Abstract:

The Bachelor of Social Sciences in Sino-Lusophone Trade Relations was created at a time when the business world is increasingly globalized, requiring from its professionals not only specialized knowledge, but also transversal skills that accompany the rapid changes in society.

The training, , whose first edition was opened in the academic year 2015-2016, aims to provide students, as future professionals, with knowledge in the areas of Law, Management, Economics and Trade between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. The course is also expected to promote Portuguese language skills and an understanding and respect for their culture.

In order to successfully achieve these goals, the students' linguistic and cultural immersion was considered a benefit to their training. Therefore, a protocol was established between the Macao Polytechnic University and the Polytechnic of Leiria, so the second year of the course could take place in Leiria, Portugal.

However, there was a particularly challenging period for all members of the educational community, since, taking into account the contingency measures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching and non-teaching activities took place at a distance format, namely in the academic years of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

The communication intends to analyze the activities developed in the different teaching modalities and the results obtained by the students, in a comparative logic.

The study has shown that remote teaching practices has made the application of some pedagogical actions more complex or, in some cases, impossible. Nevertheless, efforts were made to find alternatives that would lead the students to rich training moments that would contribute to the increase of their knowledge in the areas of specialty and proficiency in the Portuguese language.

In some cases, the substantial reduction of opportunities for contact with the foreign language has generated a lower level of students language proficiency, that forced to offer several extra opportunities to reinforce the less consistent competencies.

The return to in person teaching allowed the full resumption of teaching activities and the promotion of other actions established with the community, which promote learning and transversal skills, through linguistic and cultural interactions.

This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of the project «UIDB/04647/2020» of CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences of Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Keywords:

Foreign language, language immersion, remote teaching, in person teaching.