How to improve your pronunciation

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation in 7 Easy Steps

If you’ve spent more time learning English by reading or listening to audiobooks and videos than speaking, you may have a basic grasp of the words. But when it’s time to say them out loud, you struggle with the pronunciation.

By dedicating some of the time you spend on your English lessons to word pronunciation, you can get better. So, what are some things you can do to pronounce English words more easily?

Today, we’re going to look at these seven steps to help you improve your English pronunciation:

Simplify big words by breaking them down into syllables.

Learn when to stress words and sounds.

Choose one English accent, such as North American, and use it going forward.

Listen to English speakers on audio and talk along with them.

Record yourself to identify pronunciation weaknesses.

Read out loud every day to strengthen your jaw muscles.

Learn 24/7 with your virtual pronunciation coach Elsa.

Now, let’s get into the details of each step to help make pronouncing English words easier for you. If you incorporate these steps into your daily routine, your pronunciation will improve quickly, and you’ll speak English with more ease and clarity.

7 Steps to Better English Pronunciation

1. Break down big words into syllables

Every word in the English language is made up of syllables. A syllable is a pronunciation unit with a vowel that may also have consonants. If you need a refresher, a vowel is A, E, I, O, or U. A consonant is any sound you make that is not a vowel sound.

A good example of a word with two syllables is “mascot.” You’d pronounce it like this: “mas-cot.” The word “attention” is three syllables: “at-tent-tion.”

Most English words are about two syllables, maybe three. These are everyday words that are easy to read and speak.

When you encounter bigger words you’re struggling with, remember that you can always simplify them by breaking them down into syllables.

Let’s say the word you’re having a hard time with is “incomprehensible.” This is a big word that means impossible to understand. It’s also six syllables: “in-com-pre-hen-si-ble.”

Rather than trying to pronounce the whole word all at once, try speaking the syllables first. “In,” is very easy to say, as is “com,” “pre,” and so on. Once you put all six syllables together, keep repeating the word. It will go from sounding choppy and unnatural as you speak it syllable by syllable to its own full-fledged word.

2. Learn when to stress words and sounds

Besides how you pronounce words, the way you stress or emphasize them matters when speaking natural English.

Intonation is the rise and fall of your tone of voice when speaking. For example, when you ask a “yes” or “no” question, you should raise your tone somewhat at the end of your question.

When it comes to pronouncing words, sometimes it makes a difference if you put the emphasis on a certain syllable within that word. I’ll use the word “present” to show you how stressing words works.

If you stress the first syllable in present – “PRE sent” – you’re referring to a gift you bought for someone. When you stress the second syllable “pre SENT”, you mean you’re giving or making something known, such as presenting a report to your colleagues.

Stress isn’t only important with syllables, but also with whole words. Within a sentence, some words are stressed and some are unstressed in English.

So, how can you be sure which words to stress? You need to know the difference between function and content words.

Function words are those you use for everyday grammar. They include pronouns, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs like have, be, and do.

Content words are adverbs, adjectives, verbs, and nouns. Adverbs are for describing the when, where, and how of something and adjectives for the thing, place, person, or object. A verb is a state or action and a noun is a thing, place, or person.

When determining whether to stress function or content words, it’s usually content words.

Let’s take a look at a sentence: “The fish listened intently to what the frogs had to say.”

In that sentence, the function words are “the” and “to.” The content words are “fish,” “listened,” “intently,” “what,” “frogs,” and “say.”

Knowing when you’re reading a function word versus a content word will help your pronunciation sound more natural.

3. Choose one accent and stick with it

Another part of improving your English pronunciation is selecting one accent and using it going forward.

There are different accents around the world. You likely have an accent from your home country, but now you’re trying to switch to an English accent when you speak. Between British and North American accents, the differences are huge. Even regionally within North America, different areas pronounce words differently.

How do you choose one accent? When I teach English, I personally focus on standard North American English, which is less dialect-driven. That said, if you plan on moving to a certain region within the US or the UK that you know has a heavy accent and dialect, I recommend getting familiar with that accent. You’ll acclimate better and feel more comfortable speaking with others.

