How to improve diction

5 Simple Tips For Improving Diction

Follow the enunciation tips outlined in this article, and in no time you can learn how to improve your diction to the level of the most eloquent public speakers around.

You can have the most brilliant speech, with great ideas and a wonderful layout, but without proper diction the meaning will be lost. Words don’t do you or your audience much good if they cannot be understood.

Good diction is vital in coming across in a clear and effective manner, especially when using dictation microphones. A speaker with great diction is much easier to understand and comprehend than one with poor diction. Read below to discover some ways you can improve your diction with our enunciation tips.

Tongue Twister Exercises

It is common practice to recite phrases full of alliteration, known as tongue twisters, as a warm up and speech practice exercise.

These tongue twister enunciation exercises are by far the easiest way to begin working on improving your diction. Start off by reciting the phrase slowly, being careful to pronounce every word clearly and loudly.

Once you are able to recite the phrase without trouble, begin increasing the rate at which you speak until you find it impossible to continue speaking clearly.

Try it with this phrase: “Sally sold sea shells on the sea shore”. You can find a lot of tongue twisters online for free, or come up with your own phrases to use.

Emphasize Mouth Movements

It is often hard for people struggling with articulation to figure out exactly what the issue is. Do not give up hope!

It is easy to vastly improve diction just by focusing more on the exact movements of the tongue and mouth. Find a mirror, and speak aloud several sentences. Focus on the movements that your mouth makes when creating certain sounds.

Try saying the same sentences while barely moving your mouth. Now, try to say the sentences again but with greatly exaggerated mouth movements. You should notice a distinct difference in the three tests.

Focusing on clear and readable mouth movements helps to foster proper diction.

Imitate Good Public Speakers

A great way to improve your diction is to listen the the way popular public speakers articulate. Good examples are politicians, celebrities, and radio hosts.

Listen to the way they emphasize specific sounds in words, and try to imitate it when you speak in public.

An easy way to do this is by playing a brief clip of a public speaker, paying close attention to the diction, and attempting to repeat exactly what the speaker said.

This can be done while watching television or listening to the radio on the way to work, so it is a good practice exercise for someone with limited time available.

Slow & Steady

Habits are hard to break, and a particularly nasty one that many people struggle with is speaking too fast.

It is much better to speak slowly and clearly than fast and with slurred words. Listen to famous presidents speak; the ones who are known for their articulation tend to speak slower.

Speaking slowly has the added benefit of sending a message of intelligence and thoughtfulness, just be careful not to speak too slowly!

Track Your Progress

As with any skill, it is important to track your learning progress so you can see how far you have come!

Try recording yourself speak every month or week and come back to listen to it later on. It can be very encouraging to hear the improvements in articulation.

Articulation Exercises

Even if your speech contents are thoughtful and profound, you need to know how to deliver them effectively. Your expressions need audience! The great leaders who have ruled and enlightened the world have all been great orators. Great orators are lucid and flamboyant in their enunciation. It is not that all are born great rhetoricians. Never mind if you are not gifted, a certain degree of effort and articulation exercises can do wonders for your oratory skills. Most people believe that those who are born with speech impediments only require articulation exercises. It is not true though. Those who aspire to be voice-over artists, stand-up performers or even great orators need a couple of simple techniques up their sleeve for greater success. These techniques are what enables them to speak more lucidly and emphatically. Children make erroneous pronunciation at the initial stages, which are particularly amusing and frivolous. However, if after a certain age, it doesn’t change, then the child is said to be suffering from some kind of speech disorder. In such cases, articulation exercises may be of immense help in overcoming and even eliminating the impediments. If a child is diagnosed with speech disorders, it is suggested that these techniques must be adopted and implemented by their parents at the very inception.

How To Improve Your Diction
Here are some articulation exercises, which will enable you to gain command on your verbal communications.

Concentrate On Your Tongue
Try to gain a better control over your tongue. Talk to yourself when you are alone or read aloud. It will allow your tongue to have a great deal of flexibility and agility. It will lead you to possess an absolute command over your tongue, and you will turn into a flamboyant speaker.

