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LONGITUDINAL L2 DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROSODIC MARKING OF PRAGMATIC MEANING

PROSODIC CHANGES IN L2 SPEECH ACTS AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2021

Naoko Taguchi Open the ORCID record for Naoko Taguchi [Opens in a new window] ,
Kevin Hirschi  and
Okim Kang Open the ORCID record for Okim Kang [Opens in a new window]
Naoko Taguchi*
Affiliation:
Northern Arizona University
Kevin Hirschi
Affiliation:
Northern Arizona University
Okim Kang
Affiliation:
Northern Arizona University
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Naoko Taguchi, Professor, English Department, Northern Arizona University, 705 S. Beaver Street, PO Box 6032, Flagstaff, AZ86001. E-mail: naoko.taguchi@nau.edu
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Abstract

This study investigated whether L2 English learners’ prosodic properties in speech acts change as they are immersed in the English-speaking academic community over time, and if so, what individual and contextual factors (proficiency, orientation to language study, and target language contact) potentially affect these changes. Forty-seven Japanese learners of English in an English-medium university in Japan completed a speaking task that elicited two speech acts (request and opinion) three times over one academic year (8 months). Their speech was analyzed for discourse intonational features (e.g., tone choices, prominence ratio, and pitch range). Results showed that all prosodic properties changed over time, although the pace and patterns of changes differed among the properties. Proficiency and language contact significantly affected the change in tone choice, but no other relationship was found between individual/contextual factors and changes in prominence ratio or pitch range.

Type
Research Report
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 843 - 858
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Open materials
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/detail?id=york%3a939409&ref=search

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