ACQUISITION OF PROSODY OF GIVEN INFORMATION BY MANDARIN-SPEAKING EFL LEARNERS

Abstract

This study investigated Mandarin-speaking English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ acquisition of the prosodic marking of different types of given information in English: given information indicated by pronoun, by repetition, and by synonymy. Eighty learners at preliminary, lower intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced levels (20 in each group) and 20 native English speakers participated in a question-answer reading task. The results of auditory and acoustic analyses of the participants’ production showed that the learners performed differently for the three types of given information in terms of both assignment and phonetic realization of deaccentuation. In addition, in terms of deaccentuation assignment, the learners performed the best on pronoun and the worst on synonymy and exhibited much greater variations between the types than the native speakers, and their performance improved with proficiency. In terms of phonetic realization of deaccentuation, however, the learners produced F0 ratios and intensity ratios comparable to the native speakers but lower duration ratios, which approached the native speakers as their proficiency increased. Based on these findings, some pedagogical implications are discussed.