中国大学生英语口语中句子声调运用之初探

Tentative Study on Chinese College EFL Learners' Employment of Sentence Tones in Spoken English

以Brazil音调系统中对声调的研究作为基本框架,研究中国大学生在英语口语中的句子声调使用特征。发现不同语言水平的学生在各类句子声调的使用上没有显著性差异,总体上较偏向运用平调,显得表达过程中起伏不大;有时会对某些具有起伏声调的句子使用其他的声调,显示了其对声调与某些句子类型间的关联意识不够。对其中存在的原因作了探讨,并指出了今后研究声调与话语或是非言语之间交互作用的方向。

With the categorization of tones in the phonetics framework proposed by Brazil（1985,1997） as the rationale,the present study tentatively investigates the features of tones at the sentence level by Chinese college EFL learners.The study finds that regarding the employment of sentence tones,there is no significant difference between learners of various proficiencies.On the whole,learners tend to overuse level tone,revealing there is not much acoustic fluctuation in their expression.In addition,they are also likely to misuse the sentence tones for some particular sentence patterns,an indicator that their awareness of linking sentence patterns with tones needs enhancing.The study makes in-depth discussions on the possible reasons for the research findings and points out the direction of studying the interfaces between tone and verbal or nonverbal channels for further research.