Learning objectives

The course aims at helping students: – know the basic theoretical concepts of Spanish Phonetics and Phonology; – know normative aspects of Spanish pronunciation; – know the phonetic and phonological system of Spanish in contrast with Italian; – think about phonetic and phonological structures of both languages by means of phonetic transcriptions - do phonetic and phonological transcriptions; – observe the differences between pronunciation and spelling; – produce phonetically correct speech. – acquire the knowledge necessary to implement the teaching of Spanish L2 with special attention to the phonic aspects of the language and to the development of the phonic competence, which is essential for the communicative competence. Furthermore, B2 language level of competence in Spanish (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is also required.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Spanish proficiency level B2 (or higher) is a prerequisite for sitting the final exam; it corresponds to 3 out of 9 CFU awarded by this course.
Proficiency level validation is based on certificates issued by CLA (Centro Linguistico di Ateneo) or by Instituto Cervantes (the certificate must be validated by CLA and published in the appropriate list) and it is a requirement for the exam with the lecturer for Lengua española 2.
As detailed in "Vademecum normativo per gli studenti dell'Area di Lingue e Letterature Straniere", B2 certificates obtained after 1st October 2024 are valid for three years.
Before sitting the final exam students must have passed and registered the following exams (as stated in "Vademecum normativo per gli studenti dell'Area di Lingue e Letterature Straniere"): Lingua spagnola 1 and Letteratura spagnola 1.
IMPORTANT NOTICES: Erasmus students are REQUESTED to get in touch with the lecturer at the beginning of the course for further information and for the integration of 3 CFU (if applicable).

Program

The course intends to outline the phonetic and phonological systems of contemporary standard Spanish. The fundamental concepts of Spanish phonetics, exemplified in detail with transcriptions, as well as those elements emerging from a contrastive analysis between the Italian and the Spanish systems, will be examined:
- Theoretical aspects (phonatory apparatus, phonology, phonetics, phoneme, phone, stress, syllable, etc.)
- Phonetic and phonological contrastive analysis of Italian and Spanish; phonemes, allophones, prosodic aspects.
- Phonetic alphabet.
- Phonological and phonetic transcriptions with special attention to European and American varieties of Spanish.
Professor Ahmed will teach part I of the course (18 hours) and professor Oyono part II (18 hours).
All teaching material used during the course (presentations, texts, short essays and articles etc.) is part of the bibliography for the final exam and will be available on the Moodle platform.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Lectures will be supported by Powerpoint presentations and by multimedia material. Some lectures will be devoted to phonetic transcriptions.
Guidelines and teaching materials will be uploaded in the Moodle platform of the module. In addition, the lecturer is available during his office hours.
Finally, specific support and tutoring activities are available for inclusion and accessibility, with particular regard to the Language and Literature courses in the French, English, Russian, Spanish and German areas. More information will be available on the Department's webpage.

Learning assessment procedures

The exam consists of a test on theoretical and practical questions related to the course program, the bibliography and the didactic materials provided in e-learning mode. Both the formulation of the questions and the answers will be made in writing and in Spanish. The test consists of open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions and exercises. Some require metalinguistic reflection, the ability to detect phenomena handled throughout the course and to provide examples of them. For students who do not attend class, the program and the form of evaluation are the same.
IMPORTANT NOTICES: Erasmus students are REQUESTED to get in touch with the lecturer at the beginning of the course.
It will be possible to take the exam with the program and methods indicated until the extraordinary session of January/February 2026.

Evaluation criteria

The exam will be a written test that will ascertain the depth of knowledge acquired on the topics on the syllabus, as well as the correct use of language, the terminological precision, and the ability to connect the information as a network of knowledge.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final mark will be expressed in a scale of 30 and will be the arithmetic mean between the grade obtained in the written test (18/30 minimum) and the grade from the Spanish proficiency exam (converted in a scale of 30 in accordance with the indications detailed in “Vademecum normativo per gli studenti dell'Area di Lingue e Letterature Straniere").

Exam language

Spagnolo - Español