OBSERVING PITCH GESTURES FAVORS THE LEARNING OF SPANISH INTONATION BY MANDARIN SPEAKERS
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Abstract Recent studies on the learning of L2 prosody have suggested that pitch gestures can enhance the learning of the L2 lexical tones. Yet it remains unclear whether the use of these gestures can aid the learning of L2 intonation, especially by tonal-language speakers. Sixty-four Mandarin speakers with basic-level Spanish were asked to learn three Spanish intonation patterns, all involving a low tone on the nuclear accent. In a pre-post test experimental design, half of the participants received intonation training without the use of pitch gestures (the control group) while the other half received the same training but with pitch gestures representing nuclear intonation contours (the experimental group). Musical (melody, pitch) abilities were also measured. The results revealed that (a) the experimental group significantly improved intonational production outcomes, and (b) even though participants with stronger musical abilities performed better, those with weaker musical abilities benefited more from observing pitch gestures.
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There is much research providing empirical support for the role of gestures in L2 learning for aspects such as speech comprehension, word memorization and pronunciation.
“There is much research providing empirical support for the role of gestures in L2 learning for aspects such as speech comprehension [9,10], word memorization [11,12] and pronunciation [13–17].”
From Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood (2023) · cites this paper as [16]
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Janzen Ulbricht, N. (2023) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0280543 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Yuan, C., González-Fuente, S., Baills, F., & Prieto, P.
- Affiliations
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Yuan, Chenjie
- Venue
- Studies in Second Language Acquisition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-01-02
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-32
- ISSN
- 0272-2631 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-1545
- OpenAlex
- W2781942462
- Cited by
- 45
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 4.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Studies in Second Language Acquisition (publishedVersion)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR 925, 2014SGR)
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (FFI2015-66533-P)
- Xi'an International Studies University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- Spanish intonation, Mandarin speakers, nuclear accent, musical ability, melody
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