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 result of the strategic planning carried out by the PPGL during the second half of 2016 and the discussions held between 2016 and 2018:

  1. APPLIED LINGUISTICS
  2. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
  3. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND DIALECTOLOGY
  4. LANGUAGE THEORY AND ANALYSIS

 

LINES OF RESEARCH

  1. DISCOURSE STUDIES
  2. PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
  3. FOREIGN LANGUAGE / SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
  4. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
  5. LANGUAGE CONTACT, VARIATION AND CHANGE
  6. LANGUAGE POLICY
  7. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
  8. SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
  9. COGNITION AND USAGE
  10. 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 JuniorDr Pedro de Souza

Dr Fabiana Giovani

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 Aline Mara de Oliveira

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 Heronides Maurílio de Melo Moura

Dr Marco Antonio Rocha Martins

Dr Núbia Saraiva Ferreira

Dr Roberta Pires de Oliveira

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