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El presente artículo investiga los efectos de la apócope de /-s/, /-r/ y /-θ/ en las vocales precedentes. Para esto, se analiza a 60 hablantes de andaluz oriental y se realiza, además, un experimento de percepción, lo que confirma que 1) la apócope de /-s/, /-r/ y /-θ/ cambia la calidad de las vocales precedentes en distinto grado –de ahí que se esté en condiciones de discernir entre 14 vocales distintas— y que 2) los hablantes de andaluz oriental pueden identificar, por un lado, sin ayuda ninguna del contexto, si una vocal va seguida o no de una consonante subyacente y, por otro, reconocer nueve vocales distintas. The present article investigates the effects of deleting /-s/, /-r/, and /-θ/ on preceding vowels. For this, the speech of 60 speakers from Eastern Andalusia is analysed acoustically and an experiment is also carried out to analyse perception. From these studies we conclude that 1) deleting /-s/, /-r/, and /-θ/ changes the quality of a preceding vowel to different degrees, allowing us to identify 14 different vowels in this geolect; 2) Eastern Andalusian Spanish speakers can identify, without any contextual help, whether or not a vowel is followed by an underlying consonant and these speakers can also distinguish between nine different vowels.

Eastern Andalusian Spanish (henceforth EAS), is spoken in the east of Andalusia, the southernmost autonomous region of Spain. EAS is most similar to Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS) and to Murcian Spanish, the latter spoken in the autonomous region of Murcia, immediately to the east of Andalusia, and it shares some phonetic traits with EAS, such as vowel lowering. Geographically, Eastern Andalusia includes the provinces of Almería, Granada, Jaén and Málaga, although the precise linguistic delimitation of this area is somewhat more complicated (Figure 1). The main criterion to differentiate EAS from WAS is the lowering or opening of vowels preceding underlying /s/ (Villena Ponsoda 2000). More detailed information on the differences between EAS and WAS can be found in Jiménez Fernández (1999), Villena Ponsoda (2000), Moya Corral (2010) and Valeš (2014). According to Alvar, Llorente & Salvador (1973: map 1696), Cádiz and Huelva in the west are the only Andalusian provinces where vowel lowering before underlying /s/ is not found. As the geographical extent of this phenomenon is widely debated, it is difficult to calculate the precise number of speakers of EAS, but we can assert that this geolect is the native variety of Spanish of approximately 2,800,000 speakers if we take into account the figures from the last census of Andalusia in 2011 (Instituto de Estadística y Cartografía de Andalucía 2011).

In Eastern Andalusian Spanish, consonants are deleted in syllable-final position, triggering regular gemination of a following consonant, even across word boundaries. This paper investigates five underlying phonemic contexts involving /t/, including singleton /t/ and four different underlying /C+t/ sequences that typically surface as [t:], by analyzing how durational and formant differences vary depending on the presence and identity of the preceding underlying consonant. Following the acoustic and statistical analyses of 444 instances of /ˈeta/, /ˈesta/, /ˈekta/, /ˈepta/ and /ˈeksta/, a Discriminant Function Analysis shows that differences in the total duration of /t/ and in the duration of the closure of /t/ are the strongest cues to distinguishing singletons from geminated consonants, with 91.9% and 90.6% accurate classifications, respectively. Cues indicating which specific consonants have been deleted before /t/ are much less robust and more varied in nature. It is unclear, however, whether this outcome is due to different compensation strategies in each case or whether they are affected by some kind of underlying coarticulatory effect. Given that gemination in this language variety is the result of regular /C1C2/ to [Cː] assimilation, and that its underlying phonemic status has not been demonstrated, Eastern Andalusian Spanish is unusual amongst languages studied with respect to gemination, making this study typologically interesting.

Despite previous studies on Eastern Andalusian Spanish, interest on this geolect boomed only after the theory of vowel doubling was posited for this variety of Spanish. According to this theory, in Eastern Andalusian Spanish, vowels preceding /s/ aspiration or deletion change their quality, thus, carrying the semantic function of /s/. Since then, many researchers have studied the vowel and consonant systems of this variety of Spanish and the phonetic-phonological debate is still ongoing. This article reviews the main studies on Eastern Andalusian Spanish pronunciation between 1881 and 2016, comparing the different findings in that period and summarising them chronologically. The article finishes with an outline of widely accepted and debated features of Eastern Andalusian Spanish in order to identify future lines of research.

