Non-native perception of English tonicity : an experimental study involving Catalan learners of English

摘要

This paper consists of an experimental study that examined the non-native perception and interpretation of English tonicity, and the potential influence of the first language in terms of prosodic transfer. In order to elicit data, three experimental tests were designed and auditory stimuli were created. The tests were administered to forty-one Catalan learners of English. Twenty learners met the requirements for the study. The results revealed that the subjects found more difficulties in interpreting different tonicity patterns and less in perceiving and identifying the patterns. Also, the results suggestthat phonetic focus is used to a significant degree in Catalan.