Ample evidence suggests that linguistic experience influences speech processing in the second language. In the case of Cantonese speakers of English, experience with Cantonese lexical tones might affect their processing of lexical stress in English. Two experiments were conducted to examine the perception and production of English word stress by adult Cantonese speakers of English.

In the perception experiment, several acoustic parameters including fundamental frequency, duration, and spectral balance were systematically manipulated on a nonsense word “bebe”. Participants were asked to judge the position of word stress of these nonsense words embedded in a carrier sentence. Results showed that Cantonese speakers exploited fundamental frequency as the primary cue to the perception of word stress, while native English speakers in the same experiment utilized spectral balance as the primary cue.

In the production experiment, Cantonese speakers were asked to produce word stress on the two syllables of the nonsense word “bebe” embedded in carrier sentences comparable to those used in the perception experiment. Results showed that Cantonese speakers could effectively use duration, intensity and fundamental frequency to signal the position of word stress. Results from the two experiments were discussed in terms of language experience with Cantonese and the possibility of a transfer of prosodic knowledge from Cantonese to English.