Whichever accent and dialect you decide suits you best, make sure that you’re ready to stick with it for the long haul. Suddenly switching accents after years of speaking one can be like learning English all over again in some regards.

4. Listen to English audiobooks and talk with the speakers

If you don’t know how to cook something, you look up a recipe. If you’re not sure how to beat a level in a video game, you watch a walkthrough. Why should learning English be any different?

When a word comes up in which the pronunciation eludes you, write it down. You may have several such words where you just aren’t sure how to say them. Keep a record of all these troublesome words.

You can look up the word in a dictionary such as WordReference.com to find out how it’s pronounced. There’s an icon beside every word, and if you click on it, you can listen to how the word is pronounced in different accents.

But keep in mind that you need to learn how it’s pronounced within a sentence as well. And this comes with exposure to authentic content and practice.

You can do this by exposing yourself to authentic content and listening to fluent and native English speakers. You have countless ways of doing so, and many of them are free. Watch an educational video or a TED talk on YouTube and turn the captions on. You could also listen to a podcast, and I especially recommend NPR’s podcasts because these have transcripts you can read along as you listen. Check out any of my free English worksheets as well. We include transcripts in our worksheets specifically for this reason.

It’s important to listen to any video or recording at least once without the transcript. But it’s also essential that you listen to it a second time with captions or transcripts in front of you, because sometimes you can’t recognize a word audibly. That’s especially the case if certain words are new to your vocabulary.

As you listen and watch along, keep an ear out for the intonation and stressing each English speaker uses in their sentences. Try to figure out what their accent is if you want a fun extra challenge. Are they from Canada? The UK? Australia?

After a bit of listening, talk along with the speaker, using the transcript so you know what to say. Did you pronounce all the words correctly? Did you stress a function word instead of a content word?

You will make mistakes, but that’s okay. Keep practicing and your pronunciation will continue to come together–I promise you!

5. Record yourself speaking to find pronunciation weaknesses

Few people like hearing the sound of their voice recorded and played back, but that’s what I recommend you do next. Recording yourself speaking is an invaluable tool in bettering your English pronunciation, so it’s something you want to make into a regular habit.

I’ve had many of my own students do this. Even though none of them liked how they sounded at first, once they got over that, they saw the importance of this exercise, and how it can make a huge difference.

You can record yourself saying whatever you want, just make sure you’re speaking for at least a minute. Perhaps you have a conversation in English with a friend and you get their permission to record (please don’t record without a person’s consent!). You could take a chapter out of a book you’re reading, speak it aloud, and record that. You can even record yourself reading a transcript of a video, or simply answering a question like, “What did you last weekend?” or, “What’s your favorite city and why?”

There’s no need to go out and buy a pricey audio recorder when your smartphone will do just fine.

When you’re done recording, listen to yourself and focus on the words. Did you misuse a word? Mispronounce it? Stress it incorrectly? As I said before, these things will happen, and that’s okay.

When speaking with friends and family in English, you can ask them to point out if you make mistakes in your pronunciation. Listening to your recordings will also help you find those mistakes more easily. Whatever errors you made, write them down.

6. Read out loud every day to build jaw muscle strength

More than likely, your original language and English are pretty different. You may find that after having an especially intensive English practice session, your jaw and mouth is sore.

This is natural, but it can really impede your ability to learn.

The muscles in your jaw are like those in other parts of your body. By training your muscles enough, they’ll become stronger so you can talk longer without pain.

Like you do with any workout at the gym, you need to train and strengthen your facial muscles. A good practice routine is reading out loud every single day for at least five minutes.

At first, you might only be able to read a paragraph or two from a book or a short article before the pain kicks in. But as you continue training your muscles, you should be able to read and speak much longer without pain or discomfort.

7. Learn 24/7 with your virtual pronunciation coach Elsa

My last tip for improving your English pronunciation is to download an app called ELSA. I’m very excited to announce that ELSA and In English With Love are teaming up to make learning and pronouncing English less challenging for you!

