Schedule: 2009-09-10 (15:45 - 16:30)
Parallel Session 1 (Room A-30)

Title: Perception of Spanish intonation by English learners
Authors: Lluisa Astruc, María Dolores Ramírez-Verdugo
Abstract: Recent work in tone languages such as Chinese, found that L2 participants perceive tonal contrasts less clearly than L1 participants [1]. We ask if this also applies to intonational languages such as English and Spanish, where pitch is used to mark sentence level rather than lexical contrasts. For instance, both in English and in Spanish, the distinction between the statement in (1.a) and the declarative question in (1.b) is carried just by the intonation:
(1) (a) Statement: It's raining
(b) Declarative question: It's raining?

In English, at least in Southern British English, the intonation of (1.a) and (1.b) are very similar as it only differs in that the pitch of the statement falls at the very end while that of the declarative question rises [3]. In Spanish, contrary to what is commonly taught in the classroom, statements and questions differ both in the initial and in the final part: questions start higher than statements and they also end higher [2]. Spanish native speakers are able to discriminate reliably between these sentence types from the very beginning of the utterance [4][5].

In a pilot study [6] we tested 34 listeners, 17 native speakers from Madrid and 17 British L2 learners from Cambridge on their ability to discriminate between statements and declarative questions. The stimuli were the first two words of statements and declarative questions produced by one male and one female Madrid native speaker, and was presented using the quiz feature in Moodle. We found confirmation for the hypothesis that native speakers would discriminate much more accurately than L2 learners although we also observed that advanced L2 participants were approximating native performance.

In this study we investigate the acquisition of this crucial intonational contrast in Spanish by adult British learners at three levels of instruction (beginners, intermediate, and advanced), compared to a native Spanish control group. We thus test a higher number of participants and we control specifically for proficiency level in the L2 language. We discuss the results in the light of current theories of phonological acquisition and we also discuss novel applications of Moodle in research and in teaching and learning.

References

[1] Hallé, P. A., Chang, Y. C., & Best, C. T. (2004). Identification and discrimination of Mandarin Chinese tones by Mandarin Chinese vs. French listeners. JPhon 32, 395-421.
[2] Navarro Tomás, T. (1944) Manual de entonación española, New York.
[3] Kochanski, G., E. Grabe and J. Coleman. 2004. The difference between a question and a statement: a cross-dialect survey. JASA 115 (5), 2398.
[4] Sensui, H. (2003) A pilot case study on sentence pattern perception of Spanish, in 15th ICPhS, 1731-1733.
[5] Face, T.L. (2007) The role of intonational cues in the perception of declaratives and absolute interrogatives in Castilian Spanish. EFE, XVI, 2007, pp. 185-225.
[6] Ramírez Verdugo, M.D, Astruc, L., Morán, B. (2008) The acoustics of interrogative and affirmative sentences in AMPER Madrid Corpus: A survey on Spanish versus English speakers’ perceptions. Language Design, 303-314.
Keywords: Spanish, intonation, Moodle

Main topic: Curriculum development for CALL.

Biodata: Lluisa Astruc, Affiliated Lecturer, Spanish and Portuguese Department, University of Cambridge María Dolores Ramírez Verdugo, Lecturer, Facultad de Formación de Profesorado y Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category (Other)

Target educational sector Higher education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-10 (15:45 - 16:30) Parallel Session 1 (Room A-30)
Title:	Perception of Spanish intonation by English learners
Authors:	Lluisa Astruc, María Dolores Ramírez-Verdugo
Abstract:	Recent work in tone languages such as Chinese, found that L2 participants perceive tonal contrasts less clearly than L1 participants [1]. We ask if this also applies to intonational languages such as English and Spanish, where pitch is used to mark sentence level rather than lexical contrasts. For instance, both in English and in Spanish, the distinction between the statement in (1.a) and the declarative question in (1.b) is carried just by the intonation: (1) (a) Statement: It's raining (b) Declarative question: It's raining? In English, at least in Southern British English, the intonation of (1.a) and (1.b) are very similar as it only differs in that the pitch of the statement falls at the very end while that of the declarative question rises [3]. In Spanish, contrary to what is commonly taught in the classroom, statements and questions differ both in the initial and in the final part: questions start higher than statements and they also end higher [2]. Spanish native speakers are able to discriminate reliably between these sentence types from the very beginning of the utterance [4][5]. In a pilot study [6] we tested 34 listeners, 17 native speakers from Madrid and 17 British L2 learners from Cambridge on their ability to discriminate between statements and declarative questions. The stimuli were the first two words of statements and declarative questions produced by one male and one female Madrid native speaker, and was presented using the quiz feature in Moodle. We found confirmation for the hypothesis that native speakers would discriminate much more accurately than L2 learners although we also observed that advanced L2 participants were approximating native performance. In this study we investigate the acquisition of this crucial intonational contrast in Spanish by adult British learners at three levels of instruction (beginners, intermediate, and advanced), compared to a native Spanish control group. We thus test a higher number of participants and we control specifically for proficiency level in the L2 language. We discuss the results in the light of current theories of phonological acquisition and we also discuss novel applications of Moodle in research and in teaching and learning. References [1] Hallé, P. A., Chang, Y. C., & Best, C. T. (2004). Identification and discrimination of Mandarin Chinese tones by Mandarin Chinese vs. French listeners. JPhon 32, 395-421. [2] Navarro Tomás, T. (1944) Manual de entonación española, New York. [3] Kochanski, G., E. Grabe and J. Coleman. 2004. The difference between a question and a statement: a cross-dialect survey. JASA 115 (5), 2398. [4] Sensui, H. (2003) A pilot case study on sentence pattern perception of Spanish, in 15th ICPhS, 1731-1733. [5] Face, T.L. (2007) The role of intonational cues in the perception of declaratives and absolute interrogatives in Castilian Spanish. EFE, XVI, 2007, pp. 185-225. [6] Ramírez Verdugo, M.D, Astruc, L., Morán, B. (2008) The acoustics of interrogative and affirmative sentences in AMPER Madrid Corpus: A survey on Spanish versus English speakers’ perceptions. Language Design, 303-314.
Keywords:	Spanish, intonation, Moodle
Main topic:	Curriculum development for CALL.
Biodata:	Lluisa Astruc, Affiliated Lecturer, Spanish and Portuguese Department, University of Cambridge María Dolores Ramírez Verdugo, Lecturer, Facultad de Formación de Profesorado y Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	(Other)
Target educational sector	Higher education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No