Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:07:51.436Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

TBLT INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTS ON TONAL ALIGNMENT AND PITCH RANGE IN L2 SPANISH IMPERATIVES VERSUS DECLARATIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Sean McKinnon
Sean McKinnon*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sean McKinnon, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 355 North Jordan Avenue, GISB 2160, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study investigates the prosody/pragmatics interface in TBLT by extending the traditional morphological focus-on-form to a focus on intonational forms, with Spanish declaratives and imperatives. Twenty-eight intermediate L2 Spanish learners were assigned to one of two conditions that differed in the type of focus-on-form present during the pre- and posttask phases of a focused, task-based intervention: focus on grammar (FOG) or focus on grammar + intonation (FOG + I). All participants were administered an oral discourse completion task in a pre- and a posttest that elicited Spanish imperatives and declaratives to measure gains. Results show that participants, regardless of condition, did not distinguish imperatives from declaratives using intonation in the pretest. However, participants in the FOG + I condition modified their pitch range and pitch accents in the posttest to signal a difference between imperatives and declaratives, though their use was different from the input provided by a native speaker instructor.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 39 , Special Issue 2: TBLT and L2 Pronunciation: Do the Benefits of Tasks Extend Beyond Grammar and Lexis? , June 2017 , pp. 287 - 317
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

First and foremost, I would like to thank the guest editors, Professor Laura Gurzynski-Weiss, Avizia Y. Long, and Megan Solon, for their insightful and constructive feedback on early drafts of this article as well as their encouragement throughout the research process. I also want to thank all those who supported me during the different aspects of data collection, from assistance in the creation of the oral DCT items (Ángel Milla Muñoz), to the instructors of the task-based intervention (Gabriela Quispe for the pilot and Gloria Navajas Sánchez for data presented in this article), as well as the content course instructors who allowed me to recruit from their classes (Professor Patrícia Amaral, Silvina Bongiovanni, Professor Manuel Díaz-Campos, Iraida Galarza, Jordan Garrett, Professor Laura Gurzynksi-Weiss, Maria Hasler-Barker, Erin Lavin, Bret Linford, Avizia Long, Megan Solon, and Sara Zahler). Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Spring 2014 S716 SLA seminar in Task-Based Language Teaching and Learning, Margaret Glide, Daniel Jung, Pilar Prieto, the audience members at the 6th International Conference on Task-Based Language Teaching (Leuven, Belgium), and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on early presentations or drafts of this article.

