ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2006
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2006

Prosodic characteristics in the speech of Chinese EFL learners

Veronika Makarova, Xia Zhou

This study reports some prosodic characteristics in the quasispontaneous classroom speech of Chinese EFL learners. Recordings of ten dialogues produced by twenty second-year non-English majors were analyzed to extract the following features: durations of inter- and intra-turn pauses, duration of filled-in pauses, numbers of words per tone unit, tone unit durations, speech rates and pitch accent type (tone) statistics. The deviations from standard native speech in the areas of tonality and tonicity are also considered. The paper offers some practical suggestions aimed at improving the prosodic characteristics of the English speech of Chinese EFL learners.