Reframing Prosodic Teaching in Political Discourse: Integrating Spanish-Language Features into Multimodal Pedagogy

ABSTRACTThis article presents a pedagogical model for teaching prosody in political discourse, with a specific focus on Spanish-language communication and multimodal analysis. Drawing on a classroom-based intervention conducted over three semesters at a Spanish university, the study explores how intonation, rhythm, and voice modulation function as affective and ideological resources in public speech. The proposed instructional sequence includes audiovisual analysis, corpus-based annotation using PRAAT, and student-led performances designed to develop critical listening and expressive awareness. Results indicate that prosodic training enhances learners’ ability to decode emotional framing, identify rhetorical strategies, and engage in reflective, embodied communication. The model also encourages students to recognize the political implications of vocal delivery and to experiment with voice as a site of agency and critique. The findings are situated within broader debates on media literacy, civic pedagogy, and the performative turn in political communication. By bridging linguistic, rhetorical, and educational frameworks, this work contributes to emerging efforts to integrate multimodal literacy and affective awareness into the curriculum, while addressing a persistent gap in prosody-oriented teaching practices in the Spanish-speaking world.