The Interactio Methodology was developed by me, Prof. Maria Lucia Mercante Naddeo (Malu), based on my master’s thesis — “0 processo de construção da aula de segunda língua” presented and approved with honor and distinction by the Department of Applied Linguistics at “Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem” (IEL) at UN ICAMP (State University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas) in August, 1995.

This methodology at first only focused on the acquisition of Portuguese as a second language by foreign speakers living in Brazil and therefore acquiring Portuguese in an immersion situation. However, due to its efficiency, such proposal started being used as a reference in researches related to the teaching and learning process of foreign languages, more specifically German, Spanish, French, English, Italian and Japanese.

Working with native speakers or Brazilian professionals teaching these languages, I could notice in countless situations and out of the classroom that this methodology not only showed positive results, but also optimized the necessary time of exposure to the foreign languages in formal learning situations.

This proposal, essentially interactive, had its concept inside the emerging holistic paradigm (Pierre Weil) which aims at overcoming the fragmentation of the knowledge, working the brain hemispheres in a balanced way and allowing the integration between reason, emotion, sensation and intuition, according to the model developed by Carl Gustav Jung.

This perspective considers each individual as the main character of their own life history, with unique and genuine experiences, therefore relevant, which are used as inputs for the construction of their own history in a foreign language. Since 2001, the lnteractio Methodology has been successfully used, allowing students to get fluent both in English and in Portuguese for Foreigners.