ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a critical look at internal and external factors influencing prosodic behaviors of second language classroom teachers. Native speakers spoke significantly faster in conversation than in student-directed speech while near-native speakers did not; however, this result is swayed by the native speakers’ higher ceiling regarding speech rate during conversation. There were minimal differences in speech rate between native and near-native speakers in the student-directed speech data alone. Native speakers also spoke with greater intensity during student-directed speech, likely due to their relative inexperience with the course and student level compared to near-native speaker teachers. No significant differences in pitch were discovered across speaker groups. It is concluded that nativeness does not play an integral role in the production of prosody during student-directed speech. Additionally, longitudinal evidence reinforces the influence of context, teacher training, and experience in the production of didactic prosody. A reduction in pitch range over time can be credited to the teachers’ desire to make students feel comfortable and to come across as kind. Native speakers reduced their use of other prosodic manipulations over time while near-native speakers did not, and these differences are also attributable to experience and training disparities across the two groups.
