Final recording

This is my final recording, and I’ve tried to focus on all areas of pronunciation that I have worked on – I find that is the hardest thing, putting it all together, and it takes a lot of practice.

Looking back, I feel that the most useful for me has been the practice of reading out loud, ideally with the assistance of a native speaker or an expert. Simply recording myself and comparing doesn’t work as well, as my ear is not sensitive enough to catch all my mistakes. Another thing that helped was simply to use the archetype, stopping after each sentence, and repeating it several times. Also, reading about the features of the sounds definitely increased my understanding of the sounds that I should be producing – the implication for me as a teacher would be the importance of teaching learners a little phonology theory when we practice pronunciation.

I feel that I have improved in my pronunciation of the soft and hard “r”, the vowels, /θ/, and /b/. I’m still not confident about the /x/, and that is an area I still need to work on. I have practiced it by taking lots of words that have it and repeating them over and over again, and during a practice session it definitely improves (and I think it’s much better in this recording!). Also, I get a sore throat after a practice session… true story.

It was interesting to go through this process and see the deliberate pronunciation practice from the perspective of the learner. In the past I mostly replied on imitation – more conscious and purposeful, in the case of English, and more superficial in the case of other languages; but in both cases it was random and without method or any focused exercises.

Recording 8

Recording 7 – the fun one!

While practicing I noticed that it helps to overdo it a bit – so I decided to make one recording with theatrical oomph. It doesn’t sound like her, but it was fun to do and helped me relax!

Recording 7

Recording 6: Intonation

For this recording I decided to mark the intonation on the transcript and try to imitate it.

One thing that I noticed was that stress is produced mainly thorugh syllable length and volume, not so much through pitch. There are a few places where pitch is more pronounced (underlined and highlighted in yellow) but it's still less so than in English. Even though I practiced many times, when I listened to the recording I realized I still make the pitch higher than it should be.

Another difference from English is that it's much more flat overall. There are long stretches where the pitch stays the same, usually on the low side. This was also quite difficult to accomplish but I think I managed to do so in most places.

Recording 6

Recording 5: rate and connected speech

This time I tried to speak faster and imitate Elena's speech rate and thought groups. I practiced several times listening to each sentence and repeating. I think I did pretty well in speed but I lost in accuracy - forgot some of the /θ/s and my /x/ was worse than before.

Recording 5

Recording 4: intonation

For this recording I tried to focus on intonation - Spaniards tend to speak with a very low pitch, which I find very interesting but quite difficult to imitate. I think I managed to make it lower than usual but I feel my speech sounds quite unnatural.

Recording 4

Recording 3: /d/

Ohh I haven't posted a recording a long time... need to catch up!

In this one, on top of the previous features, I tried to focus on the intervocalic or final /d/, which is close to the English /ð/ - for example both d's in "necesidad". I thought I managed to do it quite well most of the time, but after listening to it, I see that many times I still revert to the alveolar /d/.

I also tried to produce the approximant /b/, for example in "vivir".

What I'm still really bad at is the alveolar tap [ɾ] for the soft "r". More practice!

Recording 3

Recording 2

The /θ/ is getting better, and I think I manage to do the /x/ most of the time, but it hurts!

Recording 2

Some progress on the /θ/ front

I find that the reading aloud helps me the most with the practice of the /θ/, as seeing the spelling makes me remember to use this sound. I don't know if this would transfer into speaking, though.

I've also been doing a bit better with the alveolar trill "r" although I tend to overcompensate and use it in places where the tap "r" is used. I like the minimal pair practice for this. Another thing I hadn't realized was that, according to its description (and the phonetic symbol), this is the same tap that appears in "kitty". I find it impossible to think of these as the same phoneme! I will need to listen to it more in order to reconcile it with my idea of an "r".

In terms of vowels, I don't think I have any problems other than perhaps making them more open. I will do a new recording tomorrow and then listen to it to see if anything else catches my attention.

But wait, there's more!

In the meantime, I realized that there are other consonants to work on! I read a bit more on Spanish phonology on Wikipedia and I also checked out other exercises on StudySpanish.com - here, the explanations on how the sound is formed are not always very good but at least there are clear examples. 

I found that I also need to improve: the  /b/, /d/, and /ɡ/, which are pronounced as approximants, unless they come after a nasal consonant or they are word-initial; this /b/ is also spelled as the letter "v", which I tend to pronounce /v/. 

Also, the /d/ is different from English - it's a laminal denti-alveolar (Wikipedia) and this is how it's explained on StudySpanish.com: "The Spanish "d" has two separate sounds, hard and soft. At the beginning of a word and after "n" or "l", the hard Spanish "d" closely resembles the "d" in the word "dog." The difference is that when pronouncing the hard Spanish "d", the tongue touches the back of the front teeth (rather than the gum ridge, as in English). In other situations (particularly between vowels) the "d" is softer, closely resembling the "th" sound in the word "this."" I think this is a pretty helpful description, and it's next on my list to practice!

