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Intonation | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| czwelker Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4524 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, French | Message 1 of 3 09 July 2012 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone.
I am studying Spanish in Sevilla, Spain currently, and, though my Spanish is at a pretty high level, I still have a little trouble the intonation of the language. When it's good, I speak with the accent of a native speaker from North Spain (two people I've spoken to thought of was from Northern Spain and were surprised to learn I was American), but on days where my intonation is bad, people sometimes have trouble understanding me. This issue doesn't surprise me because sometimes I speak with poor intonation in my native English as well. Are there any exercises or activities I could do to better my intonation? Can anyone offer any tips for me? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ajackso3 Newbie United States Joined 4554 days ago 29 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: Spanish | Message 2 of 3 10 July 2012 at 1:24am | IP Logged |
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Hi czwelker-
First off, I'm assuming that by intonation you mean your accent or pronunciation. If I'm mistaken, then a lot of this might end up being useless, but it seems like that is what you are talking about... What helped me to improve my accent/intonation in Spanish was to constantly listen to music in Spanish-paying attention to how words are pronounces and eventually singing along. I suppose if you wanted to develop a particular regional accent you could choose to listen only to artists from that locale, but, I listened to (and continue to listen to) artists from all over and I was able to avoid the typical "Americanized" Spanish. I did this from nearly the beginning of my Spanish studies, however, so your milage may vary. Pandora will often show song lyrics, and there's an app for lyrics in Spotify as well. You could also try reading out loud along with an audiobook, again paying attention to how the reader is pronouncing words. I believe its called shadowing, and I'm sure there are others on here who are much more knowledgeable on it. Whenever you are listening to Spanish, pay attention to the pronunciation of each individual syllable. You say you are at a pretty high level, so you can probably focus on both the spoken content as well as the manner it is being spoken. If you prefer more traditional studying, you could look at both English and Spanish phonetics. I had the basics of English phonetics drilled into me as a child learning to read, and it would seem to me that the deeper understanding one has of the way their first language is spoken, the easier it will be for them to notice differences in the pronunciation/intonation of certain letters/syllables in their L2. But I could be mistaken on this. If anyone has a deeper understanding of this, please correct me. I think I also remember seeing a thread about achieving a native accent, which might be of help to you as well. Good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| czwelker Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4524 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, French | Message 3 of 3 11 July 2012 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
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By intonation I mean rhythm and the length of my vowels and the chances in the pitch of my voice. Thanks for the advice, though! I'm sure it will help me with the length of my vowels.
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