The Impact of First Language Intonational Clue Selection on Second Language Comprehension

Comprehension is closely related not only to the knowledge of words and syntax, but also the pragmatic concerns of the discourse. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of the intonational clues selection of Iranian teenagers’ and young adults’ Persian listening comprehension ability on their English learning as a second language. According to Buck (2003), in listening comprehension the input in the form of sounds and intonational clues often conveys additional information. In this study 60 male and female teenagers (13 19) and 60 male and female young adults (20 26) were selected randomly based on Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Each group was randomly assigned to two sub groups; namely, experimental (EX) and control groups (CG), 15 participants in each group. During the study two fiction and non-fiction passages, at first in Persian and then in English, were read to participants. The passages for participants in CG were read without applying speaker’s intonation changes but they were read for participants in EX with applying speaker’s intonation changes. In this study factors as age and gender are important because the results showed that the difference between two groups with different age ranges was significant, and participants’ inferencing, correct clue selection and listening comprehension ability in the experimental group was superior to the control group in the first language (Persian) and it also influenced positively second language learning and inferencing ability (English).