Beyond the Jokes: Leveraging Prosodic Features in American Sitcoms for English as a Second Language

This study employed mixed methods to examine the linguistic roles of prosodic elements in American sitcoms, venturing beyond the jokes to identify how they facilitate the acquisition of English as a Second Language (L2). Furthermore, a series of interviews and tests (pre-test/post-test) were conducted to administer the questions probing the role of prosodic features, and measuring the learners’ level of proficiency in listening and speaking skills. The findings showed that a) students view American sitcoms as a positive and fun supplemental tool for independent ESL learning; b) the intervention significantly enhanced learners' evaluative listening skills, whereas their speaking skills saw only notable development in vocabulary; c) learners actively process pitch for sentence type and emotional cues, recognizing stress as a semantic differentiator despite application challenges, and preferring a moderate tempo for optimal comprehension, which also serves as a register cue; d) learners prefer using American sitcoms in ESL for interactive activities like role-playing and shadowing to improve pronunciation and cultural understanding in a relaxed setting; e) the intervention did not significantly enhance foundational listening skills like comprehension and retention, nor did it substantially improve other key speaking aspects. American sitcoms, far from mere entertainment, offer a powerful and engaging window into authentic, everyday English, making them an invaluable asset to linguistics and a crucial component of English language learners' journey.