Work On Strengthening Your Articulation Muscles
Articulation disorders are often due to inefficacy of the muscles involved. Running the tongue around the walls of the mouth and stretching the jaws are good exercises to start with. Chewing gum and sucking through straws are good for mouth muscles. Practice tongue twisters as frequently as possible. Try to be really fast while reciting tongue twisters and maintain clarity. If you falter, start again. While speaking publicly, speak slowly and carefully, putting desired stress upon every word. Sprout every word as clearly as possible. Here is a popular tongue twister that will be of great assistance to your cause:

A tree toad loved a she-toad
Who lived up in a tree?
He was a two-toed tree toad
But a three-toed toad was she.
The two-toed tree toad tried to win
The three-toed she-toad’s heart,
For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground
That the three-toed tree toad trod.
But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain.
He couldn’t please her whim.
From her tree toad bower
With her three-toed power
The she-toad vetoed him.

Listen To Yourself
Recite a poem or narrate a story and record it. Listen to it afterwards. It will help you to figure out the words or letters you need to put more emphasis on. Take note and amend the flaws. Keep repeating the process and keep comparing with the last results.

Meditate
Doing meditation will certainly help. There are plenty of exercises. Choose any relevant exercise and keep practicing. They are light yet effective. Practice breathing exercises as well.

Mirror Exercises
One must get an idea of how his or her mouth moves while speaking. Pick some dialogue from your favorite movie and try to mimic the style in which it was delivered. Stand and speak in front of a mirror. You will know how your mouth moves while speaking and consult an expert on how you should go about it in order to cure the anomalies, if any.

Listen To The Speeches Of Great Orators And Imitate
Collect some of the great speeches of great orators and listen to them over and over again. Notice where and when they pause. How certain words or phrases are stressed or emphasized on. Imitate and consider yourself for a moment to be one of them, speak the way they did and recalibrate your speech. For instance, Swami Vivekananda’s great speech at the art institute of Chicago is an epitome of the art of oration. Listen to it carefully and practice.

Talk To The Close Ones
Talk to your family members without the fear of being ribbed or mocked at. Talk as much as possible in order to overcome the obstacles you are facing regarding your speech. Recite a poem or read a story aloud in front of them even if you are facing difficulties in the process and faltering repeatedly at certain words or sounds. Do it on a regular basis. Don’t be afraid, your intimate ones won’t ridicule you even if you are severely lacking in your oratory skills. However, it will certainly give your moral a boost for public speaking. Let them express their opinions and help you know the areas where you are facing most difficulties and how they think it should be done.

A Glimpse Of The Prescribed Exercises

Speech is the most important medium of manifesting one’s emotions and connecting to others. Hence, speech impediments are a bane to one’s existence. Speech impediments are not incurable. Just pay heed to these suggestions in order to obviate them. There are techniques, which might be simple but tiresome and annoying at times. Hence, the articulation techniques must be mingled with a certain degree of creativity and implemented accordingly to make articulation exercises more amusing. If you can adopt and apply these techniques as a part of your day-to-day life, your speech impediments can be easily cured in no time and by undergoing no pain at all.

Diction: Definition, Types, and Examples of Diction in Speaking and Literature

Diction is basically how a person chooses their words or language while writing or speaking. It is vital to select words appropriately while speaking or writing since accurate and right words helps a writer/ speaker to express their thoughts, opinions, or ideas clearly. Your diction typically determines the quality of your output while writing or speaking. Choosing a poor style inhibits effective communication, whereas choosing words appropriately makes you a good writer or speaker. This article discusses diction, the various types of diction, and the examples of diction in literature and in speaking. Take a close look.

Table of Contents

Diction

Diction Definition

What Is Diction?

Diction refers to the speaking/writing style or the choice of words that a speaker or writer uses. The choice of words has a significant effect on the quality of a speech or writing. Well-chosen words help a writer or a speaker to pass a message clearly and easily. On the other hand, poor word choice can cause message misinterpretation by the readers or listeners. Furthermore, it might even divert an audience.

Qualities of Good Diction

First and foremost, the words a writer or speaker chooses must be accurate and right. This is vital since it helps to prevent message misinterpretation. Secondly, the words must go in line with the context within which the writer or speaker uses them. Thirdly, the words should be easy to understand, which helps a reader/listener to understand the message being conveyed clearly. Using complex words might put off your listeners and readers.

