Sonidos En Contexto: Una Introduccion a La Fonetica Del Espanol Con Especial Referencia a La Vida Real

Sonidos en contexto is a comprehensive, theory-independent description of Spanish phonetics and phonology for intermediate to advanced students. It provides articulatory descriptions of native pronunciations, as well as practical advice on producing native-like sounds and a logical progression of exercises leading to that end. What sets this book apart from other phonetics texts is its emphasis on real-world examples of spoken Spanish, using native pronunciation modeled in natural contexts. While other available texts stress phonetic theory, this one provides hands-on activities that are entertaining, culturally framed, and relevant to students' interests and experiences. The book also includes a downloadable instructor's manual, as well as engaging, colorful exercises in the text, photos of realia, and a high quality and very diverse 6-hour audio program on CD. To request access to the Instructor's Manual PDF file, please contact us at language.yalepress@yale.edu.

About the Author :
Terrell A. Morgan is Associate Professor of Spanish at The Ohio State University.

Review :
"The best, most up-to-date, and most comprehensive treatment of Spanish phonetics... it will become THE book to use for teaching Spanish phonetics for the next several decades, or longer."-Joel Rini, University of Virginia -- Joel Rini "In an era of second/foreign language instruction that has seen an almost complete abandonment of the formal teaching of pronunciation, it is very gratifying to happen across a textbook specifically and carefully designed to teach the sound system of Spanish to intermediate and/or advanced university students. Sonidos en contexto is an excellent, time-saving resource for busy Spanish faculty trained in descriptive linguistics to create a turn-key course in Spanish pronunciation... It is not easy to take a subject as dry as an exhaustive study of the sound system of Spanish and make it applicable and interesting to undergraduate students, but this book accomplishes the task beautifully... The conceptual flow of this book is very ordered and logical, starting with the Spanish writing system, then moving on to syllabification and word stress before discussing the basic concepts of phonetics and phonology... Sonidos en contexto offers a thorough and complete descriptive analysis of the Spanish sound system, including transcribed readings, ordinary readings for phonetic transcription, articulatory phonetic description, phonological distributions, and phonology problems. However, what really sets this textbook apart are its wealth of practice activities, strategically placed within the text to allow students to practice the content covered in each chapter... In conclusion, Sonidos en contexto is a very informative and engaging resource for instructors and students interested in the teaching of the Spanish sound system."-Hispania, Michael Hubert, Washington State University -- Michael Hubert Hispania "Morgan provides a fresh approach, with a focus on real-life Spanish that I have not encountered in any other text... Although many textbooks on Spanish pronunciation and phonetics have been published in recent years, Sonidos en contexto stands above the rest, surpassing, in my view, the quality of even the textbooks that have been mainstays as the most popular over the last few decades... Morgan should be congratulated, as in Sonidos en contexto he has produced a textbook that is the most complete, most engaging, most varied in activities, most connected to real-life Spanish, and has the best audio program of any textbook on this subject."-Timothy L. Face, University of Minnesota, The Modern Language Journal -- Timothy L. Face The Modern Language Journal "Sonidos does an admirable job of covering the whole of the Spanish sound system while opting to eschew a more thorough treatment that could be overly technical and even off-putting... a solid choice of a fundamental text in Spanish phonetics and phonology for a second- or third-year university course."-Dennis Bricault, The NECTFL Review -- Dennis Bricault The NECTFL Review "This textbook is an introduction to the sounds of Spanish and provides a comprehensive account appropriate for students with little background in linguistics and phonetics... A strength of this textbook is the clear presentation of the main concepts as well as the comparisons drawn between the sounds of Spanish and those of English from a theory-independent perspective. Compared to many other phonology textbooks, the explanations are quite brief and straightforward, and are always accessible to the student... What most distinguishes this book from other recently published textbooks is the considerable breadth and range of activities that accompany each chapter. In most chapters there are more pages dedicated to transcription practice, aural comprehension activities, and phonological problems than are dedicated to the actual exposition of the material. The author strives to provide engaging, culturally driven activities taken from real-life modern Spanish sources. The full-color photographs of Spanish billboards, newspaper headlines, and product packaging provide examples of phonological processes (e.g. assimilation, lenition) that complement the prose of the chapter... Learners will gain a solid understanding of the sound system and improve their pronunciation of Spanish from the clarity of the explanations, from the extensive written and oral practice exercises, and from the high-quality audio program that features speakers from across the Spanish-speaking world. This book showcases the author's unique ability to provide fresh, relevant examples to explain the fundamental concepts of Spanish phonetics."-Jason Doroga, University of Wisconsin-Madison, eLanguage -- Jason Doroga, University of Wisconsin-Madison eLanguage