Abstract
This study investigates the effectiveness of imitation and self-imitation techniques for the acquisition of L2 prosody. For this purpose 19 elementary Chinese learners of L2 Italian were involved in individual sessions of prosody training, devoted to the exercise of the Italian melodic pattern of 2 assertions, 2 orders and 2 requests. The items used for the self-imitation training were obtained by transferring suprasegmental features from 2 native speakers’ voices, used as control group, to the L2 ones. The influence of both techniques was assessed by comparing pre- and post-training performances through a perceptual test, in which 46 native Italian listeners evaluated the accentedness and the communicative function of the L2 productions. Both teaching strategies promoted a general improvement in learners’ performances, but results vary depending on the communicative function considered.
De Meo, Anna