Stress shift in English

Acoustic data in the acquisition of an L2 in native speakers of Spanish

Abstract

With the aim of studying stress shift in English as a second language, in this article the acoustic measurements of duration, intensity and fundamental frequency are analyzed in words with (non-)retractable stress in the presence and absence of stress clash. The production of instructed learners of English has been obtained and measured experimentally and eventually compared with that of native speakers from southeast England. Results indicate that the acoustic values in English native speakers reflect the presence of stress shift (specifically in terms of intensity and fundamental frequency). However, learners of English do not show the same behaviour due to the lack of robust evidence of stress shift in words with retractable stress. Probably due to their recent instruction on English phonetics and phonology, only learners with an intermediate level of language proficiency show higher values in some acoustic values of unstressed syllables, indicating a slight tendency for stress shift.