Types of Diction

Formal diction

This diction entails the use of formal language, which is used to address formal situations. In this type of diction, sophisticated language is used, and it also follows grammatical rules. People use this diction to write articles, address audiences, make formal presentations, or even address a press conference. Additionally, you can also find formal diction in legal papers, business documents, and professional text. Generally, formal diction is typically used in informal settings.

Informal diction

Informal diction refers to the use of informal, casual, and conversational words while speaking or writing. Unlike formal diction, it is more relaxed, and it is what people use in real life to interact with their colleagues and friends. In writing, you can use informal diction to write personal letters and emails to friends and relatives. Some writers also use informal diction when writing poems, short stories, and novels.

Colloquial diction

This refers to the use of phrases or words that are used and understood by a particular community or region. These words are used in day-to-day speech, but they vary from one region or community to the other. At times, these words become common such that they spread to the other areas and are even added to the dictionary. An example of such words is ain’t, whose origin are the US rural areas. Other colloquial words include; ‘y’ll,’ ‘gonna.’

Slang diction

Slang could be shortened words, new words, or modified words that originate from a particular subgroup or culture. At times they help people identify with a specific group since some slang words are used by a particular ethnic group, economic group, or social group. However, some of these words become known to the broader population and are even added to the dictionary. Examples include ‘for real,’ meaning honesty, ‘a creep,’ meaning a weird person.

Concrete diction

This is the use of words or phrases that listeners can easily understand because they are common knowledge, and they can create images in their heads once they hear them. Basically, with these words, the listener can visualize what the speaker or writer is talking about. Words like dog, tree, and TV are concrete words since once the listener hears them, they can already form a picture of what they look like.

Abstract diction

This refers to the use of words to describe feelings, thoughts, emotions, ideas, and concepts. Unlike concrete diction, abstract diction describes things that are intangible and without physical presence.

Examples of Diction

Diction Examples in Speaking

Formal diction examples

Informal diction examples

Colloquial diction examples

Slang diction examples

Concrete diction examples

Abstract diction example

Diction Examples in Literature

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott

This novel adopts a formal diction. The book also has grammatically correct sentences. Additionally, it talks about money and class hence targets a particular class of people.

(The excerpt from the book follows grammatical rules and adopts a formal diction.)

The school

Donald wrote this novel. The book uses colloquialism since it addresses things as though they are human beings.

The bible (Ps 103)

(The excerpt shows abstract diction when it talks about love)

Diction entails word choice by a writer or a speaker. There are various types of diction, including formal diction, slang diction, informal diction, concrete diction, colloquial diction, and abstract diction. A good diction should have accurate and easily understandable words.

Diction Exercises

Diction Exercises

Why should you practice diction exercises?

Diction exercises can help improve your public speaking. The content of your speech may be fantastic, and you may look great when delivering your presentation, however, unless your audience can clearly hear and understand what you’re saying, you will lose them and the message you’re trying to convey.

Diction exercises will help you learn how to speak clearly. Just as an athlete actively stretches their muscles and completes a warm-up before an event, so should a singer or public speaker.

During my research, I have discovered that there around a hundred different muscles in the chest, neck, jaw, tongue, and lips that must work together.

I hadn’t realised how much I take speaking for granted; I think most of us do. For someone who is not particularly scientific, I found it fascinating to understand that every word or short phrase that is spoken is followed by its own unique arrangement of muscle movements; and lots of them. I decided that I was going to be kinder to my unrecognised unstretched and overused muscles.

I recognised that just as a singer practices their trills and warm ups to limber up their vocal chords, and any other muscles needed in their performance, so should a speaker before getting up to present. The warm-ups and stretches of these estimated one hundred muscles are vital to prevent injury or strain.

As someone who is loves clear articulation, this article is about how diction exercises, when done regularly can help improve your public speaking delivery.

What are the benefits of diction exercises?

The benefits of diction exercises or drills include:

Excellent diction is not about changing your accent or making you talk with an upper-class tone in your voice. It is however, about clarity and making sure that what you say is clear in articulation, therefore understood without difficulty.

I have a speech impediment can diction exercises help me?

