Concentrations and lines of research
CONCENTRATION AREAS
The Graduate Program in Linguistics (PPGL) is organized around four concentration areas, each of which encompasses different lines of research. These concentration areas and lines of research are the resultS of the strategic planning carried out by the PPGL during the second half of 2016 and the discussions held between 2016 and 2018:
- APPLIED LINGUISTICS
- PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
- SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND DIALECTOLOGY
- LANGUAGE THEORY AND ANALYSIS
LINES OF RESEARCH
- DISCOURSE STUDIES
- PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
- FOREIGN LANGUAGE / SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
- LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
- LANGUAGE CONTACT, VARIATION AND CHANGE
- LANGUAGE POLICY
- PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
- SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
- COGNITION AND USAGE
- LIBRAS (BRAZILIAN SIGN LANGUAGE)
CONCENTRATION AREA: APPLIED LINGUISTICS
LINE OF RESEARCH 1: DISCOURSE STUDIES
Overview: Epistemological studies of discourse. Different trend of the discursive field. Theoretical-methodological assumptions for discourse analysis. Problematization of language use issues.
Professors:
Dr Adair Bonini
Dr Ana Paula de Oliveira Santana
Dr Atilio Butturi Junior
Dr Daniel do Nascimento e Silva
Dr Marcos Antonio Rocha Baltar
Dr Pedro de Souza
Dr Rodrigo Acosta Pereira
Dr Rosângela Hammes Rodrigues
Dr Sandro Braga
LINE OF RESEARCH 2: PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Overview: This line of research examines the social uses of language, in socio-historical and sociocognitive perspectives. It privileges as objects of study: the teaching and learning of Portuguese language in formal education contexts – Basic Education and Higher Education – and in informal ones, in oral and written modalities and in interface with other semiosis; the practice of linguistic analysis; the elaboration and the evaluation of documents and teaching materials; teacher training/education; linguistic-educational policies, and; evaluation practices in school contexts.
Professors:
Dr Adair Bonini
Dr Ana Paula de Oliveira Santana
Dr Marcos Antonio Rocha Baltar
Dr Rodrigo Acosta Pereira
Dr Rosângela Hammes Rodrigues
Dr Rosângela Pedralli
LINE OF RESEARCH 3: FOREIGN LANGUAGE / SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
Overview: This line of research investigates the teaching and learning / acquisition of foreign languages / second language in different contexts (formal and informal), media and technologies. It seeks to understand teachers’ action and activities, the development of linguistic, communicative and cultural knowledge on teaching materials and language education in bilingual contexts.
Professors in charge:
Dr Adja Balbino de Amorim Barbieri Durão
Dr Leandra Cristina de Oliveira
Dr Maria Inêz Probst Lucena
Dr Rosely Perez Xavier
LINE OF RESEARCH 10: LIBRAS (BRAZILIAN SIGN LANGUAGE)
Overview: This line aims at developing research, in the different fields of linguistics, that have as object the Brazilian Language of Signals (Libras) and that can be directly or indirectly applied in bilingual education and in the social inclusion of deaf people. Among the topics that fit in this perspective are: (a) the relations between sign language, culture and identity of the deaf; (b) the development of linguistic theories and descriptive studies based on visual-spatial language data; (c) sign language acquisition; (d) the teaching of sign language as L1 and as L2; (e) the teaching of the Portuguese language as L2 for the deaf; (f) sign language writing; and (g) bilingual education for the deaf.
Professors:
Dr Aline Lemos Pizzio
Dr Marianne Rossi Stumpf
Dr Ronice Müller de Quadro
CONCENTRATION AREA: PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
LINE 4: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
Overview: This line of research is developed for testing theories of first and second language acquisition and of the learning of the writing system, through the observation and description of data and subsequent explanation. Regarding language processing, it draws on experimental psycholinguistics and neuroscience to investigate, in their different phases, how acoustic, visual-spatial or other signals are transformed into meanings, on the one hand, and how meanings are transformed into sounds and visual-spatial signals, on the other. Also with regard to the learning of the writing system, this research line investigates new literacy methodologies and the development of reading and writing competencies.
