Pronunciation is the materialisation of language, it is its physical side. Here is a list of reasons why teaching pronunciation cannot be left in the background: 

1. Pronunciation is involved in and has impact on all four language skills. Pronunciation is not just an aspect of speaking aloud. Pronunciation is active whenever the inner voice is active; when reading silently or rehearsing a phrase internally, when writing, when listening to an interlocutor and even when thinking.  It is present in such simple tasks as remembering a phone number. 

2. Pronunciation improves listening. The mouth teaches the ear. Learning pronunciation “in the mouth” improves discrimination “in the ear”. According to a behaviourist view of language learning, the ear teaches the mouth so that listening comes before speaking, but the reverse is also true. Students of languages become aware of this when they have learned to pronounce something correctly and suddenly start to hear it clearly. For instance, when a student of Spanish has learnt how to say a rapid colloquial expression such asp’alanteand finds she can suddenly hear and understand it. What the mouth can say becomes accessible to the ear to hear.

3. Pronunciation is the physical aspect of language. It is partly the result of muscular coordination. It’s not so different from learning to dance or drive a car. While grammar, vocabulary and meaning are often taught cognitively, pronunciation is very much a physical activity. Use the natural muscular memory of the body to provide memory hooks for words and phrases. It will provide the experience of living the language and bringing it to life.

4. Pronunciation affects self-esteem. The impact of feeling a more competent speaker and a more competent listener gives a sense of capability, a taste of potential mastery. All language learners are capable of modifying their pronunciation in order to be better understood, to better understand, and perhaps to enjoy the new language to a greater extent. Learners often have a good sense of areas of L2 pronunciation that they avoid, so it is very important that the teacher can give them systematic help. 

For all the reasons above, we can claim that teaching Spanish pronunciation to teenage and adult learners from the beginning should be taken as seriously as teaching grammar and vocabulary. Learning the basics of pronunciation through phonics, students will not only learn to speak more comfortably and confidently, but this will enhance their communicative skills in general; production, perception and interaction. 

Reference:
Underhill, A. (2010) Four reasons to teach pronunciation.
[blog: http://www.adrianunderhill.com/2010/11/23/four-reasons-to-teach-pronunciation/]

Speaking with an accent 

When learning a new language, our mother tongue undoubtedly exerts an influence over our pronunciation, which is perceived by native speakers as a foreign accent. The divergent pronunciation might be due to segmental errors (i.e. errors related to individual sounds), as well as incorrect suprasegmental patterns (for example, errors related to intonation or rhythm), or a combination of the two. While most learners aspire to a native or native-like pronunciation, achieving this after a certain age is very difficult, if not impossible. Most professionals agree that the goal is, rather, intelligibility and comprehensibility in the target language, that is, a quality of speech that can easily be understood. 

Intelligibility involves the following pronunciation features: 

1. Segmental pronunciation 

Pronouncing a sound correctly in a given position in the word and making it sufficiently different from other sounds. See Week 2 for more details on positional variants (allophones) of contrastive segments (phonemes). 

2. Stress

Placing the stress on the right syllable and realising the vowel accordingly, e.g. amo [ˈamo] (first person singular of the present tense) vs. amó[aˈmo] (first person singular of the past tense). See Week 3.

3. Intonation

Realising appropriate rise and fall in melody throughout the utterance. In some cases, this is the only way to distinguish the intention of the speaker in Spanish, e.g. a question differs from a declaration by using a different melodic pattern; Pepe viene mañana vs.¿Pepe viene mañana? See Week 3.

4. Fluency

Pronouncing syllables and phrases with appropriate rhythm and speed without too much hesitation and too many silent pauses. Disfluent speech might discourage interactivity and thus hinder communication.

In sum, oral intelligibility requires exposure to target language speech, focused instruction, and a good deal of practice. 

Ideas for exercises

Using drama and theatre in the classroom allows students to experiment with the spoken word. This might involve using more emphatic language, playing with tone of voice, getting used to their own voice in Spanish, practicing pronunciation with the help of gestures and body language. At beginner levels, you can use very simple texts and a lot of movement.