Course Title:
HISP-S 425 Spanish Phonetics (3 credits) (3 credits) 
Course Area:  LINGUISTICS

Prerequisites:
S310 or equivalent for those students who matriculated prior to Summer 2003.
S326 for those students who matriculated Summer 2003 or after.

Course Description:

The field of phonology and phonetics has as its primary goal the description of the sounds produced in the world’s languages.  Students enrolled in this course will develop the necessary vocabulary and theoretical knowledge to describe the sound system of Spanish, and to contrast it with English.  Although this course requires knowledge of theoretical aspects of phonology and phonetics, there are two important applications that make this course especially practical.  First, the ability to describe the sound system of Spanish in technical terms will enable students to analyze their own pronunciation and to use such knowledge to increase their awareness of standard pronunciation.  Students interested in teaching Spanish in the future will gain insight into the problems faced by English-speaking learners of Spanish.  Second, students will work with recorded speech from speakers of several varieties of Spanish, thereby gaining experience with a broad group of native-speakers and improving their own perceptive skills.

Required Text: Teschner, R.  (1996).  Camino Oral: Fonética, fonología y práctica de los sonidos del español.  New York: McGraw-Hill.  (This textbook comes with a required cassette tape.)

Course Requirements: Daily preparation, including textbook readings and homework assignments, and active class participation are essential for success in this course.  In addition to periodic graded homework assignments, students will complete three short exams and a final project.  This project will be presented in a conference-style workshop at the end of the semester.