Cross-Linguistic Comparison of the Pitch and Temporal Profiles between L1 and Chinese L2 Speakers of Spanish

Abstract

Cross-linguistic studies between intonational languages suggest that there is a universal trend during the L2 learning process regarding pitch and temporal characteristics. We extend these hypotheses to Chinese learners of Peninsular Spanish-a new pairing of tone and non-tone languages. Using six pitch and temporal metrics, we examine how Chinese learners’ pitch and temporal profiles deviated from those of L1 native speakers and explore the factors that may contribute to L2 speech deviations. The Discourse Completion Task was conducted to elicit five question types produced by 37 participants, who were divided into three language groups. Consistent with previous literature, our study shows that Chinese L2 learners had a compression of pitch span (at both the utterance and syllable levels) and pitch variability, as well as a strong reduction of pitch change rate, speech rate, and articulation rate compared to L1 Spanish speakers. Most pitch and temporal deviations in L2 Spanish intonation are closely linked to psychological and cognitive attributes rather than being determined by physiological factors or L1 tonal transfer. Moreover, the lack of prosodic knowledge of the target intonation patterns concerning the different question types may also hinder L2 learners from approaching a native-like pitch and temporal profile.

Unraveling the contributions of prosodic patterns and individual traits on cross-linguistic perception of Spanish sentence modality

“…The significance test of the first GLM revealed that Mandarin learners' accuracy in perceiving sentences with two stressed words was significantly influenced by the interaction between sentence modality and gate [χ 2 (3) = 24.25, p < .0001], L2 proficiency [χ 2 (2) = 14.09, p < .001], pragmatic skill [χ 2 (1) = 31.19, p < .0001)], and musical ability [χ 2 (1) = 6.04, p < .05]. However, stress position, age, and gender did not significantly impact auditory evaluation of L2 sentences.…”

“…The significance test of the second GLM indicated that the L2 perception of Spanish sentences with one stressed word was significantly impacted by sentence modality [χ 2 (1) = 52.60, p < .0001], gate [χ 2 (1) = 70.39, p < .0001], stress pattern [χ 2 (1) = 4.77, p < .05], pragmatic skill [χ 2 (1) = 15.33, p < .0001], and musical ability [χ 2 (1) = 4.36, p < .05]. However, L2 proficiency, age, and gender did not significantly influence one-word sentence perception (all ps > .1).…”

“…The utilization of fundamental frequency (f0) differs between tonal and intonational languages, with tonal languages primarily using f0 modulation to convey lexical meanings, while intonational languages employ it to communicate postlexical information. For learners whose first language (L1) is tonal, such as Mandarin Chinese, acquiring an intonational language like Spanish as a second language (L2) often presents significant challenges due to these disparities [1][2][3]. Despite the extensive research on L2 perceptual acquisition, focusing on various speech components such as segments [4], stress [5,6], prominence [7,8], and lexical tones [9], limited attention has been given to the perception of sentence-type contrasts in contact situations involving tonal and non-tonal languages.…”