If you have a speech impediment that you feel impacts on your life then I advise to see a Speech Therapist (also called Speech-Language Pathologist). The ‘Speech Pathology Australia’ website says that:

‘Speech pathologists study, diagnose and treat communication disorders, including difficulties with speaking, listening, understanding language, reading, writing, social skills, stuttering and using voice. They work with people who have difficulty communicating because of developmental delays, stroke, brain injuries, learning disability, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, dementia and hearing loss, as well as other problems that can affect speech and language. People who experience difficulties swallowing food and drink safely can also be helped by a speech pathologist.’

You can go to www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au if you would like to find out more.

The Speech Therapist would be able to answer your questions as to whether diction exercises can help you.

Can I help myself to articulate well?

The most commonly known and used diction exercises are Tongue Twisters.

There are many of them, each focusing on either a single letter, or a letter combination, and often are nonsensical. They’re generally phrases, and word combinations picked solely for the purpose of making you work to say them clearly.

Tongue twisters are not only fun but are effective at promoting better diction, and are an important part of a public speaker’s toolkit.

Some of the listed drills are the equivalent of a speaker’s stretching and warm-up before delivering a presentation. I’ve listed quite a few so you can practice many.

Tips for beginners

Diction Exercises

‘B’ Words

‘D’ Words

‘F’ Words

‘H’ Words

‘J’ Words

‘K’ Words

‘L’ Words

‘N’ and ‘U’ Sounds

‘P’ Words

‘Q’ Words

‘R’ Words

‘S’ Words

‘T’ Words

‘V’ Words

‘W’ Words

‘Y’ Words

And finally…

Two fun tongue twisters that are purely for your tongue.

5 Useful Tips How to Improve Speech

The article is going to teach you how to improve speech. If you follow these simple recommendations, you’ll learn how to make your speech beautiful.

There are simply no trifles when you speak about oratorical skills – every detail is extremely important.

When you master rhetoric, try to remember that your speech must also be distinct and you should improve your diction as well.

If during conversations you swallow most part of the words or the people around cannot understand what you are saying, you must try to improve the clarity of your speech.

In the article below you are going to find several methods with the help of which you’ll learn how to improve speech.

You’ll be able to speak more distinctly regardless of whether you just need to communicate, your profession requires public speeches or you simply want to improve your manner of speaking.

How to improve speech: do not hurry during the conversation

Control your breathing.

Listen and observe a singer on the stage and you’ll see how much attention he devotes to his breathing.

The same happens during the conversation, that’s why proper breathing may significantly improve clarity of your speech.

One of the ways how you can secure correct breathing method is to place one of your hands on the stomach and the other one on the chest while you are breathing.

You need to breathe so that your hand on the stomach moved and the hand on the chest stayed motionless.

Breathing with your stomach (diaphragm) is sure to provide you with a full real inhale and allow you speaking with rich voice.

Speak when you are on top of your breathing.

As soon as you made the right inhale, you should start speaking and think about the words.

Besides, don’t forget to exhale slowly and gradually at that time.

It’ll give the opportunity for your breathing to support your speech and is likely to let you be natural and not to be in a hurry.

Do not hurry when you are communicating.

Your speech must be unhurried, though not too slow, lest you seemed a robot to other people.

Clarity of speech is defined not only by the correct phrase formulation, but by the most distinct expression of your message or point of view.

It often means understanding of what you are going to say, lest you had to deny your words.

Presenting public speeches is another way how you can improve your oratory skills.

If you need to make a public speech or present some kind of presentation, you’d probably better write the content, at least in general.

Practice telling it during the walk.

Some actors use this method in order to learn their parts, because rising and moves are likely to help you remember what you are going to say.

Practice your speech and say one word on each step.

At first, it may seem slow and difficult, but saying one word on each step you are sure to learn how to make your speech slower.

You do not need to speak so slowly in your speech or during usual conversations, but feeling of comfort from using a slower speech tempo will improve the clarity of your speech and allow you not to hurry in the future.

Repeat those words, which you find difficult to pronounce.

When we face some hardships pronouncing definite words, we often start to hurry and we stumble at these words, which in its turn leads to the tangled speech.

Practice saying these words, pronouncing them aloud again and again till you create a muscle memory of their proper pronunciation.

For example, the words “Squirrel”, “Brewery”, “Phenomenon” and “February” are considered to be a few of the most difficult to pronounce, because their spelling differs a lot from how they sound.

