The L2 Effects On L1

The studies of L1 transfer in prosody have found influences of L1 on L2 in prosodic production and perception in various aspects such as intonation,stress and rhythm,and in which a few studies have revealed the correlation between the influence of L1 transfer in prosody and participants’ L2 competence.However,in the field of the L2 effects on L1,a better approach to uncover the distinctions an L2 learner could bear,the exploration of prosody has not been documented,and therefore the L2 effects on L1 in prosody in the form of differentiated L2 competence remain unknown,which will not be beneficial to the deepening of L2 prosodic learning.To fill the gap,the study intended to investigate the L2 effects on L1 in stress perception through the window of the L2(English)effects on L1(Chinese Mandarin)in L1 word stress perception with a task of perceiving L1 try-syllabic word stress of true words and nonwords among Chinese learners of differentiated L2 proficiency.In the meantime,due to the possible influence that lexical meaning has on word stress perception,the study set the comparison of true words and nonwords for the consideration of lexicality effect on L1 word stress perception.This study will address the following four research questions:1)Will the lexicality effect be active in L1 word stress perception?2)Will the L2 effects of L1 be active on L1 word stress perception?3)What are the sensitive stress patterns if the L2 effects of L1 are active?4)What are the sensitive acoustic parameters if the L2 effects of L1 are active?To investigate the above-mentioned questions as well as exclude the interference of L1 dialect on L1 word stress perception,104 participants aged averagely 22 with a controlled dialect origin were involved in this study.The participants were grouped into three(high,medium and low)according to their proficiency in oral English,and they were required to complete a task of word stress perception of 320 Chinese tri-syllabic words including 192 true words and 128 nonwords.The listening material provided to participants was recorded by a professional male broadcaster reading the word list in normal speech rate,and was annotated and analyzed by Praat to extract the acoustic parameters.The conclusion obtained in this study includes:(1)Although the lexicality effect is not active in general in L1 word stress perception,a tendency of narrowing deviation between medium-and high-level learners is obvious for their preference of L1 stress perception pattern.(2)The L2 effects on L1 are active in L1 word stress perception,particularly in three aspects:the preference of stress perception patterns,the sensitive patterns,and the sensitive acoustic parameters.(3)The sensitive stress patterns for measuring the L2 effects on L1 include those stress patterns with "pitch-lifting effects”,which means a left-sided heavier syllable might lift the pitch of the following next weaker syllable.(4)The sensitive acoustic parameters for measuring the L2 effects on L1 involve duration,pitch,and intensity.To be specific,pitch height,pitch range and duration are more sensitive if the L2 effects on L1 in terms of L1 word stress perception are stronger,while pitch and intensity are more sensitive if the L2 effects on L1 in terms of L1 word stress perception are comparatively weaker.The significance of the study lies in further exploration of the validity of related theories from the view of the L2 effects on L1,as well as concrete pedagogical instructions of classroom English prosody teaching and practical advice on the idea of prosodic teaching along with the update of relative teaching materials.