Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

NILT is located on the ground floor of the Rectorate Building II. (Photo: Henrique Almeida/Agecom)

Last Wednesday, 29 June, the Institutional Center for Languages and Translation (NILT) was inaugurated by the Office of International Relations (SINTER) at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). The Center, founded in 2021, aims to meet the needs of the internationalization process at UFSC.

The new space is located on the ground floor of the Rectorate Building II and includes classrooms for in-person courses, in addition to a computer laboratory for the administration of proficiency exams. The purpose is to complement what has already been offered by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (DLLE), focusing on UFSC’s internationalization, explained the Secretary for International Relations, Lincoln Fernandes.

“No internationalization process exists without a solid linguistic base. The proposal here is to break, instead of surrounding, this linguistic obstacle through a concrete action: NILT; and thereby consolidate, in a feasible way, the internationalization at UFSC”, emphasized Fernandes.

The event was attended by staff from SINTER, DLLE and the Central Administration staff. (Photo: Henrique Almeida/Agecom)

The Center has been offering online courses for the university community since last year. In 2022, it started offering in-person courses too. The courses are targeted at preparing UFSC students, faculty and staff to study abroad, aside from meeting the needs of foreign students at UFSC.

NILT courses are also aimed at assisting the UFSC campuses outside of Florianópolis, which have the need to develop their internationalization at home. Courses already held include classes on how to write an abstract for academic papers; learning academic writing in Brazilian Portuguese; writing motivation letters for studying abroad; and preparing for language proficiency exams.

According to the NILT Coordinator, Silvana de Gaspari, the structure of the Center includes a general coordination and specific coordinators for six foreign languages: German, Italian, Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese for foreigners. The courses offered are also accepted as internship activities for the UFSC undergraduate teaching degrees (licenciaturas), emphasizes the professor.

Inauguration

Plaque unveiling with the Rector, the Vice-Rector and the Secretary for International Relations. (Photo: Henrique Almeida/Agecom)

The inauguration event was attended by UFSC’s Rector, Ubaldo Cesar Balthazar, the Vice-Rector, Catia Regina Silva de Carvalho Pinto, the Prorector for Outreach and Extension, Rogério Cid Bastos, the Secretary for Distance Learning, Luciano Bastos, the Secretary for Institutional Improvement, Liz Beatriz Sass, in addition to other authorities, such as the Administrative and Financial Director of the Foundation for Socioeconomic Studies and Research (FEPESE), Mauro dos Santos Fiuza.

The Rector thanked and praised SINTER for its efforts to innovate for a consolidated internationalization at UFSC. “We will see the importance of this moment further on, over time, when the results of this effort appear. Congratulations for the initiative, for having ideas, for wanting to be inventive and encouraging mutual learning”, said him.

Translated by SINTER/UFSC.

Read the original article here.