Meet Marina P. T. Leite, MECO Collaborator from Brazil

Marina P. T. Leite’s interest in languages started early.

“After living in Canada as a kid and being exposed to English and French, I became very fascinated about language learning and have fostered this interest in university as well,” says Leite.

Leite completed a BA in Theoretical and Descriptive Linguistics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. At the same time, her interest in bilingualism and speech production, as well as Parkinsonian speech, led her to work as a research assistant in both the Phonetics and Psycholinguistics Labs, supervised by MECO Collaborator Rui Rothe-Neves, where she was introduced to MECO.

“Within two months of working as an RA, I started collecting data for MECO for the Brazilian Portuguese database,” says Leite. “It allowed me to collaborate for the first time with a foreign university and foster productive work relationships. I learned new data collection and analysis techniques and expanded my research interests.”

Leite hopes the MECO data can be used to increase the amount of available data about reading in Brazilian Portuguese.

“Brazilians are the majority of Portuguese speakers in the world. Comparing reading patterns and eye movements in Brazilian Portuguese with other languages, especially Latin based languages, can help us understand the similarities and differences of Brazilian Portuguese.”

Leite is now pursuing a second degree in Teaching and Education. The collected data, she says, is also important for understanding literacy in university students.

“Having university students with diverse educational backgrounds, coming from the public or private schools systems, allows us to conduct research in the sociolinguistic field on differences in reading practices. The findings could also improve education strategies to boost reading comprehension and literacy skills in my country.”