Nilma Dominique is a Lecturer in Portuguese. She teaches Portuguese from introductory to advanced levels, and has designed and developed the current curriculum of Portuguese language subjects at MIT. Prior to joining MIT in 2010, Dominique taught Portuguese and Spanish at Harvard University in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. She has taught Portuguese as both first and second languages in Brazil. Dominique also has experience in other educational fields, including teacher training and linguistic consulting.

Beyond her instructional role, Dominique has served as the first Portuguese representative on the Board of the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association (MaFLA) and she is currently the co-director of test development for the National Portuguese Exams (NPE).

Dominique’s pedagogical interests include non-verbal communication, sociolinguistics, semiotics, and heritage language pedagogy. She frequently presents her work on language learning and sociolinguistics topics at conferences and society meetings.

Dominique has contributed to various publications, including co-editing the book Microgeopolítica da língua portuguesa: ações, desafios e perspectivas [Microgeopolitics of the Portuguese language: actions, challenges and perspectives], published in 2021; and authoring the book La comunicación sin palabras. Estudio comparativo de gestos usados en España y Brasil [Communication without Words. A Comparative Study of Gestures Used in Spain and Brazil], published in 2012. 

Education:
PhD Universidad de Alcalá, Spain
MA Associação Baiana de Educação e Cultura, Brazil
BA Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil