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Analysing Four Prosodic Forms to Convey the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in L2 Monologic Discourse.

15 pagesPublished: February 23, 2017

Abstract

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s (1994) Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.

Keyphrases: intonation, L2 discourse intonation, L2 non-specialist public speaking, L2 pragmatic competence, prosody

In: Chelo Vargas-Sierra (editor). Professional and Academic Discourse: an Interdisciplinary Perspective, vol 2, pages 199--213

Links:
BibTeX entry
@inproceedings{AESLA2016:Analysing_Four_Prosodic_Forms,
  author    = {Raul Jimenez-Vilches},
  title     = {Analysing Four Prosodic Forms to Convey the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in L2 Monologic Discourse. },
  booktitle = {Professional and Academic Discourse: an Interdisciplinary Perspective},
  editor    = {Chelo Vargas-Sierra},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Language and Linguistics},
  volume    = {2},
  pages     = {199--213},
  year      = {2017},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-5283},
  url       = {https://easychair.org/publications/paper/V7k},
  doi       = {10.29007/rs8q}}
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