DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

Professor Ana Thomé Williams currently teaches Portuguese 115 - Portuguese for Spanish Speakers, Portuguese 201 - Portuguese Reading and Speaking, Portuguese 202 - Portuguese Reading and Writing, and Portuguese 303 – Topics in Advanced Portuguese.

Her areas of research and interest are:

• Intercultural Communication
• Foreign and second language acquisition by speakers of Spanish, French, English and Portuguese
• Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom
• Lusophone studies
• Portuguese language teaching and learning in the USA


Ana C. Thomé Williams holds both her MA and her PhD in Linguistics from the University of São Paulo. 
In her MA research, she did a study in Applied Linguistics where she observed the relationship between age and the onset of learning a foreign language at school. She did a study with preschool children learning English in public schools in Brazil. Her findings were published in journals in Brazil and Italy.


In her PhD research, she was concerned with cultural matters and their application to language teaching and learning. She did a cross-linguistic and cultural comparison between French and Brazilian soccer announcers’ discourse. She published a book that discusses her findings. 

In her book, "O Jogo Narrado, um cruzamento linguístico-cultural da locução de futebol no Brasil e na França", published by Paco Editorial, São Paulo, 2013, she analyzes cultural and linguistic aspects in mass media communication through language uses in Portuguese and French.  

Professor Ana T. Williams  has been giving lectures on teaching and learning languages for a long time. In the last years, she has presented research findings, lead workshops or have been a guest speaker in conferences in North or South America, Europe, Africa (Cape Verde) and Asia (Japan and Macao).   

Currently, she is preparing a book for Intermediate Students in Portuguese (Open Educational Resource) and has recently co-organized a book on Portuguese language teaching/learning that reflects the pedagogical challenges during the Pandemic: "Práticas em Português língua estrangeira em isolamento social - provocações para uma era pós-covid", to be published by Editora Pontes, Campinas, 2023.  

She is the co-founder and the co-chair of the Illinois Portuguese Language Connection, an intercollegial yearly event that involves students from Portuguese language programs of different universities in Illinois;  she currently is a board member of the American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese; with the special role as the Executive Director of the “Encontro Mundial sobre o Ensino do Português”; she is the past-President of the Portuguese Special Interest Group of the  American Council o the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and an officer of the International Association of Intercultural Communication Studies Association (IAICS) with the role of Executive Director of the IAICS conference.

Some her honors and awards are:

“ Northwestern University T. William Heyck Award from the International Studies Residential College” for commitment to promoting community and advancing student learning through the residential experience, September 2023

“ Faculty Honor Roll” Certificate presented by the Office of Undergraduate Research, 2022

“Academic Publication in Portuguese of the Year with the Co-organization of the book: “Práticas em português língua estrangeira em tempos de isolamento social: Provocações para uma era pós-covid”, American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese, August 2023

“Portuguese University Professor of the Year Award, Excellence in Teaching Portuguese in the United States”, American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese, May  2018

 “Best Educational Project/Initiative in Portuguese in the United States Award”, for the Program Illinois Portuguese Language Connection, American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese, May 2017

“Council on Language Instruction Teaching Award for Excellence in Foreign Language Teaching”, Northwestern University, June 2014