This study focuses on the development of L2 prosody and in particular, whether different aspects can affect each other. Finnish-speaking learners of Swedish took part in a pronunciation and oral skills course and were recorded for various speaking tasks before and after the experimental intervention. Read-aloud declarative sentences (statements) from nine learners were acoustically analysed for several tonal and temporal aspects, focussing on the marking of primary stress. The results reveal that the learning of Swedish tonal word accent 2 (H*LH) facilitates other tonal developments towards native-like utterance intonation. A link between tonal and temporal developments in the marking of primary stress was however not found, but the duration measurements suggest that articulation rate and tonal developments may be connected. The study's implications for teaching and future research regarding any L2 -not only Swedish -include that aspects of learning L2 prosody should not be treated as separate, and that more emphasis should be placed on the possible connections between the learning of different aspects.
While utterance fluency measures are often studied in relation to perceived L2 fluency and proficiency, the effect of creaky voice remains ignored. However, creaky voice is frequent in a number of languages, including Finnish, where it serves as a cue for phrase-boundaries and turn-taking. In this study we investigate the roles of creaky voice and utterance fluency measures in predicting fluency and proficiency ratings of spontaneous L2 Finnish (F2) speech. In so doing, 16 expert raters participated in assessing narrative spontaneous speech samples from 160 learners of Finnish. The effect of creaky voice and utterance fluency measures on proficiency and fluency ratings was studied using linear regression models. The results indicate that creaky voice can contribute to both oral proficiency and fluency alongside utterance fluency measures. Furthermore, average duration of composite breaks -a measure combining breakdown and repair phenomena -proved to be the most significant predictor of fluency. Based on these findings we recommend further investigation of the effect of creaky voice to the assessment of L2 speech as well as reconsideration of the utterance fluency measures used in predicting L2 fluency or proficiency.
Kuronen, M., P. Lintunen & T. Nieminen (toim.) . Näkökulmia toisen kielen puheeseenInsights into second language speech. AFinLA-e. Soveltavan kieli eteen tutkimuksia / n:o .-.
Mikko Kuronen & Elina TergujeffUniversity of Jyväskylä
L listeners' percep on of L pronuncia on: effect of prosody on accentedness ra ngs in SwedishThis paper reports on a study in which L speakers (n = ) of Swedish rated the accentedness of read-aloud sentences produced by L speakers (n = ) of Swedish. The aim of the study was to inves gate the effect of certain prosodic features on the accentedness ra ngs. These features include Swedish tone accents and and deviant speech rhythm (e.g. lack of primary stress, and realiza on of mul ple stresses). The results reveal that u erances with deviant speech rhythm yielded percep ons of stronger foreign accent than u erances with target-like rhythm. As for the tone accents, their effect on the scores were non-existent or only marginal. As missing tone accents have been previously found not to compromise intelligibility, the results of the present study reinforce the conclusion according to which emphasis in teaching should be put on prosodic features other than tone accents, especially rhythm.
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