The Development of L2 Spanish Intonation During a Study Abroad Immersion Program in León, Spain: Global Contours and Final Boundary Movements

• Published in: Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics 2010-03, Vol.3 (1), p.113-162
• Main Authors: Henriksen, Nicholas C., Geeslin, Kimberly L., Willis, Erik W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1939-0238; 2199-3386
• DOI: 10.1515/shll-2010-1067

The current study is the first technically-principled examination of second language Spanish intonation as it develops in a study abroad context. As such, it aims to identify patterns of development related to overall F0 contours and final boundary movements by creating individual profiles for each L2 learner at the beginning and the end of their stay abroad. Our data come from 5 English-speaking learners of Spanish enrolled in a study abroad immersion program for 7 weeks in León, Spain. We collected data through a computerized production task that elicited three context-based sentence types: declaratives, absolute interrogatives, and pronominal interrogatives. This task was administered once upon arrival to León and again at the end of the 7-week program (approximately 6 weeks elapsed between tasks). In our analysis, we calculated the initial and final tonal levels in addition to the Low and High tones of pitch accents (when applicable). For each learner the most common strategy employed at each recording time was identified. Our findings show that despite individual variation, most L2 learners modify their intonational patterns (i.e. pitch accent and boundary movements) through an increase in frequency of use of their more dominant intonation patterns and/or changes in their final boundary tone inventory.