To open this school year I've chosen a song I love and that I hope you'll enjoy too. Through it, we'll practise two English vowel sounds, /æ/ and /ʌ/, that Spanish students sometimes find difficult to recognize and produce.
- To pronounce /æ/ make a Spanish /a/ and in the middle change it to /e/ while keeping the front part of your tongue in the lower part of your mouth.Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.
- To pronounce /ʌ/ make a short Spanish /a/ with the middle part of your tongue in the centre part of your mouth. Click the arrow in the audio reproducer to listen to this sound and some words containing it.
- You can click here to see a short video that'll help you pronounce /æ/ correctly and then here for the sound /ʌ/.
- Now, paying attention to these sounds, listen to the song "Somebody that I used to know" by the Belgian singer Gotye. Then, listen again and do the gap-fill activity.