Cross-Linguistic Comparison of the Pitch and Temporal Profiles between L1 and Chinese L2 Speakers of Spanish

Cross-linguistic studies between intonational languages suggest that there is a universal trend during the L2 learning process regarding pitch and temporal characteristics. We extend these hypotheses to Chinese learners of Peninsular Spanish-a new pairing tone non-tone languages. Using six metrics, we examine how learners’ profiles deviated from those L1 native speakers explore factors may contribute speech deviations. The Discourse Completion Task was conducted elicit five question types produced by 37 participants, who were divided into three language groups. Consistent with previous literature, our study shows had compression span (at both utterance syllable levels) variability, as well strong reduction change rate, articulation rate compared Spanish speakers. Most deviations in intonation are closely linked psychological cognitive attributes rather than being determined physiological or tonal transfer. Moreover, lack prosodic knowledge target patterns concerning different also hinder approaching native-like profile.