1st. Today, I want you all to reflect upon pronunciation and phonetics. We'll pay special attention to the typical mistakes Spanish people committ when pronouncing.
2nd. First, look carefully at these two performances.
- LYRICS: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/hair/aquarius.htm
click here for watching the first video.
- Now contrast the previous performance with this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC3esqdrwFc
- As you might guess, the difference in the pronunciation of both singers is quite evident, but:
a) What do you think that are the reasonsfor this? Age? Sex? Origin? (= different places of Spain) Education?. Say as many factors as you consider appropriate and explain your answer.
3rd. Let's continue with a speech by Emilio Botin, president of Santander Bank. His speech is full of basic mistakes of pronunciation and is characterised by an accent quite hard to understand.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaLDoWqIq2M
Watch the video as many times as you need. Then, write down all the mistakes you see (pronunciation, grammar, syntax). Here, I give you some of the typical mistakes Spanish people commit. You can use them if these same mistakes are committed by Mr Botín:
- Pronunciation of "e" in words starting with s-, like for example "Spain" /espeIn/.
- Very marked pronunciation of "h".
- Pronunciation of "sh" like in FASHION, or pronunciation of the suffix -tion.
- Final endings.
4th. You have just watched and listened to a speech by the president of one of the most important banks in the world. Do you think that speeches like this can influence negatively on him with regards to investors, and
businessmen?
- Do you think it is necessary having a good English to get better results in your company?
- Are businessmen really concerned about the importance of English for their jobs?
