Assessing knowledge of English intonation patterns by L2 speakers

Mok, Peggy P. K.; Yin, Yuehui; Setter, Jane; Nayan, Noor Mat

doi:10.21437/speechprosody.2016-111

Cited by 6 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…In one of the very few perception studies on L2 intonation, Mok et al [19] report results based on an intonation selection task,which the present study replicates, with 40 speakers of Hong Kong English (HKE). The HKE speakers chose intonation patterns similar to those of the BrE native speakers for some sentence types (i.e.…”

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…A replication of this study will allow us to compare results across L1 backgrounds and determine how far errors in the choice of appropriate intonation patterns can be explained in terms of L1 transfer or general learning mechanisms. Since Mok et al [19] found a certain amount of variance in the responses of native BrE speakers, we contrast our results for German-speaking learners with the native speaker data.…”

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…statements, continuation, statement-question/echo, yes-no-questions), but performed worse with tag questions. Mok et al [19] concluded that HKE speakers have only partial knowledge of the English intonation system due to the absence of equivalent structures in their L1, Cantonese, a tone language. This explanation suggests that learners of English (an intonation language) with an L1 that is also an intonation language will perform better in an intonation pattern selection task than HKE speakers.…”

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to test this hypothesis and to learn more about the perception and understanding of English intonation patterns by learners of English in different contexts, we replicated Mok et al's [19] study with German-speaking learners of English and conducted an intonation pattern forced-choice selection task. A replication of this study will allow us to compare results across L1 backgrounds and determine how far errors in the choice of appropriate intonation patterns can be explained in terms of L1 transfer or general learning mechanisms.…”

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BrE native speaker control group (previously reported in [19]), consists of 25 participants (3 male). They were all university students aged 19 to 34 (mean 19.3 years; SD: ±1.7).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The Perception of English Intonation Patterns by German L2 Speakers of English

Puga

Fuchs²,

Setter

et al. 2017

Interspeech 2017

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Previous research suggests that intonation is a particularly challenging aspect of L2 speech learning. While most research focuses on speech production, we widen the focus and study the perception of intonation by L2 learners. We investigate whether advanced German learners of English have knowledge of the appropriate English intonation patterns in a narrative context with different sentence types (e.g. statements, questions). The results of a tonal pattern selection task indicate that learners (n=20) performed similar to British English controls (n=25) for some sentence types (e.g. statements, yes/no-questions), but performed significantly worse than the control group in the case of open and closed tag questions and the expression of sarcasm. The results can be explained by the fact that tag questions are the only sentence type investigated that does not exist in the learners' L1, and sarcasm is not represented syntactically. This suggests that L1 influence can partly account for why some intonation patterns are more challenging than others, and that contextualized knowledge of the intonation patterns of the target language rather than knowledge of intonation patterns in isolation is crucial for the successful L2 learning of intonation.

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Section: Studies On L2 Intonationsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Studies On L2 Intonationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BrE native speaker control group (previously reported in [19]), consists of 25 participants (3 male). They were all university students aged 19 to 34 (mean 19.3 years; SD: ±1.7).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Perception of English Intonation Patterns by German L2 Speakers of English

Puga

Fuchs²,

Setter

et al. 2017

Interspeech 2017

Self Cite

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show abstract

Re-examining the effect of phonological similarity between the native- and second-language intonational systems in second-language speech segmentation

et al. 2020

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This study investigates how phonological and phonetic aspects of the native-language (L1) intonation modulate the use of tonal cues in second-language (L2) speech segmentation. Previous research suggested that prosodic learning is more difficult if the L1 and L2 intonations are phonologically similar but phonetically different (French–Korean) than if they are phonologically different (English–French/Korean) (Prosodic-Learning Interference Hypothesis; Tremblay, Broersma, Coughlin & Choi, 2016). This study provides another test of this hypothesis. Korean listeners and French-speaking and English-speaking L2 learners of Korean in Korea completed an eye-tracking experiment investigating the effects of phrase tones in Korean. All groups patterned similarly with the phrase-final tone, but, unlike Korean and French listeners, English listeners showed early benefits from the phrase-initial tone (signaling word-initial boundaries in English). Importantly, French listeners patterned like Korean listeners with both tones. The Prosodic-Learning Interference Hypothesis is refined to suggest that prosodic learning difficulties may not be persistent for immersed L2 learners.

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Chapter 3. Cross-language influences in the processing of L2 prosody

Calhoun

Warren

Yan

2023

Bilingual Processing and Acquisition

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Prosodic cues play a key role in speech processing at multiple levels of linguistic structure. Despite this, research on the role of prosodic cues in second language (L2) speech processing, and on how prosody interacts with other linguistic systems, is comparatively underdeveloped. Meanwhile, our understanding of prosodic systems and their typological variation is substantially matured, making this an ideal time to grow such research. We briefly outline key models aiming to explain acquisition and use of prosody by L2 learners. We then explore cross-language influences in the processing of L2 prosody in four areas which have received the most attention to date: word segmentation, syntactic processing, information structure and pragmatics/global features. We end by highlighting key directions for future research.

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Assessing knowledge of English intonation patterns by L2 speakers

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

The Perception of English Intonation Patterns by German L2 Speakers of English

The Perception of English Intonation Patterns by German L2 Speakers of English

Re-examining the effect of phonological similarity between the native- and second-language intonational systems in second-language speech segmentation

Chapter 3. Cross-language influences in the processing of L2 prosody

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