Teaching intonation in Spanish as a foreign language through games: a teaching experience with Italian-speaking learners

Abstract

This study explores the use of video games in teaching intonation to Italian-speaking learners of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) at the A1 level. In response to the limited presence of prosodic content in traditional teaching materials, Hercios, an online platform, was developed. It combines video tutorials and mini-games to address the intonation of declarative and interrogative
sentences in Spanish. Aimed at young learners, the proposal is grounded in game-based pedagogy and an analysis of prosodic transfer between Spanish and Italian. The instructional sequence is structured into three phases: observation, awareness-raising, and self-assessment. The content is organized into autonomous Learning Units that are thematically coherent and tailored to the learners’ cognitive profile. Evaluation following classroom implementation revealed a significant improvement in learners’ ability to discriminate intonation patterns, with results outperforming those of a control group at the B2 level.