Should I practice rhyming in Spanish?
You might be wondering if rhyming is necessary or helpful for language learners.
Rhyming is helpful because it helps us to understand word structure and builds fluency.
For words to rhyme, they must have the same ending sounds. For example, casa and pasa rhyme because they both end in -asa. Similarly, gente and frente rhyme because they both end in -ente.
When we practice this skill, we recognize whether or not two words rhyme. This is called rhyme discrimination. We can also produce rhymes from a provided word.
For beginners, this includes two-syllable words or shorter one-syllable words. For intermediate learners, we expand to multi-syllable words or words with affixes.
The benefit of working through rhyming activities is that we can quickly identify word endings. This improves our fluency at the word level. Essentially, it creates efficiency in listening and reading.
The benefit of working through rhyming activities is that word recognition is quicker while listening. This improves listening comprehension.
Rhyming is meant to be a short activity, not the focus of your practice. There are a variety of language skills that need attention. This skill is great as a warm-up activity for listening.