Professors:
Dr Ana Cláudia de Souza
Dr Cristiane Lazzarotto-Volcão
Dr Leonor Scliar Cabral
Dr Mailce Borges Mota
Dr Sandra Quarezemin
CONCENTRATION AREA: SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND DIALECTOLOGY
LINE OF RESEARCH 5: LANGUAGE CONTACT, VARIATION AND CHANGE
Overview: This line covers studies of languages in contact, variation and linguistic change in the different grammatical levels of natural languages, using different theoretical approaches. It aims to provide empirical evidence and reflection of theoretical-methodological nature concerning the analysis of language in use that may support hypotheses about language contact and linguistic varieties.
Professors:
Dr Ana Livia dos Santos Agostinho
Dr Cristine Görski Severo
Dr Edair Maria Görski
Dr Felício WesslingMargotti
Dr Izete Lehmkuhl Coelho
Dr Leandra Cristina de Oliveira
Dr Marco Antonio Rocha Martins
LINE OF RESEARCH 6: LANGUAGE POLICY
Overview:The line of research on Linguistic Policy draws on a number of authors linked to continental European sociolinguistics (Kloss, Kremnitz, Vellverdù, Marcellesi, Calvet) and to the Anglo-Saxon tradition, especially Fishmann, Ferguson and Haugen. It was developed from the 1960s on, mainly focusing on the formation of the new states that emerged after decolonization as well as on the issues associated with the management of plurilingualism, with special theoretical contribution from the ex-colonies (Gupta, Hammel). Over time, it expanded its research focus. Currently, it covers the question of multilingualism and its management, the formation of national languages, linguistic rights and language minorization, language education (especially in its bi- or multilingual version) and, extinction of languages among other phenomena pertaining to relationships between power, State, citizenship, nationalities, identities and languages.
Professors in charge:
Dr Cristine Görski Severo
Dr Daniel do Nascimento e Silva
Dr Fábio Lopes da Silva
Dr Janae Muller de Oliveira
Dr Maria Inêz Probst Lucena
CONCENTRATION AREA: LANGUAGE THEORY AND ANALYSIS
LINE OF RESEARCH 7: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
Overview: This line of research investigates phonetic-acoustic-perceptual, articulatory and phonological aspects of natural languages. It deals with phonetics and phonology in interface with other disciplines and in their implications to mother tongue and foreign language teaching.
Professors:
Dr Ana Livia dos Santos Agostinho
Dr Cristiane Lazzarotto-Volcão
Dr Izabel Christine Seara
LINE OF RESEARCH 8: SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
Overview:Studies of grammatical phenomena of natural languages, at syntactic and semantic levels, from formal, empirical-descriptive and experimental perspectives. Studies that deal with the new perspectives on Portuguese language classroom teaching and learning.
Professors in charge:
Dr Edair Maria Görski
Dr Heronides Maurílio de Melo Moura
Dr Marco Antonio Rocha Martins
Dr Núbia Saraiva Ferreira
Dr Sandra Quarezemin
LINE OF RESEARCH 9: COGNITION AND USAGE
Overview: This line focuses on developing research that takes into account cognitive, pragmatic-communicative and sociocultural dimensions of grammatical phenomena. The methodology adopted aims to integrate studies of the language system and of language in use. The topics covered are the emergence and crystallization of grammatical categories, the interaction between functional and structural forces, the structure of the lexicon and its relation to cognition, and the cognitive basis of grammatical structures. Cognition, in interface with language, can be understood both as neural correlates of linguistic processing and as the source of interactional processes. Research projects on methodological and epistemological aspects of the interface between language and cognition will also be developed.
Professors:
Dr Ana Paula Santana
Dr Heronides Maurílio de Melo Moura
Dr Edair Maria Görski
Dr Leandra Cristina de Oliveira