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar, L., de-la-Mota, C., & Prieto, P. (coords). (2009). Sp_ToBI training material. Retrieved from http://prosodia.upf.edu/sp_tobi, accessed January 28, 2016.Google Scholar
Aoyama, K., & Guion, S. G. (2007). Prosody in second language acquisition: An acoustic analysis on duration and F0 range. In Bohn, O. S. & Munro, M. J. (Eds.), The role of language experience in second language speech learning: In honor of James Emil Flege (pp. 281–297). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Audacity Team. (2014). Audacity®: Free audio editor and recorder (Version 2.0.0) [Computer program]. Retrieved from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.Google Scholar
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2015). PRAAT: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.2.18) [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.praat.org.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. (1998). Intonation in American English. In Hirst, D. & Di Cristo, A. (Eds.), Intonation systems: A survey of twenty languages (pp. 45–55). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (2009). Task-based language teaching: Sorting out the misunderstandings. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19, 221–246.Google Scholar
Escandell-Vidal, V. (2011). Prosodia y pragmática. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 4, 193–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Félix-Brasdefer, J. C. (2010). Data collection methods in speech act performance: DCTs, role plays, and verbal reports. In Martínez-Flor, A. & Usó-Juan, E. (Eds.), Speech act performance: Theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues (pp. 41–56). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Gabriel, C., & Kireva, E. (2014). Prosodic transfer in learner and contact varieties. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36, 257–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glasberg, B. R., & Moore, B. (1990). Derivation of auditory filter shapes from notched-noise data. Hearing Research, 47, 103–138.Google Scholar
Hardison, D. M. (2004). Generalization of computer-assisted prosody training: Quantitative and qualitative findings. Language Learning & Technology, 8, 34–52.Google Scholar
Henriksen, N. C. (2012). The intonation and signaling of declarative questions in Manchego Peninsular Spanish. Language and Speech, 55, 543–576.Google Scholar
Henriksen, N. C., Geeslin, K. L., & Willis, E. W. (2010). The development of L2 Spanish intonation during a study abroad immersion program in León, Spain: Global contours and final boundary movements. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 3, 113–162.Google Scholar
Hirschberg, J. (2004). Pragmatics and intonation. In Horn, L. R. & Ward, G. (Eds.), The handbook of pragmatics (pp. 515–537). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I., & Prieto, P. (2015). Intonational variation in Spanish: European and American varieties. In Frota, S. & Prieto, P. (Eds.), Intonation in Romance (pp. 350–391). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
IBM Corporation. (2011). IBM SPSS statistics (Version 20.0) [Computer software].Google Scholar
Jenkins, J. (2004). Research in teaching pronunciation and intonation. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladd, R. (1996). Intonational phonology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levis, J., & Pickering, L. (2004). Teaching intonation in discourse using speech visualization technology. System, 32, 505–524.Google Scholar
Long, M. (2014). Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Lyster, R., & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maastricht, L., Krahmer, E., & Swerts, M. (2016). Prominence patterns in a second language: Intonational transfer from Dutch to Spanish and vice versa. Language Learning, 66, 124–158.Google Scholar
Mennen, I. (2004). Bi-directional interference in the intonation of Dutch speakers of Greek. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 543–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (1995). Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 45, 73–97.Google Scholar
Navarro Tomás, T. (1944). Manual de entonación española. Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Guadarrama.Google Scholar
O’Connor, J. D., & Arnold, G. F. (1961). Intonation of colloquial English: A practical handbook. London, UK: Longsmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Pennington, M. C., & Ellis, N. C. (2000). Cantonese speaker’s memory for English sentences with prosodic cues. Modern Language Journal, 84, 372–389.Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J. (1980). The phonology and phonetics of English intonation (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, J., & Hirschberg, J. (1990). The meaning of intonational contours in the interpretation of discourse. In Cohen, P., Morgan, J., & Pollack, M. (Eds.), Intentions in communication (pp. 271–311). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Prieto, P., & Roseano, P. (Eds.), (2010). Transcription of intonation of the Spanish language. Munich, Germany: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar
Ramírez Verdugo, D. (2005). Nature and patterning of native and nonnative intonation in the expression of certainty and uncertainty: Pragmatic effects. Journal of Pragmatics, 37, 2086–2115.Google Scholar
Ramírez Verdugo, D. (2006). A study of intonation awareness and learning in nonnative speakers of English. Language Awareness, 15, 141–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramírez Verdugo, D., & Romero Trillo, J. (2005). The pragmatic function of intonation in L2 discourse: English tag questions used by Spanish speakers. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2, 151–168.Google Scholar
Robles-Puente, S. (2011). Looking for the Spanish imperative intonation: Combination of global and pitch-accent level strategies. In Alvord, S. M. (Ed.), Selected proceedings on laboratory approaches to Romance phonology (pp. 153–164). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1993). Awareness and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13, 206–226.Google Scholar
Swerts, M., & Zerbian, S. (2010). Intonational differences between L1 and L2 English in South Africa. Phonetica, 67, 127–146.Google Scholar
Tench, P. (1996). The intonation systems of English. London, UK: Cassell.Google Scholar
Trofimovich, P., & Baker, W. (2006). Learning second language suprasegmentals: Effect of L2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 1–30.Google Scholar
van Els, T., & de Bot, K. (1987). The role of intonation in foreign accent. Modern Language Journal, 71, 147–155.Google Scholar
Warren, P. (2016). Uptalk: The phenomenon of rising intonation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Willis, E. W. (2002). Is there a Spanish imperative intonation revisited: Local considerations. Linguistics, 40, 347–374.Google Scholar
Wilson, D., & Wharton, T. (2006). Relevance and prosody. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1559–1579.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

McKinnon supplementary material

McKinnon supplementary material 1

Download McKinnon supplementary material(File)
File 886.5 KB