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Prosody and Feedback in Native and Non-native Speakers of English

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Pragmatics and Prosody in English Language Teaching

Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 15))

Abstract

The present chapter investigates the relationship between prosody and pragmatics from a theoretical and practical perspective. For Romero-Trillo (Pragmatic Markers. In: Encyclopaedia of applied linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, in press a), pragmatics is the linguistic discipline that studies meaning in context from a dynamic perspective, an approach based on the ‘triangulation model’, which unites the users, their (non)linguistic expressions and their deeds. Pragmatic Markers are, in this model, the elements that fulfil the essential function of feedback in communication to verify the correct reception of a message; they are the ‘go-ahead signals’ in any interaction. Our study compares the realization of native and non-native prosodic performance of feedback elements in a spoken corpus, and their differences on the basis of statistical analyses. From a pedagogical perspective, the study of the acoustic features of Pragmatic Markers that realize feedback in conversation is essential to understand how these elements function as ‘punting poles’ that sail through the flow of conversation, and how foreign speakers of English need to master the prosody of these elements in order to be pragmatically correct.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a detailed explanation of their differences see Romero-Trillo (in press a).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Facultad de Filosofía, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Jesús Romero-Trillo

  2. Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Jessica Newell

Authors
  1. Jesús Romero-Trillo
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  2. Jessica Newell
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Correspondence to Jesús Romero-Trillo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Fac. de Filosofía y Letras, Uni. Autónoma de Madrid, C/Francisco Tomás y Valiente 1, Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Jesús Romero-Trillo

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Romero-Trillo, J., Newell, J. (2012). Prosody and Feedback in Native and Non-native Speakers of English. In: Romero-Trillo, J. (eds) Pragmatics and Prosody in English Language Teaching. Educational Linguistics, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3883-6_8

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