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This study aimed to analyze the most common child’s play of students (approximately seven years old) both during the playtime and the time they are not at school, also considering the teacher’s interpretation of the child’s play practiced in the school, located in a small slum of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte. In this way, the analysis considered the issues that involve the recognition of the essentiality of childhood (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2003; Sarmento, 2007), in the context of the reality and affectivity of children in the place called slum (Coelho, 2007; Perez & Jardim, 2015, Tuan, 1983), as well as in aspects that demonstrate the control of their bodies through the child’s play performed in the school (Brighente & Mesquida, 2011; Foucault, 2009). As a methodological basis, participant observation was chosen because it was believed that from this practice it was possible to extract important experiences and reflections from the research participants, know our actions and, by observing these people, their behaviours and attitudes in routine situations (Lüdke & André, 1986). The results suggested that the slum children’s play, both in school and outside, are different among boys and girls. In the open areas of the slum, the boys explore more spaces than girls, who prefer child’s play in the domestic sphere. At school, educators try to censure some behaviours and attitudes of children, suggesting the pursuit of obedient postures and disciplined bodies. In this context, it is crucial that educators do not convert the school into a place of censorship of the child’s play that resides in the slums and thus transforming the school into a space that reinforces the domestication of bodies from the earliest stages of childhood.

The international literature on the impacts of globalization on large cities has insistently pointed to the increase in residential segregation. Three mechanisms have been identified as the causes of this phenomenon: globalization, which by disseminating neoliberal ideas throughout the world, generated changes in the regulatory models and paradigms that guide urban policy; institutional reforms toward market liberalization and the property and housing market were undertaken in various countries; real estate prices became the central mechanism for distributing the population throughout the city, reinforcing income inequality as the determinant of urban spatial organization. At the same time, privatization exacerbated the growing inequality of access to the services and infrastructure that ensure urban well-being, especially with regard to quality. The wealthier areas, where those with greater purchasing power concentrate, have at their disposal an abundant supply of goods and services, whereas the areas populated by the poor are supplied with inferior goods and services. Further, globalization caused structural changes originating in the transformation of the productive base of the cities, creating trends toward social polarization. The social structure of the great metropolises is no longer represented by a pyramid, and is expressed instead by an hourglass where the middle positions narrow while the extremities widen. Simultaneously, there has been an increase in the distance between the average incomes of the higher and lower strata.

The following chapter describes and discusses survey-based findings of students’ perception concerning the acquisition of a third language supported by modern technologies at the university level and provides an overview of research on teaching methodologies. The surveys show that selected reality-based activities not only support students’ language-learning efforts, but also contribute to a more relaxed acquisition of the German language, an important factor of Stephen Krashen’s theory of the lowering of the “Affective Filter,” which stems from 1984. The goal was to find specific technology-enhanced exercises that support the acquisition of the German language, including relatively complex grammatical structures. Although the surveys were conducted among students who took German classes at various levels, the assumption can be made that some aspects of the findings and suggestions are also beneficial for the teaching of other foreign languages.