Richard Nolan is a
blogger from Kansas City, Kansas, USA and a private tutor of English and
Russian, sharing his experience in the spheres of education, self-growth,
and psychology. He learned Russian for 4 years when he lived in Saint
Petersburg, Russia. Nowadays he writes for numerous blogs and gives useful tips
for bloggers, students and teachers. You can learn more about
Richard on Facebook, Twitter, & Google+.
Do you
remember the movie with Audrey Hepburn ‘My Fair Lady’? ‘The rain is Spain falls mainly on the plain…’ –
this simple phrase was a real problem for the main character. Even a native
speaker may have some problems with pronunciation. Audrey’s heroine demonstrates
that perfectly. But what to do if you are not a native speaker? How to correct
your accent? How to sound like an Englishman, not a Finnish who tries to speak
English? Well, that takes time. A lot of time. And a lot of efforts as well.
Your jaw will go crazy when you learn how to sound like a native speaker. We
can guarantee you that. But the results deserve the efforts.
1. Listen to how they
speak
If you
want to speak without an accent, you need to listen to the native speakers.
There is a small trick: American English and British English sound different.
Moreover, American English and British English have their own dialects and
differences in accents and pronunciation. So first you need to choose how
exactly you want to sound. Perhaps, you want to sound like a British man or you
choose to sound like an American. Take into account your goals. If you plan to
go to the US, you need to know how Americans sound and to do everything
possible to sound like them. If you need to go to the Great Britain, go for a
British accent.
Listening
helps understand how you should pronounce sounds. The best way to catch the
idea of pronouncing sounds correctly is to watch TV series. When you hear the
sound and see how it is pronounced, you can easily understand what you should
do to make the same sound.
2. Pay special attention
to phonetics
When
you start to learn a new language, you learn grammar and spelling. But
frequently you forget about one essential thing – phonetics. If you want to
sound like a native speaker, you need to understand how each sound is produced.
For example, in the English language, there is such quality of vowel sounds
like longitude. That is why ‘sheep’ and ‘ship’ sound differently, though for a
beginner they may sound absolutely the identically.
3. Repeat sounds
Do you
feel uncomfortable producing different sounds in front of a class? Do that when
you are alone. But you should pronounce sounds before you start to speak
another language. When you understand how a sound is pronounced on a physical
level, it is easier for you to master the quality of your speech. Train your
speech like you train your muscles.
4. Repeat words and
phrases
Sounds
are important, but the words are important as well. When you are good with all
sounds, it does not mean that you speak perfectly. Your intonation may be
absolutely different from the intonation native speaker use. So when you listen
how native speakers talk, repeat now only some sounds, but the whole sentences.
The most effective exercise is to take a speech of some president and repeat it
sentence after sentence.
5. Record yourself
In
order to understand your mistakes, you need to hear how you speak. If you have
no one to correct your mistakes, just make a record of your speech. You will
hear all the drawbacks and you will understand the points you need to pay more
attention to.
Of
course, if you have someone who can listen to you and tell you what you are
doing wrong, you need to ask for a help. But if you are all alone, you need to
rely on yourself and your abilities to criticize yourself.
6. Sing songs
When
children start to learn foreign languages they sing songs. It may sound a
little bit funny for an adult, but this method can be even better than watching
TV-series and recording yourself. It combines several methods: listening,
speaking itself and repeating sounds after a native speaker. Do not choose some
modern dub-step songs or hip-hop songs listening to which you understand
nothing. It is always better to start with old good classics. For example, The
Beatles are perfect for those who just start to learn English.
7. Learn theory
For many students, a theory is really the most boring part. But
when we talk about phonetics, we need to understand that theory is highly
important. However, it is rather complicated especially with the part of
physiology. It explains what organs and muscles are used to produce certain
sounds, where to place your tongue and how you should use your lips. Also,
theory explains all tones and intonations. You will understand how you should
sound when you ask a question and why high rise tone is so important in your
speech.
8. Use transcriptions
What do
you do when you read a word and you do not know how to pronounce it? You try to
read it by yourself creating some new rules of pronunciation or check a
dictionary? In fact, a dictionary is the best friend of a person who studies
English, in dictionary you can find not only a translation of a text, but also
a transcription.
Transcription
is how a word should be pronounced. Transcriptions have their own rules and
symbols, and you need to understand what those symbols stand for. For example,
there is a sound schwa in the English language. Do you know it? Do you know how
to pronounce it in different situations?
Accents
are also indicated in dictionaries. If you do not know where to place an
accent, you may have some problems. For example, there are words where accent
indicates to what part of speech they belong. Use dictionaries if you want to
sound like a native speaker.
9. Speak regularly
This is
a rule which you need to obey strictly. If you try to speak English from time
to time, your speech becomes too heavy. You need more time to get used to
sounds again, and you can actually just forget how to pronounce different
sounds. Pronunciation can be compared to some physical exercises. When your
muscles forget how to do something, you need some time to restore your skill.
The same is with pronunciation. Use any free moment to speak, even if you are
speaking to yourself. It is far better than not to speak at all.
10. Do not be shy to
speak
This is
a common problem for all students who learn foreign languages. They are afraid
of sounding funny and speak with mistakes. But you will never learn to speak
English if you do not do those mistakes. First, it will be uncomfortable to
speak loud, especially when you study language with a group of people. But in a
couple of months, you will notice that you are better with each day.
Eventually, you will find out that speaking is not so difficult and you can
really cope with that.
Tomado de: http://thepolyglotist.com/2016/08/18/10-best-ways-improve-pronunciation/
