During the last few years there has been an increase in research of prosodic aspects of speech as well as a greater awareness of intonation as conveyor of meaning. The communicative approach is also considered to have provoked a change in the teaching of pronunciation of pronunciation: it focused on suprasegmental features like rhythm and intonation. This study examines to what extent Spanish-speaking students of Portuguese at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) are able to distinguish between the intonation patterns of statements and yes / no questions in Portuguese, since the two languages present differences, especially in the questions. Some proposals of how to facilitate the acquisition of suprasegmental features in teaching these two related languages are also discussed.
Acquisition of intonation patterns; statements; yes / no questions in Portuguese
