Hi everyone, and welcome to this special Spanish speaker's edition of Seattle Learning Academy's

American English pronunciation podcast. In the coming months, I will be publishing these special

podcasts to help direct certain language groups to the resources that group will find the most helpful.

This podcast is an overview of issues that Spanish speakers are likely to face when they are learning to speak English.

The transcripts for this show are online at www.prenuncian.com, and all the episodes

mentioned during this podcast will have direct links from this show's transcripts. Also, I'll

put links at the top of the page to all of the free sound lists mentioned during this show.

I've taught Spanish speakers from a number of countries, including Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina,

and the Dominican Republic. I know that Spanish speakers from different countries have different

specific issues when speaking English. Because of some of you

are from countries closer to the United States, some of you learned English with an American

accent, but many of you learned English with a British accent, which will mean you learned the

R sound and R-controlled vowels in particular differently than I teach them.

I'm going to make generalizations about native Spanish speakers in this podcast

and not differentiate between all the different groups of Spanish speakers have.

That would simply be too confusing and take too much time.

I hope you all understand.

Spanish speakers have a number of difficult challenges when speaking English.

Many of these issues I've already created podcasts about, so you can pick and choose which areas you would like to work on first.

Although there are lots of sounds to work on, I have taught many

Spanish-speaking students who have made wonderful progress in their pronunciation skills

through practice, practice, and more practice. Remember, you need to train your ear just as much

...