In order to help yourself to pronounce difficult words, try to pronounce them from the point of view of phonetics.

How to improve speech: exercises for diction

You should tap your mouth cavity all over with your tongue.

Do some rotatory movements with your tongue.

Run it over the teeth, as if you were cleaning them and try to reach the palate with your tongue.

Tap your lips, cheeks, nose and skin on the chin with your fingers.

Blow up your cheeks, as if your skin was a tight drum.

Knock at all these places with your finger-cushions like with sticks.

Pronounce tongue twisters in order to improve speech and articulate every day, at least for 5 – 10 minutes.

Start from the slow tempo and gradually increase the speed until you say them in a usual speech tempo.

When you pronounce them, excessively underline the words, making your tongue, jaws and lips work really hard.

As soon as you learned how to pronounce them, start speaking with rich voice of an actor and stress the words even more.

It is likely to improve your skill and develop those muscles in the mouth, which are responsible for the speech function.

Tongue twisters exercise may be made even more complicated.

For example, before you pronounce tongue twisters, you can put few small pebbles or nuts in the mouth.

Surely, in this case you’ll have to take great pains to pronounce this phrase distinctly and clearly.

This way you train the mouth muscles and improve your speech.

Another popular exercise in speech practice is speaking with closed mouth.

Just because the lips are closed, you’ll find it more difficult to pronounce sounds.

That’s why you should show additional skills and will-power to say at least few clear words.

Your diction and articulation in the usual speech will be improved a lot after such training.

Train the jaws’ muscles in order to improve the clarity of your speech.

So that your speech became more distinct, you should relax your jaws using a couple of exercises.

Do the wide excursive movements and simultaneously sing something to yourself.

Stretch every muscle of your jaw and face.

Open the mouth as wide as you can (as if you were going to yawn) and, at the same time, draw a circle with your lower jaw and move it from side to
side.

Open your mouth wide, just like in the previous exercise, and close it.

Repeat such moves 5 times.

With the help of closed lips try to produce buzz sound, but do not close your jaws.

Warm up the vocal cords.

If you warm them up, you’ll be relaxed and ready to speak clearly and effectively.

Even if you do not usually sing, you can sing a few notes or simply murmur to yourself.

You may as well sing the tongue twisters.

Pronounce several times “Uuuuu…” changing the intonation from high to low and vice verse.

Imagine that your voice is like a Ferris wheel, which goes up and down making a circle.

Produce buzz sound and clap on the chest.

This will help you to get rid of all phlegm, which might be in your throat.

5 Useful tips on how to improve speech

Firstly, you should read more in order to improve speech and vocabulary.

Newspapers, magazines, fiction of high quality.

Read and reread the classics!

Moreover, do it aloud, taking your time.

Such reading is sure to bring tremendous effect.

It will teach you how to build words and sentences and increase your vocabulary.

Secondly, try, if there is such possibility, to stay calm, do not swing your arms and do not reflect strong emotions in your speech.

This will only increase the level of trust to you and add authoritativeness.

Your speech must consist of simple phrases and you should not be in a hurry.

Thirdly, watch your speech tempo.

It should not be monotonous.

You may separate the key moments of the conversation by a pause.

It must be appropriate and not too long.

Fourthly, use in your everyday speech and conversations different comparisons, metaphors, figurative expressions, sayings, etc.

This is sure to make your speech more lively and interesting.

Surely, the safest option is humor.

Appropriate self-irony and jokes may add luster to your speech.

Words are only the medium of information transfer and how you combine those words and pronounce them will either sink into the mind or not.

Finally, speak and train your speech as often as possible.

It’s rather easy to do it, if you have lots of friends.

If not, TV or radio might help you.

Chose a TV host, which you like most of all, and try to imitate him.

Repeat aloud (!) everything he says and try to reproduce the same speech intonations.

This is not an easy thing to do, but later you are sure to see how much you improved your speech.

Besides, you will not only improve the speech melody, but also increase your vocabulary.

So, use these pieces of advice on how to improve speech, and try to speak distinctly, clearly and understandable.

Then, people will think of you as of a goal-seeking person and will treat you with respect.

Besides, due to the ability to speak properly, you’ll always be a good and pleasant interlocutor.