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Part of
Perspectives on Input, Evidence, and Exposure in Language Acquisition: Studies in honour of Susanne E. Carroll
Edited by Lindsay Hracs
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 69] 2024
► pp. 144–160

Chapter 6
L2 intonation perception in learners of Spanish

| University of Calgary

While the field of L2 variation, particularly with L2 Spanish, is expanding, to date little is known about the acquisition of variable intonation that occurs in final boundary tones of yes-no questions. The present study investigates the effects of explicit instruction on the accurate identification of utterance type (yes-no questions, broad-focused declarative statements, and wh-questions). Eleven L1 English learners of Spanish in an advanced university level Spanish class listened to 21 Spanish utterances to identify the utterance type before and after receiving explicit in-class instruction. Two L1 Spanish listeners served as a control. Learner gains in identification of utterance type were not significant, and there was no statistically significant effect of explicit instruction on the identification of the utterances.

Keywords: L2 Spanish intonation, variation, yes-no questions, L2 Spanish learners
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Theoretical background
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Instruments
      • 4.2.1Pretest
      • 4.2.2Dialect and utterance identification task
      • 4.2.3Input during explicit instruction
      • 4.2.4Posttest
  • 5.Analysis
  • 6.Results
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Implications, limitations, and future directions
  • 9.Conclusions
  • References
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