Prosodic Transfer in Spanish Learners of English
Acoustic Evidence for Transforming Pronunciation Teaching in Higher Education
Universidad de Panamá
Bodelis Artemio Marin Marin
University Teaching and Educational Transformation
Why Does Prosody Matter in Higher Education?
🌍 Internationalization of higher education
🎓English for academic mobility, research, and
international collaboration.
🗣Grammar and vocabulary alone do not guarantee
effective spoken communication.
Higher Education →Internationalization →Academic Communication →Communicative Competence →Prosody
Prosody enables effective academic communication in international contexts.
Research Gap
Traditional | Evidence-Based Pronunciation Teaching |
Sounds | Prosody |
Words | Discourse |
Intuition | Acoustic Evidence |
Suggested citations: Mennen (2007); Gut (2009); Flege et al. (2021).
Research Question and Objectives
Research Question
What acoustic evidence of prosodic transfer can be identified in the rhythm, intonation, and nuclear stress patterns of Spanish-speaking learners of English, and what implications do these findings have for pronunciation teaching in higher education?
General Objective
Investigate acoustic evidence of prosodic transfer and its implications for pronunciation teaching in higher education.
Specific Objectives
Analyze acoustic patterns → Identify evidence of cross-linguistic influence → Interpret pedagogical implications
Methodology
Citation: Boersma & Weenink (2024); present study
Listen Before Looking
Rhythm Results
Intonation Results
RESULTS
Overall accuracy: 56%
Performance by Context:
Polysyllabic words
Sentence-final phrases
Contrastive focus
Educational implication:
Teach prominence within authentic discourse
Acoustic finding | Implication for teaching |
Rhythm — syllable-timed tendency | Explicit work on English rhythm, weak forms & vowel reduction |
Intonation — restricted pitch variation | Practice pitch movement in meaningful communication |
Boundary tones — predominance of falling contours | Develop intonational flexibility through discourse-based tasks |
Nuclear stress — variable prominence placement | Teach focus, contrast & information prominence |
Implications for Higher Education
Conclusions and Recommendations
Bodelis Artemio Marin Marin
Univsersidad de Panamá
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0864-7031
Instagram: @bodelis03 / TikTok: @ bodelism