Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation

From Description to Pedagogy

Rajiv Rao

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138954601
• eBook ISBN: 9781317356295
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy is a resource that encourages Spanish teachers and curriculum designers to increase their incorporation of pronunciation into the classroom. Combining theory and practical guidance, it will help language practitioners integrate the teaching of Spanish pronunciation with confidence and effectiveness. The international group of scholars across its 15 chapters is made up of individuals with well-established research records and training in best pedagogical practices.

Key features:

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• A range of topics including vowels, various classes of consonants, prosody, the use of technology, the role of orthography, the importance of both perception and production, individual learner differences, and teacher training;

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• Overviews of descriptive, empirical, and acquisition-based research associated with each aspect of the Spanish sound system;

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• Guidance on the difficulties that teachers face when incorporating the teaching of pronunciation into the classroom;

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• Clear explanations of concepts, accompanied by an abundance of concrete examples and references;

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• Multiple sample activities and lesson plans tailored to different levels and backgrounds of students;

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• A bilingual glossary of terms to help the content reach the widest audience possible.

Written in a clear and accessible manner, Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation is an essential resource for teachers of Spanish at all levels. It is also an excellent reference book for researchers and both undergraduate and graduate university students interested in Spanish phonetics and language acquisition.

PART I

The sound system of Spanish

1

DESCRIPTION OF SPANISH VOWELS AND GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING THEM

Eugenio Martínez Celdrán and Wendy Elvira-García

1.1 Introduction

This chapter describes the pronunciation of the five Spanish vowels, both stressed and unstressed, according to the context (see phonetic context) where they occur (e.g., whether they are in open or closed syllables). The chapter also deals with vowel groups, especially diphthongs, which are very frequent in Spanish. It highlights that in Spanish, phonological vowels are never realized as diphthongs (though in some cases they may be lengthened). The chapter addresses the main difficulties learners (regardless of their L1) have in mastering Spanish vowels, as well as teaching strategies that can be adopted to overcome them. We acknowledge that issues such as identity and other psycholinguistic aspects are also crucial to ways of speaking (including pronunciation), but have chosen an articulatory phonetics approach as the focus of this chapter. Also, the chapter is not tailored for use at a specific level of language since pronunciation is a long-term skill that should be taught in every stage of language learning (Bueno Hudson 2013).

1.2 Articulatory description of syllabic vowels

1.2.1 Definition

Vowels are speech segments characterized by two main features: they are voiced and constitute syllable nuclei (see nucleus [in syllable structure]). Syllables may consist of several segments, with their most essential part being a vowel, all syllables must contain a vowel, but not all syllables have consonants. Whereas in other languages segments such as laterals or rhotics can be syllable nuclei, in Spanish, only vowels can serve as a syllable nucleus. Diphthongs contain one non-syllabic vowel, or a glide, which is a non-nuclear vowel that is adjacent to the nuclear vowel. Every vowel is a voiced sound and, as previously stated, can be pronounced in isolation (Gil 2007, 425). In this chapter, we will mainly focus on the description of standard Spanish vowels; however, colloquial and dialectal aspects of the pronunciation of vowels will also be addressed.

Phonologically speaking, the five vowel monophthongs /i, e, a, o, u/ contrast meaning in Spanish (e.g., pipa, Pepa, papa, popa, pupa), and therefore, constitute phonemes forming a triangle defined by the features [front, back] and [high, mid, low] (Figure 1.1). In terms of the horizontal axis, the front vowels are /i, e/, the back vowels are /u, o/, and /a/ is defined phonologically as neither front nor back, but rather central. Along the vertical axis, the vowels /i, u/ are high (or closed) vowels, /e, o/ are mid vowels, and /a/ is low (or open).

1.2.2 Phonetic features

In the articulation of the high and mid front vowels, [i] and [e], respectively, the tongue is raised and relatively anterior in the oral cavity, and closer to the palate in [i] than in [e]. For these vowels, the lips adopt a neutral position. The opening of the pharynx is more widely open for these front vowels than for [a]. In [u], the tongue gets close to the velum and the lips are more rounded, and in [o], the tongue gets close to the uvula and the top part of the pharynx, which is why these two vowels are classified as “back.” The lips are rounded in [u] and, to a lesser degree, in [o]. The pharynx area in [u] is also greater than in [a], which is also the case with [o], but in the lower pharyngeal area. The images in Figures 1.3 and 1.4 illustrate the features described in Figure 1.2 in detail by showing articulatory organs and positions.

In the articulation of [i] and [e], the tongue rises toward the palate and the front of the oral cavity while the lips remain unrounded (Figure 1.4). The space between the root of the tongue and the pharynx wall is wider the higher the tongue is. In the articulation of [a], a low central vowel, the tongue remains low and neither front nor back, and the pharynx narrows considerably. In the articulation of [u] and [o], the tongue retracts to a velar or uvular position, respectively. The lips are more rounded and closer for [u] than for [o]. As already described for front vowels, the pharyngeal space is wider in high vowels.

