Pronunciacion de la lengua Espanola para anglohablantes: Spanish Phonetics

(Spiral bound)

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Pronunciacion de la lengua espanola para anglohablantes provides students with two types of practical knowledge. First, it draws upon key English-Spanish sound contrasts to guide proper pronunciation of Spanish sounds. Second, it adds to this body of information a systematic treatment of regular phonological rules and shows how these rules manipulate sounds. The goal of this twofold presentation is to impart not just more native-sounding pronunciation but also a conceptualization of the Spanish sound system that matches, as closely as possible, that of native Spanish speakers. This conceptualization emerges gradually over the course of the text, with each chapter introducing a new feature or principle, and revisiting all material already presented. Because the target audience of the text is native English speakers, its pedagogical method is also largely therapeutic: to help students fix pronunciation problems, whether sporadic or habitual. Extensive use is made of side-by-side comparison of English and Spanish words or short phrases that sound similar but are not identical (such as yellow / hielo), to illustrate fundamental phonetic contrasts. End-of-chapter exercises evaluate mastery by means of verbal repetition drills, written transcriptions, phonetically relevant tongue twisters, and guided conversation tasks. The appendices focus on four related areas of Spanish phonetics that are both useful and interesting to students as "next steps," and are intended to supplement and enhance the main text. These sections may be drawn upon to enrich a course of study as time and student interest permit. In summary, this text is an essential, flexible, and complete course in Spanish pronunciation, and is designed for regular classroom use. Its format, style, and sequencing make it readily accessible to both teacher and student.

Author Bio

Richard E. Morris (Ph.D. Ohio State University) is Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.