Cusachs C.B. Elementary Course in Spanish Pronunciation. Twelve Lessons and Twelve Records

Philadelphia: United States School of languages, 1903. — 32 p.Our method is based on systematic study of the sounds and articulations of a language as they are reproduced on the talking machine. Each sound is presented in its natural sequence and is illustrated by carefully chosen sentences in which it recurs several times. Each word is pronounced distinctly and is followed by a pause, thus permitting the student to repeat the word aloud, imitating the machine as nearly as possible. Nothing is more hopeless than to attempt to represent the sounds of one language with the letters of another. For example, how can the sound of French u or of Spanish a be represented in English letters? We discard the old theory of printed signs and introduce in its stead the sound itself. Our system is an innovation in teaching languages, but we are convinced that we have brought the heretofore difficult problem of pronunciation to a very simple and easy solution.