The ELSA app produces short and fun dialogues that you read, then artificial intelligence gives you feedback on your pronunciation instantly. The artificial intelligence really stands out compared to other apps I’ve seen.

I personally tested ELSA, and I think it would be very valuable to new and seasoned English learners alike. What I love about it the most is that it finds your mistakes and helps you correct them. Also, it doesn’t only correct your pronunciation mistakes, but also your intonation. So, if you’ve adopted bad habits in pronunciation and you’re finding it difficult to correct them, this app could help you immensely.

ELSA is currently offering a discount to our readers where you can save on your annual or lifetime membership. Don’t miss out!

Final Thoughts

Being able to read English is one thing and being able to pronounce it is another. If your pronunciation is lacking, the seven steps and tips I suggested in this guide will really help you improve. Don’t forget to download ELSA Speak using this link to get your special discount and save money on your subscription!

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

July 12, 2012 by Melanie

“How can I improve my English pronunciation?” This is one of the most common questions that English learners ask me.

First, let’s be clear about what pronunciation means. It’s the way that you say a word. You make sounds with your voice that English speakers recognize as a word or sentence.

Good pronunciation is essential for speaking and understanding spoken English. Spoken English is the right words (vocabulary), in the right order (grammar) with the right sounds (pronunciation).

If one or two sounds are unclear, that’s not a problem. If a lot of sounds are unclear, then your listener can’t understand you!

However, pronunciation is one of the hardest skills to improve because it is a performance skill. It is something that you have to practice. Improving your pronunciation may also mean changing your pronunciation. You may need to change the way you make some sounds, and that is difficult.

These tips below will help you correct bad habits and improve your pronunciation so that you can speak English confidently!

1. Decide which accent you want to speak with.

There are many different kinds of English accents. The two most common are British and American. There are many different accents even within British or American pronunciation, but most learning materials will help you learn either a standard British accent or a standard American accent.

An accent is a way of saying words that is common in a particular region or country. You don’t need to speak with an American or British accent to speak clearly, but it is important to focus on the sounds used in one accent, because it gets confusing to you and your listener if you start mixing sounds from different accents.

American pronunciation and British pronunciation are completely different. The consonant sounds are the same (except for the T sound and the r-colored vowel sounds), but the vowel sounds are very different. The British accent has more vowel sounds, and some vowel letters are pronounced differently.

On this website, I teach general American pronunciation.

2. Don’t try to guess how to say a word in English. Learn how to pronounce it correctly the first time.

There are many, many words in English that are not pronounced the way they look.

When you see a new word, the worst thing you can do it try to guess how to say it or use the sounds in your native language to say the word.

You don’t have to guess how to say a word in English. You don’t have to look at a word and try to remember pronunciation “rules.”

You just have to listen to someone say the word. Learn with your ears, not with your eyes!

The more times that you say a word incorrectly, the harder it becomes to learn how to say it correctly. When you say a word incorrectly, you develop a bad habit, and it takes a long time to break a bad habit!

Say it right the first time.

For example, let’s pretend you are reading a book and you see the word outrageous. How do you pronounce this word? You can use a dictionary specifically for English learners.

Can you see the picture of a red speaker? When you click on this icon, you can hear someone say the word.

Can you also see some strange letters and symbols next to the red icon? That’s called the IPA transcription.

3. Learn the IPA and the individual sounds of English.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a collection of symbols that represent the different sounds of a language. When you know all the sounds of English and the symbols that represent those sounds, you will be able to say any word in English.

You don’t have to guess how to say a word in English.

Learn more: An Introduction to the IPA (American Pronunciation) | BBC Learning English (British Pronunciation)

4. Pay attention to how native English speakers talk in your language.

What do people sound like when they speak your language with an American or British accent?

Do they speak slowly and sound relaxed? Do they stress parts of words? (Stress in pronunciation means saying one part of a word longer & louder than other parts of a word. ) That’s how you need to speak English.

