Speech prosody is a multi-faceted dimension of speech which can be measured and analyzed in a variety of ways. In this study, the speech prosody of Mandarin L1 speakers, English L2 speakers, and English L1 speakers was assessed by trained raters who listened to sound clips of the speakers responding to a graph prompt and reading a short passage. In order to eliminate other factors that might distract from assessing only the prosodic "goodness" of a given speaker, the sound clips were acoustically filtered to attenuate all frequencies 500 Hz and above. This cut-off was used with the aim of preserving prosodic characteristics without including interference from segmental features where possible. The raters who participated in this study were trained to use the OEPT (Oral English Proficiency Test) scale to rate holistic speech in an unfiltered condition so this study employs an adapted version of that scale. The levels of the adapted scale were as follows: (1) L1 Mandarin Prosody, (3) L2 Novice English Prosody, (5) L2 Intermediate English Prosody, (7) Advanced English Prosody, (9) L1 English Prosody. For each sound clip, the raters were asked to assign one of these proficiency levels and describe in qualitative terms why they choose that score. EFL students from different universities in China were also asked to complete this task of rating filtered speech along the same scale. The resulting analysis will examine the usefulness of rating prosody through filtered speech for L2 prosody assessment as well as its potential benefits for prosody pedagogical development. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]