FIGURE 1.1 Schematic representation of the Spanish vowel system.

FIGURE 1.2 MRIs of Spanish vowels.

Source: Iribar (2012; 2013, 78). Reprinted by permission of Estudios de Fonética Experimental. Barcelona, Spain.

FIGURE 1.3 The main articulators involved in the production of vowels.

FIGURE 1.4 Articulatory diagrams of Spanish vowels showing tongue position, lip rounding, and pharyngeal width.

1.2.3 Phonetic variation

Spanish vowels are tense and short, and present little variation resulting from contextual phonetic processes, any variation that does exist is mostly due to adjacency to certain consonants or another vowel, the latter of which results in a diphthong. In Standard Spanish in particular, vowels do not undergo any phonological processes; for example, they are not reduced in unstressed position or dropped at the end of a word. The main types of contextual variation in the realization of the Spanish monophthong vowels are outlined in Section 1.2.3.

1.2.3.1 Height

Navarro Tomás (1918) described a series of degrees of vowel height for Castilian Spanish that depend on the context in which each vowel is pronounced, but in fact, little contextual variation exists. Thus, there are not truly closed and open variants of /e/, but rather it can be articulated slightly lowered or more opened. The same can be said regarding the other vowels, except for /a/, which varies slightly across the front–back dimension (Figure 1.5).

In terms of the small set of contextual variants, according to Navarro Tomás (1918), all vowels become more open in three contexts: 1. As part of a closed syllable, as in til.de, ter.co, cor.to, and pul.so, 2. When in contact with a trill [r], as in irritar, remedio, perro, corre, ruta, and currar, and 3. When preceding the sound [x], as in hijo, queja, cojo, and lujo. It should be noted that /e/ has some restrictions concerning the first rule, when it is fo llowed by /m, n, s, d, θ/, as in em.pe.zar, men.te, pes.ca.do, sed, and diez, it does not become more open. In addition, /e/ usually becomes more open in the diphthong [e̞i̯] (e.g., seis) such that it can even be pronounced [ˈsa̯is] in informal speech, although the more frequent realization is [ˈse̞i̯s]. It should be noted that the diacritic under [e] indicates a slight lowering of the jaw, or a more open articulation (the arrows in Figure 1.5 indicate the tendency of non-low vowels to lower in the above-mentioned contexts), but one that is not as extreme as that of [ɛ]. The vowel /o/ also becomes more open in the diphthong [o̞i̯] (e.g., voy, soy); however, unlike /e/, /o/ has no exceptions in closed syllables. Furthermore, the low vowel /a/ can be realized as slightly fronted in contact with palatal consonants (e.g., yaya, llamar, caña), and usually becomes slightly more back before the consonant /x/ (e.g., ajo, paja), before [o, u, u̯] (e.g., ahora, baúl, causa), and in a syllable closed by /l/ (e.g., alma, calvo).

FIGURE 1.5 Context-dependent vocalic movements.

Acoustically, no observable differences in vowel height exist due to context (Martínez Celdrán and Fernández Planas 2007, 183–188), but articulatory differences do exist and are observable through electropalatography. Figure 1.6 shows a diagram of an electropalatogram. It has eight rows indicating different areas of the palate where the tongue can make contact (i.e., different places of articulation): the end of the teeth, the alveoli, the hard palate, and the beginning of the velum. The degree of contact between the tongue and each region is shown through different colors that appear in the squares, complete contact is signaled by black squares, while different shades of gray indicate partial contact (dark gray = 50 percent, gray = 25 percent) and white indicates no contact.

Non-open vowels display more contacts than slightly open vowels, as seen in Figure 1.7. Comparing tesis and seis shows that the [e] of tesis has 14 squares with 100 percent, four with 50 percent and four with 25 percent in the palatal area. The [e̞] of seis has eight squares with 100 percent, six with 50 percent and six with 25 percent. This difference is not large but there clearly is less contact in seis, indicating a certain degree of opening. Comparing lista and tisis demonstrates that the [i] in lista (in a closed syllable) shows less contact than the first [i] of tisis (in an open syllable). In sum, the images in Figure 1.7 illustrate that the more open the vowel, the less contact we see in electropalatograms.

FIGURE 1.6 Diagram of an electropalatogram.

FIGURE 1.7 Electropalatograms showing the degree of vowel opening in productions of /e/ and /i/.

Source: adapted from Martínez Celdrán and Fernández Planas (2007, 187).

1.2.3.2 Nasalization

There are no nasal vowel phonemes in Spanish, but vowels may become nasalized in syllables ending in a nasal consonant, and they are obligatorily nasalized when they are between nasals (see nasal-stop class); for example, in the utterance en seguida vuelvo, almost certainly the first vowel nasalizes, as is the case in desempeñar and detente as well. In mañana no iré, the nasalization (see vowel nasalization) of the three /a/ vowels is obligatory because they all fall between two nas...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• PART I: The sound system of Spanish
• PART II: Pedagogical challenges and suggestions for the classroom
• Glossary
• Index