THE DURATION AS AN ACOUSTIC CORRELATE OF WORD STRESS IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH: CHALLENGES FOR TEACHING SUPRASEGMENTAL AND PREPARATION OF TEACHING MATERIALS

Abstract

This paper follows the line of contrastive linguistics and aims to analyze the contrast mechanism that differentiates stressed from unstressed syllables, in Brazilian Portuguesa (BP) and Spanish, in relation to duration. The paper aims as well to discuss how of results can be useful in the construction of teaching materials. Results indicate that duration operates at a more consistent and systematic way as correlate of lexical prominence in Portuguese. By presenting a contrastive analysis between the two languages, this work provides detailed and useful information about suprasegmentals. This contribution can be used both implicitly and explicitly to benefit students and teachers working with both of these languages. Including such information in the elaboration of teaching materials may provide opportunities to enhance learning and facilitate the use of suprasegmentals in L2.

Keywords

• Duration
• Suprasegmentals
• Teaching material