Training nonnative speakers to attain English prosody

Abstract

The current study examined the role of training in helping nonnative speakers to improve their correct production of primary stress. The study recruited 20 nonnative speakers of English who underwent theoretical and practical training and another 20 native listeners who evaluated the correctness of productions of nonnative speakers before and after training. The hypothesis of the study focused on that adequate training is effective in suprasegmental attainment in L2. Stimuli included 36 real English words; 12 words with different types of suffixes, 12 words with different number of syllables, and 12 words with different grammatical class (verbs vs. nouns). The results indicated total improvement of 19.83% in nonnative assignment of primary stress. The study concluded that prosodic elements are to be given a central importance in L2 teaching learning process concerning since they contribute to intelligibility which is an ultimate target that can be improved by means of good and sufficient training.