Abha Arabic is a dialect of Arabic (ISO 693-3: ara), belonging to the Semitic language family group, and spoken primarily in Abha city. Abha Arabic can be broadly classified as a variety of Arabic from the Arabian Peninsula group (Versteegh, 2014), and further sub-classified as a south (-west) Arabian dialect (Ingham, 1982). Abha city is the administrative capital of the province of Asir, in south-west Saudi Arabia (Figure 1). The population of Abha is approximately 290,185 and that of the Asir province is 1,601,725, according to the most recent data on the population (General Authority for Statistics, 2010). The province is named after the Asir tribe, who first inhabited Abha and the surrounding regions. The present day Abha Arabic dialect thus represents a blending of Bedouin and urban dialects. The first settlers to Abha were the Bani-Mghed tribe (an Asir tribe) followed by three additional Asir tribes (Alkam, Rabiah w Rufeda, Bani-Malik) and other nearby tribes such as the Gahtaːn, Bal-lahmir, Bal-lasmir, Shahran, Rejal Alma’, all of which had distinct dialects (Al-Azraqi, 1998). These dialects merged to varying degrees and were further influenced by urban education and mass media, which were and continue to be dominated by Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth MSA) (Al-Azraqi, 1998).1

A review of the existing literature shows that when it comes to studying attitudes towards CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), researchers have traditionally focused on students’ perspectives and ignored teachers’ views. This study focuses on teachers’ attitudes towards CALL in order to gain a better understanding of what issues, advantages, and disadvantages teachers come across when incorporating CALL into their teaching. Furthermore, a group of teachers from Australia and Spain has been interviewed to compare how views on CALL vary across professionals in these two countries. As some authors have previously proved, the more IT literate teachers are, the more likely they are to use CALL in their teaching.

This paper deals with one of the most frequently forgotten areas in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language: pronunciation. The phonetic/phonological distance between the L1 and the L2 of the learners is of paramount importance to master the sounds of the L2; however, it is the phonetic/phonological distance between the dialectal region of the speaker’s L1 (DR1) and the L2 of the speaker that will have the biggest influence in this learning process. After comparing linguistic peculiarities of the English language in general, and of the Scottish and Northern Irish variety in particular, with those of Castilian Spanish, we proceed to analyse the interlanguage of students of Spanish from Scotland and Northern Ireland. This enables us to understand the positive and negative transferences and assist us in creating a catalogue of the interferences to be corrected. Finally, to eliminate the interferences present in speakers of this regional variety of British English, we present a list of exercises based on coarticulatory processes. Este artículo trata una de las áreas más olvidadas en ELE: la enseñanza de la pronunciación. La distancia fonético-fonológica entre la L1 y la L2 de los aprendices es un factor de gran relevancia a la hora de dominar los sonidos de la lengua extranjera; sin embargo, es la distancia fonético-fonológica entre la región dialectal en L1 (RD1) y la L2 del hablante la que influirá más en este aprendizaje. Tras comparar particularidades lingüísticas del inglés en general, y del dialecto escocés y norirlandés en particular, con las del español castellano, y analizar la interlengua de estudiantes de español de Escocia e Irlanda del Norte, se pueden ver las transferencias positivas y negativas en el campo fonético-fonológico. Se presenta una lista de las interferencias que deben ser corregidas y se aportan ejercicios basados en fonética combinatoria para corregir las interferencias de los hablantes de esta región dialectal del Reino Unido.

El presente artículo investiga los efectos de la apócope de /-s/, /-r/ y /-[theta]/ en las vocales precedentes. Para esto, se analiza a 60 hablantes de andaluz oriental y se realiza, además, un experimento de percepción, lo que confirma que 1) la apócope de /-s/, /-r/ y /-[theta]/ cambia la calidad de las vocales precedentes en distinto grado--de ahí que se esté en condiciones de discernir entre 14 vocales distintas--y que 2) los hablantes de andaluz oriental pueden identificar, por un lado, sin ayuda ninguna del contexto, si una vocal va seguida o no de una consonante subyacente y, por otro, reconocer nueve vocales distintas.

A correct pronunciation is of paramount importance to guarantee the intelligibility of students of Spanish as a Foreign Language; however, paradoxically, the teaching of pronunciation is one of the least taught sub-skills in SFL manuals. The phonetic-phonological differences between the L1 and the L2 of the students will have great influence on the acquisition of the pronunciation, making it more difficult or easier depending on the degree of similarity between both phonetic-phonological systems, although it is the distance between the sounds of the dialectical region of the speaker and the L2 that will contribute the most to the success or failure of this acquisition process. In the present article we start by comparing the phonetic-phonological system of English (RP) and Spanish, (Castilian Spanish), and then we compare the latter with the varieties of the North and the South of England through the study of recordings of learners from those areas. This will allow us to know the transferences and interferences that these speakers present in Spanish and that must be tackled during the process of phonetic acquisition.

Language teachers agree that the phonetic/phonological distance between a learner's L1 and L2 is of vital importance in mastering the sounds of the L2; however, no attention is given to the phonetic/phonological distance between the regional variety of the speaker's L1 and the L2. After comparing linguistic peculiarities of English, and of Welsh English in particular, with Castilian Spanish, the author proceeds to study the interlanguage of advanced students of Spanish from Wales. This helps to explain positive and negative transfer from this variety of English into Spanish and assists in producing a catalogue of the interferences to be corrected. Finally, using coarticulatory processes, the author presents a list of exercises to eliminate some of the interferences found in Welsh learners of Spanish. A descriptive analysis of the learners' interlanguage shows that the phonetic/phonological distance between the regional variety of the speaker's L1 and the L2 is what will influence this learning process the most.