Simulated Emotional Speech in L2-Pronunciation Training

This paper aims at verifying to what extent the simulation of different emotions can be employed in L2-German pronunciation training addressed to adult Italian learners. Experimental data on the phonetic characteristics of learners’ emotional speech are investigated with regard to specific aspects of the learners’ interlanguage. It can be hypothesized that a knowledge of the difficulties native speakers of Italian have to cope with when they learn German and of the phonetic characteristics of their simulated emotional speech, can be combined in L2-pronunciation training in order to promote correct L2 phonetic acquisition and to eliminate the so-called foreign accent.