Las vocales nasales en portugués-un problema de percepción

Abstract

This article will report on results of a study that was made to determine if the capacity of Spanish speaking students of Portuguese to perceive nasal vowels improves over time or is susceptible to improvement through explicit practice. A discrimination test was elaborated containing words with nasal and oral vowels and applied to groups of students with different level of Portuguese. The results demonstrated that the problem of perception and discrimination between nasal and oral vowels persists into the advanced levels. The same test was then applied to three first level groups of Portuguese. An experimental group received additional practice with specific exercises. The test was then readministered. The results demonstrated that the students who received practice improved significantly on the test. The analysis of the test items also gave valuable information about how the students proceed to determine if a vowel is nasal or oral; and about the contextual cues that they use as a basis for their decision. The information may be useful for the elaboration of future exercises that may improve the perception and pronunciation of this characteristic aspect of Portuguese phonetics.