Have you ever tried to speak your own language with an American accent?

One day I received an email from a student named Jean-Yves. He described his method for improving his pronunciation. He learned how to speak French, his native language, with an English accent! This helped him learn the sounds, the rhythm, and the intonation of English.

There’s actually a name for this technique! It’s called reverse accent mimicry. Reverse (as a noun) means opposite, an accent is the way a group of people from a specific region or country speak, and mimicry means copying or imitating the way other people speak.

Once you learn how to speak your language with an English accent, start speaking English with the same accent.

5. Try to imitate spoken English.

How did you learn to speak your native language (your mother tongue)? Did you read words and try to guess how to pronounce them?

No, you listened and listened and listened to all the people around you, and then you tried to repeat or make the same sounds as them.

That’s called imitation. Imitation means copying someone. You imitate someone by doing the same thing as someone else, or making the same sounds.

There is no other way to learn correct pronunciation.

Do you really like the way someone speaks English? Try to copy the way they speak.

Here are a couple ways that you practice imitating native English speakers:

a. Close your eyes and listen.
When you learn a new word, close your eyes and hear the sound. Listen carefully to what the speaker is saying and try to make the same sounds. Hear the sounds, don’t try to see the word in your mind. Just repeat the sounds that you hear.

Start with one or two words at a time, then move on to longer groups of words, and finally sentences.

b. Shadow someone speaking English.
Your shadow is the dark area or image you create when you stand in light. When you stand looking at the sun or other source of light, you block the light from everything behind you. If you turn around, you can see a dark area or a dark image of yourself. That’s your shadow. Your shadow follows you. It moves when you move.

The verb shadow can also mean follow and watch someone so you can learn what they’re doing.

Have you ever tried this when someone is speaking?

Shadowing someone speaking means repeating the sounds that you hear immediately after someone says them.

Why is this useful? Because you can hear yourself speaking and compare the sounds you make to the sounds that you hear. You can also learn how to make the right sounds.

For this method of imitation, it helps if you can read the words at the same time as listening to someone say them, as long as you say the words that you hear! You can match the correct sounds to the words. (My podcast is fantastic for this because you can read the words while you listen to me speak! )

6. Listen to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast.

A podcast is a series of digital audio files that you can listen to on your computer or any mobile device.

Each episode of my podcast includes a story and a pronunciation tip. In the story, I use core vocabulary, the most common words in English, to tell a real world story. The pronunciation tip explains a feature of natural spoken English.

There are so many benefits to listening to the podcast.

Each story is short, so you can listen to it many times.

You can listen to the story at a slow speed and at a normal speed. You can get used to the sounds of natural spoken English.

You can read the words to the story while you listen to the story, so instead of seeing the words, you can hear the words and match the correct sounds to the words.

You can listen to the sounds that I make and copy me.

The pronunciation tip will help you learn natural spoken English.

7. Record yourself.

In my experience as a teacher, you can’t improve your pronunciation until you can hear your own mistakes.

It’s important to hear what you sound like speaking English so you know what you need to improve! You can compare what you sound like to what you want to sound like. For example, you can record yourself reading a sentence from one of my podcast episodes. Then, listen to me say the same sentence and compare your pronunciation.

8. Practice for at least 30 minutes every day.

Let’s be honest. You can’t improve your pronunciation if you don’t practice!

Your pronunciation will not magically improve just because you want it to.

And it will not magically improve just because you’re speaking English. You don’t learn to speak by speaking.

Speaking English is a performance skill. It’s not like history or science where you can gain knowledge from a textbook. You have to practice, and you need to practice with a purpose.

Practice the sounds of English until they feel as natural and comfortable as the sounds of your language. It won’t happen overnight, but gradually your pronunciation will improve.

What is practicing with a purpose? It’s not just doing something over and over again and hoping you will get better.

9. Speak slowly and clearly.

Many English learners think that improving your pronunciation means learning how to speak fast.

It’s better to speak clearly than fast.

