Abstract
Comprehension is closely related not only to the knowledge of words and syntax, but also the pragmatic concerns of the discourse. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of the intonational clues selection of Iranian teenagers' and young adults’ Persian listening comprehension ability on their English learning as a second language. According to Buck (2003), in listening comprehension the input in the form of sounds and intonational clues often conveys additional information. In this study 60 male and female teenagers (13 - 19) and 60 male and female young adults (20 - 26) were selected randomly based on Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Each group was randomly assigned to two sub groups; namely, experimental (EX) and control groups (CG), 15 participants in each group. During the study two fiction and non-fiction passages, at first in Persian and then in English, were read to participants. The passages for participants in CG were read without applying speaker’s intonation changes but they were read for participants in EX with applying speaker’s intonation changes. In this study factors as age and gender are important because the results showed that the difference between two groups with different age ranges was significant, and participants’ inferencing, correct clue selection and listening comprehension ability in the experimental group was superior to the control group in the first language (Persian) and it also influenced positively second language learning and inferencing ability (English).
Highlights
Utterance is a linguistic act in which one person expresses towards another, within a single intonation contour, a relatively coherent communicative intention in a communicative context
This study investigates how correct intonation clues selection from both fiction and non-fiction passages in speaker’s utterance has influence on two age ranges of teenagers and young adults’ Persian inferencing as their first language and the influence of that on English inferencing as their second language
Teenagers inferences are more based on real world facts than personal experiences while young adults inferences are more related to their background knowledge and experiences
Summary
Utterance is a linguistic act in which one person expresses towards another, within a single intonation contour, a relatively coherent communicative intention in a communicative context. Intonation is used by speakers to mark the pragmatic force of the information in an utterance in spoken interaction a tone of voice, a feeling about the way our partner spoke, the atmosphere of a conversation are often more significant cues to the real message than the words themselves. They give some syllables a greater degree of loudness and change their speech rhythm. The study gives evidence that cultural background knowledge affects the comprehension scores and the recall of text propositions, and the reading efficiency of children acquiring literacy in a first and second language.
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