Acoustic features of prosodic boundary by Chinese learners of English as a second language

Abstract

The production and perception of prosodic boundary have been well studied in English, but the research regarding to English as a second language (L2) is sparse. It has been shown that Chinese and English employ different acoustic features to mark prosodic boundary in production. Thus, this study aims to find out whether the Chinese learners of English employ the same strategy to convey prosodic boundary in English as the native speakers do. Ten pairs of syntactically ambiguous utterances composed of two or three food items were designed, with 10 pairs of filler utterances half randomized together. Ten speakers (5 males and 5 females) from Shanghai who passed the annual national examination CET (College English Test) Band 6 were asked to read the utterances. The results showed that, similar to the native speakers, Chinese learners also use pre-boundary lengthening, pause duration and pitch reset to signal the prosodic boundary in English. However, their pitch contour of the pre-boundary syllable is falling under boundary condition, and is rising under non-boundary condition, which is opposite to that of the native English speakers. This result will have an implication in L2 English teaching and learning.