Don’t try to speak too quickly. If someone can’t understand what you’re saying, it doesn’t matter how fast you speak!

10. Get Used to Feeling Uncomfortable.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this lesson, improving your pronunciation may also mean changing your pronunciation. You may need to change the way you make some sounds, and that is difficult.

One of the biggest problems for English learners is feeling uncomfortable when making the sounds of English.

You have been speaking English your way for a long time. It feels natural to you. When you try to improve your pronunciation, it doesn’t feel natural. It feels strange making new positions with your tongue and lips.

The sounds of English may be very different from the sounds in your language. It may be difficult and even uncomfortable for your mouth to make some of the sounds in English.

This is very important to understand. Even though you may feel uncomfortable and strange making the sounds of English, you sound normal to a native speaker.

Resources

Looking for even more excellent tips? Here are the two books that I recommend for English learners and teachers. I learned a lot about English pronunciation from these two books, and I have used these books extensively as a teacher.

Other places where you can look for these books:

This is the best book on American pronunciation for both teachers and advanced learners! It focuses on the things that will help a non-native speaker speak with a standard American accent: difficult consonant sounds, linking, syllable and word stress, intonation, and the difference between casual and formal speech. At the back of the book there is a native language guide that explains what speakers of different languages, like Chinese, Spanish, Russian, etc., need to focus on. This book is now in Kindle form on Amazon, too! (Amazon.com)

This book explains each individual sound in standard American English, as well as all the other elements of spoken English: rhythm, stress, intonation, consonant clusters, plurals, contractions, and past tense verbs. This is a great book for teachers to use as a classroom textbook as there are a lot of exercises teachers will find useful in the classroom. It is better for teachers than for students, as the 2 included CDs don’t say all the words and exercises. This book also helps to learn the IPA as it uses the IPA symbols to help explain American English pronunciation. (Amazon.com)

Filed Under: Blog, Study Tips Tagged With: skills

Comments

john Medina says

Hello miss Melanie,
I just have join in your page and I found it very interesting, I will do my best to understand how it really work so I will be able to take the best advantage of your teachings. Thanks for the tips about other sites we can use as well

Hi Ms. Melanie, I really love your youtube channel as well as this website. I’ve been in U.S for almost 3 years and I’ve been working so hard on my pronunciation. A teacher in my school told me that my speaking is really good now. I really don’t know if she just tried to be nice or that was the truth. I honestly feel a little bit improvement with my speaking but what I really want to do is speaking like a native speaker. I know it might sound silly but I really wanna do that. I watch American TV like at least 30 mins everyday, I make friends with lots of Americans so I can practice. If I can’t say a word, I practice it till I can say it completely right. What else can I do to be better (: Thanks

Wow! You sound like a very dedicated, hard-working English learner! Keep up the great work!

You didn’t mention if you had ever heard yourself speaking English. Have you tried to record yourself speaking English? This is the only way for you to know for sure if you sound like a native speaker or not! Then you will know what you are doing well and what you need to work on.

I hope that helps,
Melanie
= )

Way to go! I found this post really useful to everyone who wants to improve their pronunciation. Keep up the great work!

Fr,simin nazareth says

thanks for ur article and advice i will help many others through you,… great.

Thank you so much for all this; I can’t describe you how it’s helpfull for me
especially that i don’t consider myself having a lot of trouble in english
writing but my prounonciation is really awfull. You’re such a good teacher your lessons and tips are helping me a lot through this.

Javier Villatoro says

Hello, Miss Melanie!, Warm regards from Guatemala!, I found this blog really helpful and definitely I’m looking forward to get those books you recommend us, all I can say is: thank you! for helping me to improve my knowledge!.

Hai Melanie,
After practising all tips which given its really working. I can practise very easily without any difficulty.Today I have my final round interview hopefully i will clear it.

Hello M,s
am really interested in you website and now I’m improving my pronunciation in engish. Thank you so much for your tips and I really appreciate it.

Juan Diego C says

Hi, Melanie,
I’m from Costa Rica, and I tray to speaker english and tray to learneing english every day, so I found your suggestions very well.

