The Perception and Production of Prosodic Features by Iraqi EFL Learners

College of Arts – University of Mosul

Abstract

This study discusses the ability of Iraqi EFL learners to perceive and produce the prosodic features of English represented in intonational contours, manifested in pitch change at the tonic syllables, and marking the prominent syllables in English utterances. This is achieved through getting the EFL learners listen to English utterances pronounced by native speakers of English and try to process and produce the prosodic features present in each utterance with a simulation strategy. The performance of each learner is analyzed acoustically by Speech Analyzer 3.0.1 (computer software) and compared with the original English utterances pronounced by native speakers of English which have already been analyzed acoustically. Matching the learners’ analyses with those of the native speakers’ is important in recognizing and identifying how efficiently each learner has perceived and produced the prosodic features embodied in the English utterances.