المستخلص: |
It is well known that prosody contributes to the perception of foreign accent. However, the number of studies on prosodic aspects of foreign accent is rather small. The present study compares the following acoustic characteristics of stressed syllables produced by advanced Moroccan learners of English with that produced by native English speakers: (a) alignment of F0 peaks and valleys with the segmental string, and (b) duration of accented syllables. The results of the study indicate that Moroccan learners of English exhibit different F0 alignment and durational patterns. The Moroccans' accentual rises are aligned earlier than English (-24 ms vs. -40 ms, respectively). Also, the Moroccan speakers make the accented syllables much longer than the English speakers (195 ms vs. 145 ms, respectively). The overall findings of this study are accounted for by extending Flege's L2 acquisition model.
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