The Government of the Azores promotes the 22nd Meeting of Portuguese Teachers in the United States and Canada in the city of Praia da Vitória, starting on Friday. This initiative aims to disseminate the Portuguese social and cultural reality in its Atlantic dimension in order to create bridges that promote the exchange between students and teacher from the communities and the Azores.

Held under the theme "From Portuguese Language and its haven islands," the event brings together forty Portuguese teachers from the USA and Canada. It falls within a series of initiatives promoted by the Regional Government with the purpose of preserving and disseminating the Azorean culture and Portuguese language as an intergenerational cohesion factor between emigrants and Azorean descendants. In addition, the initiative aims to bring them closer to the Region.

With the organisation of this meeting, we intend to provide the teachers who teach Portuguese on the North American continent with new educational approaches, through a privileged space designed to analyse and the debate the differences of teaching Portuguese in the U.S. and Canadian education systems. Moreover, this initiative also calls the attention of teachers for the need of including other subjects in the curricula, such as the geography, history and culture of the Azores.

Following the opening session and a plenary session, which will take place at Terceira Academy of Arts and Youth, the training workshops held under the theme "Teaching a non-maternal Language" will be conducted by foreign language teachers who teach at Azorean schools.

On the following day, Ângela Carvalho, professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, will address the theme "Teaching techniques in Portuguese as foreign language" and João Toste, professor at Stanford University (California), will address the "Atlantis Project."

On Saturday morning, José Luís Silva, retired teacher at San Jose High School, and Diniz Borges, Portuguese teacher at Tulare Union High School, will present a paper on "Techniques and tools for teaching the Portuguese Language and Lusophone cultures."

On Saturday afternoon, the training workshop on "Oral Assessment in Portuguese class as foreign language: practical applications" will be conducted by Raquel Amorim, coordinator of the Portuguese Programme at Northwestern University. Furthermore, the programme also includes the presentation of a paper on "The teaching of Portuguese in the United States and Canada" by the coordinators of Portuguese teaching in the United States, António Oliveira, and Canada, Ana Paula Tavares.

The works will close with forum-debate on the teaching of Portuguese in North America, which will feature the participation of the North American Portuguese Teachers Association (APPEUC), teachers, association leaders and the educational community.

The 22nd Meeting of Portuguese Teachers in the United States and Canada will also include some social and cultural activities as well as an exhibition of textbooks for the teaching Portuguese as a Foreign Language promoted by Porto Editora. The event counts on the support of City Halls of Praia da Vitória and Angra do Heroísmo, the Luso-American Foundation for Development, Grupo SATA, TAP, Porto Editora and "Voz dos Açores," a radio station based in California.

This initiative, held every two years, is the result of a partnership between the Cabinet of the Regional Under Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations, through the Regional Directorate for Communities, and APPEUC. It will bring together participants from the Azores, Mainland Portugal, United States of America, Canada and Bermuda.