UM to establish Chinese-Portuguese bilingual teaching and training center

The University of Macau (UM) plans to establish a Chinese-Portuguese bilingual teaching and training center next spring. The move, according to a statement by UM, was made “in order to promote reform of its Portuguese language programs, and produce more bilingual professionals to support the SAR government’s effort to ‘build a better Macau through talented people’.”

The center plans to devise innovative teaching methods based on the characteristics of Macau students and develop pedagogical models and quality evaluation standards tailor-made for Chinese-speaking learners.

The statement highlights that UM’s Department of Portuguese has a culturally diverse faculty team, among them academics whose research interests include learning or teaching Portuguese as a second language. With the support of a such a team, the center will formulate medium and long-term training plans based on the current situation in Macau. One of its aims will be to improve the university’s Portuguese language curriculum in order to attract more students.

Additionally, the center is expected to launch training programs for Portuguese language instructors from primary and secondary schools in Macau, as well as those from universities in mainland China. The center will also collaborate with the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-Operation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (Macao) in offering courses in Chinese language and culture for students from Portuguese-speaking countries, and in providing language support for professional courses taught in Portuguese, such as courses in tourism, business management, and medical sciences.

On the teaching material front, the center plans to design innovative audio-visual teaching materials that are more suited to Macau students, to supplement its existing teaching materials.

In addition, the center will establish partnerships with organizations and companies in Macau and overseas where Portuguese is a working language, so as to create more internship opportunities for students to practice their Portuguese language skills.