Emotion and melodic features of emphasis in Spanish produced by Chinese speakers

Abstract

[eng] The commercial, diplomatic, and cultural relations between China and Spanish-speaking countries have recently grown exponentially, which has incited a high interest in learning Spanish in the Asian country. However, it is crucial for Chinese to learn the language since it has a marked foreign accent that often hinders fluency and effectiveness in communication with native Spanish speakers. The present study aims to describe melodic features of the contours produced by Chinese-speaking learners in an affective and emotional context, and, consequently, to compare them with Spanish to determine the similarities and differences between the interlanguage and the target language. For this purpose, 209 utterances produced in an emphatic context have been selected emitted by 31 Chinese speakers from the Chinese mainland, aged between 20 and 33 years old. The analysis has been carried out with the Melodic Analysis of Speech method (Cantero and Font-Rotchés 2009, 2020). The results have shown us that the melodic features of both prelinguistic intonation and linguistic intonation differ greatly from those of the target language. The slighter movements compared to the target language that occurs in the first peak, the body and the final inflection are not conducive to expressive and effective communication. In addition, due to the great variety of contour features, it is complicated to determine melodic profiles that are characteristic of the interlanguage. Although Chinese learners are aware of using a more marked intonation to express their emotions, the use of melodic /+emphatic/ patterns is not always appropriate and does not always correspond to the needs of the context. The results of this study can help generate didactic proposals and develop teaching materials so that Chinese-speaking learners can overcome their intonational deficiencies and transmit emphatic nuances more adequately.