Dr. Agripino Silveira is an Associate Professor of Practice and the Director of the Portuguese Language Program. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics (2012) and M.A. in Portuguese Literature and Cultural Studies (2004) from the University of New Mexico. His research focuses on subject expression in Brazilian Portuguese, with broader interests in language assessment, language pedagogy, and second language acquisition.
Before joining the University of Arizona, Dr. Silveira served as Advanced Lecturer in Portuguese at Stanford University, where he also contributed to the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program, teaching graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in academic and professional communication.
In addition to his teaching, Dr. Silveira has held several leadership roles in language program administration, including coordinating pronunciation courses at the Middlebury Portuguese School and co-chairing the Portuguese Special Interest Group (SIG-ACTFL). He is co-author of Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar and has published research on Portuguese linguistics, applied linguistics, and proficiency-based instruction in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Silveira is certified by ACTFL as an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) tester and Written Proficiency Test (WPT) rater in Portuguese. He is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), the American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA), the American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese (AOTP), and the Linguistic Society of America (LSA).
His current work explores best practices in oral proficiency assessment, task-based instruction, and the pedagogical applications of artificial intelligence in language education.