Intonation in EFL: transfer and interference
A.
As in other areas of foreign language learning, learners of English will tend to start by assuming that English is like their own first language. They will transfer the intonation habits of the L1 to the L2. To some extent, this assumption may well be correct. All those elements of intonation that are truly universal must, by definition, apply to English just as they do to other languages.
Depending on the learner's L1, there may indeed be many other, non-universal elements of intonation that are the same in English as in the L1, thus allowing their positive transfer to the learner's use of English (his or her so-called interlanguage). For example, German and Dutch have tonicity systems extremely similar to that of English, so that German and Dutch learners already know this part of English intonation. French, however, does not use tonicity in the same way, and French learners typically have difficulties with English tonicity because of their negative transfer of the French system to English. Unchecked, the assumption that English is like your L1 leads to interference from L1 as inappropriate elements are transferred.
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Languages that make little or no use of tonicity
Naturally, speakers of languages that make little or no use of tonicity are likely to make many inappropriate tonicity choices in English. Typically, they tend to accent the last word in an intonation phrase, even in cases where L1 speakers of English would not do so. On occasions, this can make such a speaker sound bizarre or absurd to the listener, since it sends out the wrong signals about where the new information in the message ends, or about what is in focus and what is not.
》 English: In ⤵⤴most cases | ▸standards have greatly im⤵proved.
》 French: Dans la plupart des ⤵cas | ...
》 French English: In most ⤵cases.