Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

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This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

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 frequent kinds of problems in phonetics they may encounter, especially within the context of their own performance of the language in sessions which will include dialogues, informal talks, lectures, as well as video performance, 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. Labelling 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) Role-play. Imitating in English the accents of Spanish-Speakers.
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) Dictionary searches for 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. Identificattion 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) 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.

4. Varieties of Spanish: Description of the Main Phonetic Features of the Kinds of Peninsular and Hispanic-American Spanish characterized by a High Degree of Circulation.
Practical Activities:
1) Viewing films in which the different varieties of Peninsular and Hispanic-American Spanish may be appreciated.
2) Visits to regional cultural centers in Sevilla. During the visits students will be asked to record interviews with speakers of the range of dialects that circulate within Peninsular Spain.
3) 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 (a letter) and an oral text (a short dialogue which, afterwards, will be performed).

6. Types of Oral Texts within different Communicative Situations: Job Interviews, Class Assignment Presentations, Debates, Talks, 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 describing the different kinds of oral text being dealt with.
3) Working in groups constructing the different kinds of oral texts.
4) Debating issues related to current affairs.

7. Linguistic Registers: Formal and Informal.
Practical Activities:
1) Visits to different locations within Sevilla during which students may recognize in situ these different kinds of linguistic registers (Sevilla’s Ateneo, Regional Cultural Centers, Public Marketplaces, Bars, Shops and Malls).
2) Describing the different kinds of formal and informal oral texts being dealt with.
3) Constructing in groups different kinds of formal and informal oral texts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BUSCH, H.-J. y LATHROP, T. Spanish Phonetics and Phonemics. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta. 2006.
NAVARRO TOMÁS, T. Manual de entonación española. Madrid: Guadarrama, 1974.
NAVARRO TOMÁS, T. Manual de pronunciación española. Madrid: CSIC, 1980.
QUILIS, A. Curso de fonética y fonología del español para estudiantes angloamericanos. Madrid: CSIC, 1995.
REAL ACADEMIA ESPA�"OLA. Ortografía de la lengua española. Madrid: RAE, 1999.

Besides these sources, students will be encouraged to read a book, as a working text for the Course, the title of which will be allocated on the first day of class.

ASSESSMENT
Given the Course’s practical character, assessment will be dynamic and on-going. In this sense, the following factors will be taken into account:
- Regular Attendance.
- Level of Participation in the Different Practical Activities.
- Grading of Oral Assignments.
- Final-Exam Grade.

END-OF-COURSE EXAM
This final exam will consist of:
- A written test: questions on Corrective Phonetics.
An oral test: a commentary on a text and the participation in a conversation about a subject of current interest.