Once a student asked me: How do I know whether a word in Spanish starts and ends? After approaching Syllable breaking, his listening skills got strengthened and he was able to pronounce clearly.
In other words, if you teach your students how to break words down by their syllables, they’ll figure out how to pronounce any word in Spanish!
The Length of the Words
Once we are able to hear both the beginning and the end of any word in the target language, it’s really satisfying. We’re increasingly feeling confortable with it as we master it. In order to achieve such a goal, our listening skills need to be trained. Then in Speaking practice we’re also able to execute a clear pronunciation. And guess what? It’s not different to our students. Remember this quote from previous post?
“Good pronunciation begins not in the mouth but in the ear”.
– Paul Pimsleur
As a matter of fact, the closer we get to a language, the more we realize how long or short its words can be. That’s the reason why it is so important to make our students aware of it, as it has everything to do with how they listen to and pronounce them.
Now let’s take a look to the following example:
Most of words in English tend to be monosyllabic, whereas most Spanish words tend to be from 2 to 3 syllables each.
English – Hi! How are you? (Monosyllabic)
Spanish – ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? (2 syllables per word)
As has been noted, this is a huge difference!
Getting Used to Words in Spanish
What happens when we’re not aware of the length of the words? At this point, resistance from native language gets in the way of our students’ learning journey, making it slower, harder and discouraging. I’m sure this is exactly the opposite of what we as Spanish teachers or tutors want for them.
However, fear not! Here’s a free resource for you. Get 12 slides and 3 Speaking Assignments on Spanish Syllable Breaking ready to use within your class here!
Make sure to cover this!
With this purpose in mind, how do we know how long or short is a word in Spanish? It will depend on how many beats the word takes to be fully pronounced. That’s how we count syllables in Spanish language. It’s like a piece of a strawberry cake!
There’s no need to rush! Take all the time you and your students need to go through these free resources. Let’s make the most out of them!
Links to Lesson Plan and Speaking Assignments
Syllable Breaking Lesson plan (12 slides)
Share these links with your students!
Monosyllabic Words Speaking Assignment
Two Syllables Words Speaking Assignment
Three Syllables Words Speaking Assignment
See more posts by Mar here.
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