Intonation focus in the interlanguage of a group of Spanish learners of English

Abstract

The present paper is a report on intonation errors made by a group of Spanish learners of EFL in their last year of Secondary School (2° Bachillerato). More specifically, we attempt to identify and classify the errors relating to the students' use of intonation to highlight information. With this aim in mind, we have used the tonetic approach to intonation analysis as the theoretical framework for the study. When comparing the students' performance with English native speakers', two types of errors emerge, interference and developmental. Once more, contrasts between English and Spanish regarding the focalisation of information by means of intonation (tonicity) can serve the purpose of explaining some of the errors (interference). At the same time some developmental errors are detected in the students' intonational interlanguage.