Consonant practice

So far, I have been practicing in two ways:

1 - Lists of words

I found a website with exercises for Spanish pronunciation, some of which I find quite useful: StudySpanish

I used this to practice my alveolar trill [r] and the alveolar tap [ɾ] . I like the fact that it has practice contrasting the two, including minimal pairs and words which contain both (those are the most difficult!). I also used it to work on my /x/ and I plan to use it for other features as well (it has vowels, intonation, connected speech etc.). 

I decided to pronounce the approximant /j/ (usually spelt as "ll" or "y", like in "llena" or "ayuda") just like in English, since it seems to me that this how the actress in my archetype is saying it. In other regions of Spain it is something between /j/ and /ʒ/, a sound that I find very difficult to get right.

2 - Reading aloud

I've done some reading out loud, focusing on the sounds mentioned above, and also on the /θ/, which I can produce but I have to remember to do it. My roommate listened to me reading and stopped me here and there, asking me to repeat and correct myself. I also stop and repeat the words when I have trouble or when I notice I said it wrong. The reading is especially useful for those "r"s and made me realize how difficult it is to juggle between the trill and the tap.

Trouble consonants

After listening to my recording (and also from what I know about my Spanish pronunciation weaknesses), there are several consonant issues that stand out:

-  the dental fricative /θ/ - this is mainly a matter of remembering to do it, as I am used to pronouncing /s/ from Argentinian Spanish

- the alveolar trill /r/ - I am able to produce it but with much effort and that's why I usually don't produce it in speech. It needs training to become effortless and automatic.

-  the voiceless velar fricative /x/ - this one is a challenge, I can't really make it, I usually just do the English or Romanian /h/

-  the approximant  /j/ - this sound is giving me trouble too. I'm used to the Argentinian postalveolar /ʒ/ or /ʃ/

Another sound that sounds a bit different is the /s/. I did a bit of research on it but it seems that phonologists are not very sure in what way it is different. The usual notation is [s̺] and Wikipedia says it is "an apical alveolar retracted fricative (or "apico-alveolar" fricative), sounding to some ears a bit like English /ʃ/". According to Obaid, 
"There is a Castilian s, which is a voiceless, concave, apicoalveolar fricative: the tip of the tongue turned upward forms a narrow opening against the alveoli of the upper incisors. It resembles a faint /ʃ/ and is found throughout much of the northern half of Spain." What?? Since I have no idea how to produce it, I'm not going to focus on this sound.


References:
Obaid, Antonio H. (1973), "The Vagaries of the Spanish 'S'", Hispania (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese) 56 (1): 60–67

Recording 1

 First try - this is how I would normally read it.

Recording 1

Transcript

While transcribing the interview I decided to do a a little bit bit more - there is one sound that I have trouble producing and it appeared only once in the previous selection.

Here is the transcript for 0:23- 2:24:

Te van los personajes radicales?

  

Creo que sí, pero… tú eres actriz, sabes también que, cuando encuentras un personaje así,  es un regalo para el alma, ¿no? Es difícil de hacer pero por supuesto me interesan los personajes con conflictos, con necesidad de superarse a sí mismos, personajes con miedos, personajes con pasado, eh… personajes marcados… y personajes encerrados. 

  

Tu método de trabajo te exige convivir con tus personajes. Cómo has convivido con este último?

Ha sido una buena compañera, Lupe. Eeh… he tenido la suerte de tener tiempo para preparar este personaje, me ha enseñado a hacer muchas tartas de manzana, me ha enseñado a ser más valiente, me ha enseñado a tener que aceptar la muerte, me ha enseñado a tener muchas ganas de vivir, y a ser una persona creo que, no sé, más adulta, más fuerte, más llena de ganas, siempre. 

Por todo esto este personaje de agorafóbica te parece un bombón?

Por todo eso y mucho más. El hecho de haber podido participar en esta película y ayudar a Beatriz a contar esta historia eeh, creo que me ha enseñado mucho, también como actriz. Creo que es en mi momento más maduro que llego a esta película con muchas ganas y con más aprendizaje, el trabajo es un grado más y seguir trabajando hace que cada vez te puedas enfrentar a los personajes… pues eso, con más solidez, y creo que este personaje… he sido excelentemente bien dirigida, he estado muy bien acompañada por un casting soñado, con unos actores maravillosos como Angélica Aragón, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Patrick Criado, que me han enseñado mucho, cada uno en su experiencia pero creo que han conseguido que entre todos hagamos un trabajo muy bonito y muy bello de ver.

Archetype

My archetype is an interview with a Spanish actress - I will use minute 0:27 - 0:52 and 0:59-1:30

Interview