Corrective Phonetics and Conversation

OBJECTIVES
This Course, both theoretically and practically based, is designed to help students improve on,
and take better advantage of, their communication skills (comprehension and production) during oral
performance in Spanish. Attention will be paid to the most challenging kinds of issues in Phonetics they
may encounter, especially within the context of their own performance, as in the case of conversation
practice sessions which will include informal talks, explicative segments, and lectures, as well as videobased
performances, etc.

SYLLABUS
I. CORRECTIVE PHONETICS
1. Articulation: The Parts of the Vocal Tract; Places and Manners of Articulation.
Practical Activities:
1) Describing the parts that make up the vocal tract. Labeling a diagram of the parts of the vocal tract.
2) Describing and reproducing sounds according to a range of places and manners of articulation in
English and Spanish.
2. The Sounds of the Spanish Language: Phonemes, Sounds, and Written Forms (Orthographic Rules).

Practical Activities:
1) Listening to recordings of Spanish-Speakers from different backgrounds speaking English.
2) Describing the articulation of the sounds of the Spanish language. Exploring the set-up of the
phonemes of Spanish and English to ensure familiarity with the phonetic symbols involved.
3) Drawing up lists of words with differing pronunciation in English and Spanish.
4) Individual and group practice of the sounds in Spanish which cause English-Speakers most difficulty.
5) As undertaken by students and lecturers, the listening to recordings or live renderings of words with
the same origin and yet with differing pronunciation in Spanish and English.
6) Listening to recordings of single sounds and words. Identification by students of the sounds used.
7) Listening to songs. The filling in of gaps in the lyrics followed by complete renderings.
8) Readings out loud.
9) Dictations.
10) Listening Comprehension exercises.
3. Suprasegmental Elements: Accent, Pitch, Rhythm, Intonation. The Syllable.

Practical Activities:
1) As set up by lecturers, listening to recordings or live renderings of words, phrases, sentences, and
more extensive utterances, so as to enable students to perceive differences in the distribution of pitch,
rhythm, and intonation in Spanish and English.
2) The rules of accentuation.
3) The structure of syllables in Spanish.
4) The performance of songs.
5) Poetry recitals on an individual basis, together with drama-based group activities which are
performed aloud.
4. Varieties of Spanish: Description of the Main Phonetic Features of the Kinds of European-Iberian and
Hispanic-American Spanish Characterized by the High Degree of Circulation They Enjoy.

Practical Activities:
1) The screening of video footage and video-blog input in which the different varieties of European-
Iberian and Hispanic-American Spanish may be appreciated. Students will be expected to determine the
key phonetic and suprasegmental features.
2) Role play: each group will reproduce a specific variety of Spanish.
II. CONVERSATION
5. Oral Discourse and Written Discourse: Characteristics of Oral Discourse in Comparison with Written
Discourse.
Practical Activities:
1) Working in groups. Comparisons between written and oral texts.
2) Working in groups. Constructing a written text (an e-mail message) and an oral text (a short dialogue
which, afterwards, will be performed).
6. Types of Oral Texts within Different Kinds of Communicative Situation: Job Interviews, Class
Presentation of Assignment Findings, Debates, Talks, Assembly Meetings, Coteries, Telephone
Conversations, Colloquial Exchanges, etc.
Practical Activities:
1) Viewing videos which are representative of these different communicative situations. The analysis
and pooling of ideas regarding the specific features of each of them.
2) Working in groups in order to describe the different kinds of oral text being dealt with.
3) Working in groups in order to construct the different kinds of oral texts being dealt with.
4) Debating issues related to current affairs.
7. Linguistic Registers: Formal and Informal.

Practical Activities:
1) Visits to different locations within the city of Sevilla during which students may learn to recognize in
situ these different kinds of linguistic registers (academic lectures, theater venues, cafeterias, etc.).
2) Describing the different kinds of formal and informal oral texts being dealt with.
3) Constructing in groups the different kinds of formal and informal oral texts being dealt with.