Use of grammatical intonation features of the english language by both native speakers and non-native speakers

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the use of grammatical intonation features of the English language by both native speakers and non-native speakers, in different types of sentences such as affirmative, interrogative and exclamatory. To do so, a group of 10 participants, 5 native and 5 non-native, were placed in a recording room where they were asked to read aloud the sentences shown. After that, the recording was analyzed to study the use of grammatical functions of intonation by the participants. Upon analysis, it was expected that the native speakers would be capable of systematically using language intonation and grammatical functions properly, thus producing a clear message of what it is being said, whereas the nonnative speakers would have trouble producing such intonation characteristics, or might not use them at all. It is thought that this may happen due to the lack of teaching in these areas, while another possibility could be the interference of the Spanish language over English that non-native may have that makes obstacles for them in learning and using these features.