Per un ascolto efficiente del portoghese europeo. Percorsi dal basso e dall'alto

This contribution offers a discussion on the enhancement of the top-down approach in the listening of oral texts in European Portuguese, by Italian-speaking learners. Portuguese has a vowel system that is particularly rich when compared to Italian. In addition, the vowels in non-accented syllables undergo a process of reduction that makes them difficult to perceive by the ear of an Italian speaker. In order to face such a difficulty of perception, recognition and comprehension of the oral text, it is necessary on one hand to consider the specific problems at all linguistic levels, following a bottom-up perspective and, on the other hand, to focus on the contribution that inference can make to strengthen the possibilities of understanding the message.