The acquisition of English intonation by Polish adult learners

Abstract

The present dissertation has been driven by the assumption that the melody of speech is one of the first aspects of language to be acquired by infants but the last to be mastered by second language learners. What is more, as a bulk of research reveals, while the growing proficiency in the L2 has an increasing influence on the mother tongue and may cause a loss of nativeness in L1 speech, L1 intonation tends to remain unaffected. However, most of the existing studies into phonological acquisition concentrated on the segmental aspect of language. Intonation has received greater attention only recently, mostly because of technological advance which allows for a detailed and precise analysis of speech. The thesis has aimed at providing an explanation to the phenomenon, answering the need of devising a theoretical model of acquisition of intonation. Many studies into intonation concentrated on its language-specific character being the main cause of errors committed by L2 learners (e.g. Backman 1977; Willems 1982; Mennen 1998). Acquisition, however, is affected by universal influences to a much greater extent than by the mother tongue patterns; therefore a model of the process should incorporate both types of forces.