FSI Introduction to Spanish Phonology?

[haziz]

FSI has a basic Introduction to French Phonolgy course. Did they ever produce one for Spanish? I realize Spanish pronunciation is a lot more straightforward.

I have the FSI Basic course introductory material in it's incarnation as Barron's Mastering Spanish Level One ("Second Edition"), and can download both the Basic and Programmatic courses. The Basic course does start with pronunciation exercises after a brief section on greetings etc. Was that effectively their Spanish phonology section?

I did try to listen to "tape 1" of the Programmatic course, and other than the endless papa/papá comparison, it seemed to be a little strange. I am not sure I would be able to stick to it for very long. I am also unclear how usable is the material in a setting where you are unable to follow in the book, such as use in a car?

I am trying to develop a decent, if not necessarily native, pronunciation for Latin American Spanish. I would prefer material that can be used in a car without the book. I have done Learning Spanish Like Crazy (LSLC) and am currently redoing lessons 20-30. I like it but find it a little too informal. I also bought the full Pimsleur course, but find it a little slow going. I am also working my way through the current version of Assimil with Ease (2014 edition), including the CDs (obviously using peninsular Castillian Spanish).

[James29]

The first two lessons of FSI Spanish Basic course are FSI's Spanish Phonology. Frankly, if you are doing LSLC and then FSI you will probably develop pretty solid pronunciation. You may also want to check out Pronounce it Perfectly in Spanish. It is one of the more popular Spanish pronunciation resources, but I cannot vouch for it.

In terms of doing non-beginner audio only Spanish I think you will be somewhat stuck with not to many choices. You can, however, do a number of the good courses by "mostly" audio only. For example, when you do FSI you can do each lesson with the book until you feel comfortable you can do it fairly well without the book. Then, do the lessons in the car. I believe Stelle did something like this with FSI. Platiquemos is slightly more "audio only" friendly than FSI because they have English prompts on the initial dialogue.

Edit: also, the same thing can be done with Assimil... work on the lessons with the book on the weekend and then shadow the lesson when you are driving during the week.

[Speakeasy]

I concur with all of James29's comments. In addition,...

I am not aware of a specific FSI course that addresses Spanish Phonology in the manner that their French course does. As to the FSI Programmatic courses, the initial 10 units place a large emphasis on pronunciation that can seem excessive. However, as the courses progress, the emphasis on pronunciation decreases and, with the exception of the Programmatic Italian course, they come more bearable.

I have not tried using the following resources; however, they have been mentioned in previous discussion threads:

A Drillbook of Spanish Pronunciation
You can find the textbook on Amazon, AbeBooks, Alibris, and elsewhere http://www.amazon.com/drillbook-Spanish-pronunciation-Roger-Hadlich/dp/B0007EH3TU. The audio recordings are freely available on the Indiana University's CeLT archives: http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/spanish_archive.html

Los sonidos del espanol
I suspect that this file comes from the University of Iowa: http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/spanish/spanish.html