RAVEN REDMOND-JOHNSON R&R REPORT II 10-14-2018 FL663

The article that I chose for the second R&R report focuses on phonemes in Spanish.

Specifically, the phonemes are rhotics, the trilled and tapped ​r. ​There are various arguments for

what these rhotics actually are. One is that the tap and the trill are two separate phonemes;

another argument is that the trill is really a geminate of the tap. One more argument suggests that

in variants of Spanish where the perceived trill is voiceless, a preceding voiceless sound may

make the following ​r​ trill. This article proposes that the best way to test this theory is to look at

the environments in which the trill and the tap occur, in harmony with the chapter we read for

this unit on phonology. One of the specific environmental contexts where the rhotic sounds are

considered to be possible geminates are between vowels (i.e. caro and carro; pero and perro).

Syllable and stress placement were used to make predictions, and then speakers were tested on

nonwords with and without accents. It was found that Spanish rhotics are in fact separate

phonemes, such that the trill is not just the identical sequence of the tap.

This article definitely has far-reaching implications for foreign and second language

courses. It emphasizes the importance of looking at phonological environments, so as to answer

the questions that language learner usually have about why words sound the way that they do.

When our metalinguistic awareness fails us, we need not fear. We find examples in the language,

enough to draw a conclusion not based on coincidence, and consider a variety of factors.

Because words are usually not used in isolation, we consider the speech context in which the

word occurs. Our students may notice that some words or phonemes in their newfound tongue

are not behaving the way that they are predicted to have to behave. Sometimes, it is the

phonological context in the word itself that affects the sound of a particular phoneme. At other

times, it may be the words surrounding the word under examination that accounts for the
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allophone of the phoneme. The specific syllable and stress rules of the language and other

paralinguistic features of speech like the pace and tone of the speaker affect the way words and

phonemes sound.

Other implications of this article include the teaching of the importance of minimal pairs.

Single phonemic differences often make differences in word meaning. At the outset, many

language learners to not see a need to place the emphasis on a certain syllable or to trill instead

of tap an ​r.​ Presenting speakers with examples where the difference makes a separate lexical

item, sometimes even in the same syntactic context will encourage them to make the effort.

In another case, in a new language, words often seem like unsegmented strings of

utterances. Knowing phonemic differences can help students to better interpret oral utterances

where such nuances are material. Students also begin to see why context is so important. They

start to understand the pragmatics of the language and develop metalinguistic awareness about

how certain words are used in the language. They may also figure out that some words are much

more common than others and that others are very content-specific.

In my classes, I often notice that a mistake that students make early on is trying to

pronounce each individual alphabet rather than combining them to make units of sound. The

problem is that the student does not realize that the letters work as a team and try to pronounce

some letters apart from the syllable. In languages like Spanish, where spelling is very simple

because of predictable phonemes, language learners gain orthographic knowledge because they

learn sound-symbol correspondence from explicit instructions in phonemic awareness. This

knowledge not only helps with spelling but dramatically improves reading ability! As I have

witnessed personally with my own students, this also translates to better production of the
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language or communication overall, which is the ultimate goal. Phonemic awareness is essential

for good language learners; it is the difference between saying the alphabet (or whatever is used

to represent phonemes in the language) and putting the sounds together in segments.
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References

Shelton, M. (2013). Spanish Rhotics: More Evidence of Gradience in the System. ​Hispania,

96​(1), 135-152. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.lynx.lib.usm.edu/stable/23608459