John Benjamins Publishing Company
Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English
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Francisco Gutiérrez Díez
Abstract
This is an empirical study of intonation errors made by a group of Spanish learners of English in secondary education. Errors relate to the division of the speech chain into tone units and to onset and nucleus placement within the tone unit, and are classed into interference errors (i.e. those mediated by the learners’ native language) and developmental errors (the rest). I explain interference errors by reference to contrastive aspects of Spanish and English tonality (the division of speech into tone units), tonicity (intonation signalling of information focus) and onset placement. I refer to a strong relationship between rhythmicstress errors and intonation errors. The paper also refers to some institutional reasons behind the students’ low performance, and I suggest some pedagogical remedies to deal with the errors detected.
Abstract
This is an empirical study of intonation errors made by a group of Spanish learners of English in secondary education. Errors relate to the division of the speech chain into tone units and to onset and nucleus placement within the tone unit, and are classed into interference errors (i.e. those mediated by the learners’ native language) and developmental errors (the rest). I explain interference errors by reference to contrastive aspects of Spanish and English tonality (the division of speech into tone units), tonicity (intonation signalling of information focus) and onset placement. I refer to a strong relationship between rhythmicstress errors and intonation errors. The paper also refers to some institutional reasons behind the students’ low performance, and I suggest some pedagogical remedies to deal with the errors detected.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Introduction xv
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Part I. Information structure
- Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
- Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
- Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
- The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
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Part II. Lexis in contrast
- Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
- 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
- The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
- The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
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Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
- Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
- Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
- Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
- Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
- Author index 355
- Index of languages 359
- Index of terms 361
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- Introduction xv
-
Part I. Information structure
- Theme zones in contrast: An analysis of their linguistic realization in the communicative act of a non-acceptance 3
- Last things first: An FDG approach to clause-final focus constituents in Spanish and English 33
- Contrastive perspectives on cleft sentences 69
- The position of adverbials and the pragmatic organization of the sentence: A comparison of French and Dutch 89
-
Part II. Lexis in contrast
- Swedish verbs of perception from a typological and contrastive perspective 123
- 'Abroad' and semantically related terms in some European languages and in Akan (Ghana) 173
- The expression of emotion in Italian and English fairy tales 193
- The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish 221
-
Part III. Contrastive perspectives on SLA
- Communicative tasks across languages: Movie narratives in English, in English as a foreign language and in German 247
- Linguistic theory and bilingual systems: Simultaneous and sequential English/Spanish bilingualism 275
- Awareness of orthographic form and morphophonemic learning in EFL 299
- Contrastive intonation and error analysis: Tonality and tonicity in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English 327
- Author index 355
- Index of languages 359
- Index of terms 361
