Contrastive analysis of interlanguage prosody of English as an L2: the case of L1-Spanish and L1-French learners

Abstract

Exploratory study dealing with the phonetic realization (f0, dur) of focused lexical elements produced by native speakers of English and learners of English whose L1 is Chilean Spanish or French. Analyses show that speakers of different L1 groups favor different types of pitch contours to express focus: rise-falls are most common among native English speakers, whereas rises are frequently observed in L1-French speakers and fall-rises are fairly common among Spanish speakers. Pitch range (max f0 - min f0) values vary by group of speakers: overall, L1-Spanish speakers perform larger pitch movements than L1-French and native speakers. Finally, learners perform final rises in questions with focused elements more often than native speakers.

Leonardo Contreras Roa

Associate Professor in English Phonetics and Phonology

Phonetician and English teacher, PhD in Linguistics