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Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
Published on: September 27, 2024
The interaction between prosody and meaning in second language speech production.
Carrie N Jackson1, Mary Grantham O'Brien
1Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Pennsylvania State University.
Die Unterrichtspraxis. Teaching German
|August 30, 2011
Summary
English speakers learning German use speech melody (prosody) to clarify sentence meaning. This finding is crucial for improving second language (L2) pronunciation, listening, and reading skills.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Second Language Acquisition
- Phonetics
Background:
- Native speakers of English and German utilize prosodic cues for meaning in speech.
- Limited research exists on whether L2 learners of German employ these cues during production.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if intermediate American learners of German (L1 English) use prosodic cues in L2 production.
- To examine the role of prosody in disambiguating syntactically ambiguous German sentences.
Main Methods:
- A contextualized sentence production task was used.
- Intermediate-level L2 learners of German (English L1) participated.
Main Results:
- L2 learners successfully used prosodic cues to disambiguate syntactically ambiguous German sentences.
- Evidence suggests L2 learners integrate prosody and meaning in sentence production.
Conclusions:
- Prosodic cues play a significant role in L2 German production for English speakers.
- Prosodic training can benefit L2 pronunciation, listening, and reading comprehension.
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