“Training your Ear” when Learning Spanish
September 21st, 2009
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Learning Spanish involves more than memorizing new vocabulary words, or learning to pronounce new words like native speakers do.
And although vocabulary is important and fluid pronunciation streamlines communication in your target language, developing an “ear” for the language is crucial for your language learning success.
Besides improving your pronunciation, you need to develop a sensitivity to the language that you are learning. In the case of Spanish, this means listening for specific things that you are not accustomed to pay attention to as a native English speaker.
The things that you need to sensitize yourself to are:
- Stressed vowels and stressed syllables
- Slurred and blended vowels
- Slurred and blended words (Spanish blends words together when vowels and consonants meet, even if these sounds are in different words)
- Context clues in the communication that advise you of the correct gender or case of you response
