ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the pronunciation of the five Spanish vowels, both stressed and unstressed, according to the context where they occur (e.g., whether they are in open or closed syllables). The chapter also deals with vowel groups, especially diphthongs, which are very frequent in Spanish. It highlights that in Spanish, phonological vowels are never realized as diphthongs (though in some cases they may be lengthened). The chapter addresses the main difficulties learners (regardless of their L1) have in mastering Spanish vowels, as well as teaching strategies that can be adopted to overcome them. While issues such as identity and other psycholinguistic aspects are also crucial to ways of speaking (including pronunciation), the chapter assumes an articulatory phonetics approach. Also, the chapter is not tailored for use at a specific level of language since pronunciation is a long-term skill that should be taught in every stage of language learning.
