind of farmer’s market common all over Brazil, and the super market, which is preferred by the Brazilian middle and upper-classes, as shown on the video. The problem lays on how it appears, and how the book fails to discuss it.

In what concerns the Portuguese language itself, however, the book is very accurate, error-free, and unbiased. It shows, for instance, how in Modern Brazilian Portuguese the verbal tense "mais-que-perfeito" uses the verb "ter" as an auxiliar rather than "haver."

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The book is relevant and it shows several important aspects of Brazilian culture, while also serving as an useful tool to teach the language. It is extremely interactive, and all video support is very lively. Also, there is an attempt to keep up to date with the interaction between Brazilian life and technology, showing the similarities and differences from that in relation to US society. The downside of referring to technology is that it is harder for a book/program organized in 2002 to keep up with recent advancements. For instance, it mentions that Orkut was popular in Brazil but that it has been overtaken by Facebook, but it fails to mention the WhatsApp, the most common app for texting. There is a reference to the expression "mandar um zap," which as reference to the app due to the sound similarities of "zap" and What"sApp."

Clarity rating: 5

Yes, it is very clear and straightforward.

Consistency rating: 5

Yes, all terminology is very consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook is not very clear about its dependability of the website, mentioning it in a foreword by the beginning only once. Hence, a reader might feel like the videos or the readings are “missing” if they try to print and use the book by themselves. However, if a student/ instructor, starts their “tour” through ClicaBrasil using directly the website, and not the textbook, then there is no room for misunderstanding. Each section of the site has smaller pdfs with questions that match the content of the textbook, like matching units/sections with units/chapters, as if it was breaking down the textbook while following the content of the webpage.

The textbook itself doesn't have reading sections, but only activities prompts. Questions that require either multiple choice answers, writing, or visual association. Again, I feel that is wrong to talk only about the textbook, which is in fact more like a workbook. So the modularity is excellent, if we consider the interaction between website and textbook/workbook, but poor if we don't. My grade reflects the first option.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The program/textbook is divided in 7 units, each composed by 4 sections, “pano de fundo,” which introduces a context for the lesson; “leitura,” a reading; “gramática,” covering grammar; and “Aproximando o foco;” which attempts a closer look at one topic of Brazilian culture and society. It might take some time for the reader to get used to the interaction between textbook and website, but it works just fine after it. My grade considers website and textbook being used together.

Interface rating: 3

The book does not have interface issues, because all interface is handled by the website. There is a link to the website itself on the textbook by the very beginning. All the links on the website work just fine, so my grade reflects that, and not the textbook itself. I would, however, suggest that each chapter should have individual links to its counterpart from the website, and that each activity should have a link to the readings as well - whenever the reading is external to the website it would be better if the link provided was from the actual reading and not the website.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Grammar is very accurate, and the textbook activities are challenging but not overwhelming. However, the same issues that are present on the videos, such as heteronormativity and reproduction of prejudice of social roles, appear again.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

The site contains hundreds of original videos of Portuguese native speakers, mostly Brazilians with just one speaker from Portugal, which makes sense given the title of the book. There is an attempt for gender diversity, with a good balance between men and women, however there is not one person who is clearly queer in any video, which shows some heteronormativity. This is a quite common feature of language textbooks, and I would not hold it against ClicaBrasil, however, personally, I think we, as professors, should talk about this failure to be inclusive if we ever want to change that. Also, there is a lot of reproduction of prejudice about social roles, for example the dance and the yoga teachers are women, while the engineer is a white male. Moreover, all African Brazilians, both male and female, depicted on videos are shown as belonging to the workers class, as housekeepers or maids, beauty parlor workers, salesperson, etc. Speakers do come from different regions and do have different accents, which is good. They also do speak spontaneously about themselves and the topics that are depicted in the readings.