Experimental data combining complementary measures based on the oral airflow signal is presented in this paper, exploring the view that European Portuguese voiced stops are produced in a similar fashion to Germanic languages. Four Portuguese speakers were recorded producing a corpus of nine isolated words with /b, d, ɡ/ in initial, medial and final word position, and the same nine words embedded in 39 different sentences. Slope of the stop release (SLP), voice onset time (VOT), release and stop durations and steady-state oral airflow amplitude characteristics preceding and following the stop were analysed. Differences between independent groups (three different places of articulation and two vowel contexts) and correlations between variables were studied; generalised linear mixed effects models were developed to study the effects of VOT, SLP and the factors place of articulation and vowel context on the mean oral airflow. A classification of stop's voicing was automatically extracted. Both SLP (p = .013) and VOT (p = .014) were significantly different for the three places of articulation. Weak voicing was observed for 57% of the stops. It is hypothesised that the high percentages of weakly voiced stops are a consequence of passive voicing and that the feature of contrast in Portuguese is privative [spread glottis].

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Epistemology plays an important role in detecting learning difficulties in a given field of knowledge and in directing strategies to eliminate them. This quantitative study aimed to get to know the perceptions of 624 students, related to the nature of science and science teaching and learning. The cross-sectional survey, based on the Inventory of Teacher’s Pedagogical Scientific Beliefs (INPECIP) questionnaire, was applied to the students who attended the 10th, 11th and 12th grades of teacher training courses, in a school in Luanda. The results reveal a clear majority agreement with the theoretical and conceptual frameworks presented, in decreasing manner, from the “didactic model” through the “learning theory”, the “image of Science” and the “teaching methodologies”. The regression model highlights that the course attended clearly influences the epistemological conceptions of the respondents.

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