Word Prosody in Second Language Acquisition

The production and perception of a second language (L2) will be affected by any differences between native language (L1) and L2 lexical stress and lexical tone. This chapter first discusses L1 effects on the perception of L2 words that differ in stress, comparing the explanatory power of phonological (stress-parameter-based) and phonetic (cue-based) approaches for L2 learners’ performance in word recognition. Equally, it discusses L1 effects on the production of stress in L2 words, from both a phonological and a phonetic perspective. The discussion then moves on to the L2 acquisition of lexical tone, focusing on differences in the way native speakers and L2 learners make use of lower-level acoustic-phonetic and higher-level linguistic information, their weighting of tonal cues (pitch height and pitch direction), and the role of contextual phonetic and prosodic information. Special attention is paid to major typological differences between L1 and L2 (non-tonal vs. tonal; level tones vs. contour tones). Finally, the efficacy of short-term auditory training in the acquisition of new tonal categories is evaluated. Throughout, the chapter addresses the influence of factors such as age of acquisition and proficiency.