Emphatic Accentuation and Discourse Intention in L2 English Speech Production: Evidence from a Picture-Description Task

Abstract

Cognitive research has shown that the prosodic realization of emphatic accent reflects a speaker’s discourse intention. This study compares two native speakers of British English and eight Chinese learners in a picture-description task, focusing on IP–focus alignment, prenuclear–nuclear accent coordination, and the re-accenting of given information. Native speakers organized speech in a listener-oriented manner: IPs typically contained a nuclear accent for closure and, when needed, a prenuclear B-accent to establish contrast or a discourse frame. Learners, by contrast, produced denser, less hierarchically differentiated accent patterns, often placing several strong accents within one IP and using given-information accents mainly for signposting or repetition. These differences suggest distinct communicative orientations: native speakers designed utterances for a potential listener, whereas learners prioritized task completion and propositional coverage. The findings support integrating discourse awareness and prosody–information-structure alignment into L2 speaking instruction and assessment, with the three dimensions serving as operational indicators of communicative orientation.