Guest+Speaker+to+World+Languages

Dr. Pedro,a dad to two of my students, Gabby and Alex, came to our World Languages class to discuss his heritage,Portuguese, and how we acquire languages. Dr. Pedro is an expert on these two subjects because he was born in Portugal and he has studied neuroscience and how the brain works.The students were interested in the many colonies Portugal had in the 16th,17th and 18th centuries. He explained how the Portuguese explorers conquered areas of Africa and South America. His power point presentation and the maps he showed were especially helpful for our visual learners. The second part of his presentaion focused on how the brain works. He explained that he was part of a team who worked with a teenager who had never before spoken. One of our students asked the most insightful question- " What was her first word?" The doctor was amazed and said what an important question that was and yet no one on the team of educated professional had thought to ask that very question! It was a great experience for all of the stuents and I hope that Dr. Pedro enjoyed coming to our class.