Prosody of Preferred and Dispreferred Speech Acts: L2 Spanish Learners’ Intonation and Fluency in Acceptances and Refusals

Abstract This exploratory study examined L2 Spanish learners’ tone choices and oral fluency when producing preferred dispreferred speech acts, specifically acceptances refusals. Participants were 27 college students enrolled in intermediate-level classes. They completed a video-based speaking task that elicited four refusals response to imaginary scenarios (two status-equal two status-unequal for acceptances, respectively). After reading scenario, they watched short video depicting the scenario then produced an acceptance or refusal directed person video. All responses recorded analyzed using Tones Break Indices framework (Sp_ToBI; Estebas-Vilaplana Prieto, 2009). Participants’ (rising falling) rate (average number of words spoken per minute) compared between There was tendency participants more rising less falling comparison their acceptances. Similarly, there them slowly than However, these tendencies not statistically significant, indicating learners able differentiate intonation acts.