The processing of L2 English focus prosody and the role of musical abilities in tone-language listeners

This study investigated the role of musical abilities in the L2 processing of English prosodic focus by native speakers of a tone-language, Mandarin Chinese. In a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm, L1 Mandarin Chinese L2 English participants listened to sentences with the focus particle only and a focus-marking pitch accent, which were followed by sentences mentioning the alternative of the focused word.

We assessed whether participants anticipated the upcoming focus alternative on the basis of the focus accent, and whether this was influenced by their scores on a music perception test. Results showed that, unlike Dutch L2 English listeners, the Mandarin L2 English group demonstrated no prosody-based anticipation, despite showing good focus comprehension. This suggests that differences between Mandarin and English focus prosody, due to their tone- and non-tone status, may lead to L1 interference in L2 processing.