Prosody and Second Language Teaching: Lessons from L2 Speech Perception and Production Research

Despite the well-attested importance of prosody in second language (L2) learning and the development of widely accessible software packages that can be used for analysing the prosodic aspects of speech, the teaching of L2 prosody is usually neglected in classroom settings. This article reviews important findings from L2 speech perception and production research that can be of use to teachers and practitioners involved in language pedagogy. What these findings demonstrate is that (a) L2 speech learning in general, as well as L2 intonation learning in particular, is feasible even in adulthood and (b) computer-assisted training with highly-variable auditory feedback and visual feedback in the form of pitch tracks can facilitate learning. Freely available acoustic analysis programs developed by the research community that can be used for teaching L2 intonation will also be discussed.