Testing the perception of L2 intonation

The paper offers various proposals on methods for investigating the perception of L2 intonation. Indeed, it is first motivated by the observation of a lack of discussion on this topic, which is clearly related to the absence of models on the perception of L2 intonation. In fact, existing models of L2 perception basically focus on phonemes, that is vocalic and consonantal segments, and the very few investigations related to the perception of suprasegmentals account for the perception of tones used in tonal languages rather than for the perception of intonation. In the first part, the paper offers a review of models, hypotheses and methods found in the literature on the perception of L2 phonemes and of L1 intonation categories. The goal of the review is to point out which methods and hypotheses can be useful for investigating the perception of intonation in L2 and if they need to be adapted for such purpose. In the second part of the paper, a brief summary is offered of an experiment to check if Italian-L1 subjects detect functional differences in English-L2 in the case such differences are conveyed by pitch accents phonetically, but not functionally, similar to L1 pitch accents. The description of main aspects concerning experimental design and results aims to highlight the contribution of the assumptions and methodological integrations suggested in the first part of the paper. In particular, it aims to show that: 1) integrating methods and usual practices found in the literature on perception of L2 phonemes and L1 intonation gives interesting results in the investigation of L2 intonation (as shown by reaction time measurements), although, in some cases, methodological adjustments are needed (e.g., splitting oddity discrimination tests); 2) results are consistent with the predictions of degrees of difficulties in discrimination that depend on the phonetic (and functional) features of L1 and L2 intonational patterns, similarly to what proposed by Best’s PAM model for phonemes.