Julien Peck ’22: Spanish Pronunciation Practicum
For the month of June I joined Professor Augusto Hacthoun to craft letter drills in the library, record our voices in Chicago Hall and at the end of the day edit our work throughout campus. Our goal was to create a supplementary resource for intermediate level Spanish learners to practice their pronunciation. However, we spent considerable time outside of that work and outside of the campus when we would talk about my future, my interests and my plans—while speaking in Spanish. I found that our work and our informal conversations melded as we discovered important letter combinations while talking or struck upon an idea from our conversations while working. Often, we would find that from my time in Spain during high school I had picked up vocal habits which could be deconstructed to reveal important lesson points for the practicum.
This project is at its core a collaboration between Professor Hacthoun and me. While Hacthoun would present letters to be focused on, I would tackle the editing and the compiling of all our exercises. Furthermore, Hacthoun and I discussed at length the best ways to implement this practicum into his two classes next fall. Together, we presented our project to Conversations Unbound, a Vassar graduate’s non-profit that works with intermediate level Spanish classes, which will utilize our Ford Project within their program next year.
I feel most accomplished in that I know I contributed a student’s perspective to this student resource—shaping this project as best I could for those who will use it. As for the future, I am most excited about introducing this practicum to students in the fall.
Furthermore, I created a film which portrays the daily routine of Professor Hacthoun and I—as well as the motivation behind the Ford Scholars Program.