Abstract

CASTELO, Adelina. Word Stress in Portuguese as a Foreign Language: a pilot-study and its pedagogical implications. Invest. Práticas [online]. 2022, vol.12, n.1, pp.46-78.  Epub Mar 29, 2022. ISSN 2182-1372.  https://doi.org/10.25757/invep.v12i1.323.

A few studies mention difficulties in word stress performance in Portuguese as a Foreign Language (PFL), namely among Chinese-speaking learners. However, empirical studies on this topic are scarce. Consequently, this pilot study aims at (i) gaining a better understanding of the performance in word stress production and perception by Chinese learners of PFL and (ii) drawing the relevant pedagogical implications for adjusted pronunciation teaching practices. This classroom study was conducted in a Language Lab course and involved 12 participants: Chinese students majoring in Portuguese Language who had started learning the language six months earlier. Two tests were administered: Test 1 - discrimination of word/sentence pairs differing in one word stress position and prepared oral reading of a short text; Test 2 - discrimination of word/sentence pairs differing in one word stress position and unrehearsed oral reading of a short text. The texts were comparable in terms of extension, theme, vocabulary, grammar complexity and word stress patterns. The main findings include a statistically significant difference in the accuracy rates of rehearsed and unrehearsed reading, and the impact of linguistic variables like word size, stress pattern and ‘spelling-to-stress’ rule on the rates of identified errors. The pedagogical implications of these results are also presented.

Keywords : word stress; second language teaching; pronunciation teaching; Portuguese as a Foreign Language.

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