I don’t knok how to tanks you.

nur affandi says

bravo,thanks,my English is better now,succes always with you.

This is what i was looking for!! Thank you!!

really its good site, where someone can find best tips for improving English pronunciation and language as well.

It is awesome website of tips for improving English

How to Improve Your Pronunciation in Any Language

One of my most exhilarating memories came one night when I ordered take out in China. The food arrived very quickly via motor-scooter (one of the things I miss most about the place) only to have the delivery guy be reluctant to give me the food, not believing it could possibly have been a foreigner he was talking to on the phone just a few moments before.

My pronunciation had finally fooled a native speaker.

I’m currently learning Malay, and I find that same surge of excitement when a native speaker, one that isn’t my very patient teacher, understands the phrase that I’m trying to formulate.

Generally speaking, there are two «goalposts» to shoot for with pronunciation:

Here are a few practice methods that I’ve tried, personally.

Mimicking, Shadowing, and Chorusing

What is mimicking?

Mimicry is a method that applies to almost every skill. How did you learn to cook? You might’ve gone through a series of trials and errors until you found the right proportions of ingredients to put in a stew or the right temperature for baking a cake. Perhaps you watched you parents cooking in the kitchen.

The same basic idea applies to language learning, too.

This approach is the basis for many language learning tools, including well-known ones like Pimsleur, Michel Thomas, and Glossika.

Mimicry is convenient – you can do it anywhere – and is also an exercise that you can customize to suit your skill level. At first, it will be all you can manage to simply get through a sentence. As you get comfortable with that, you can start to focus on mastering tricky sounds, adjusting to the rhythm of your new language and matching the fluctuations in pitch, airflow and stress that together communicate emotion.

Down the road you’ll start to notice some seriously fine details, like how Mandarin doesn’t actually have a «d» sound. Very slowly, say top. Now say stop. You should notice that these «t» sounds aren’t the same: the /t/ in top is aspirated, meaning it involves a lot of airflow, whereas the /t/ in stop is unaspirated. English doesn’t differentiate between these two sounds, but Mandarin does. Pinyin d is an unaspirated /t/, whereas pinyin t is an aspirated /t/.

What is shadowing?

The concept of shadowing has been around for quite some time, but today commonly refers to a practice described by Professor Alexander Argüelles in

Argüelles is an American linguist that has “devoted his life to learning as many foreign languages as he can, as well as he can, in a systematic and scholarly fashion.” He was one of the top polyglots profiled in Michael Erard’s Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners, and has been described by The New Yorker as “a legendary figure in the polyglot community.”

Shadowing is the technique of listening to an audio sample and repeating along as close to simultaneously as possible. In other words, you listen to a piece of audio, and as soon as the words enter your ears, you begin to repeat them aloud.

According to Argüelles, for best results this process should be done:

Whereas with mimicking you might experiment with a tricky word or sound, rolling it around your mouth several times, shadowing focuses on getting the sentences out of your mouth at a native-speaking tempo. As the name implies, you’re like the shadow of someone’s voice.

What is chorusing?

Chorusing is a system that many people discover on their own as an effective means of practicing a language, and improving pronunciation in particular. Put simply, it consists of repeatedly listening to a selected audio clip and simultaneously parroting what you hear back until your own speech resembles the source material as closely as possible. The idea is that you get a bit better with each trial, so with each repetition you focus on on progressively finer details.

The term chorusing is most associated with Dr. Olle Kjellin M.D., PhD., a Swedish linguist with a background in medical and speech science research. He believes that “pronunciation practice is more of a motor skill than intellectual and should be practiced like other motor skills such as playing the violin or doing high-jump, i.e., persistent, deliberate practice with a great multitude of repetitions of the same basic movements with immediate feedback.”

The process for chorusing is as follows:

Dr. Kjellin goes into more depth in a paper on the topic, which can be read here.

Whichever method you choose, one of the most important factors is the content you choose. You should choose clean audio that is free from extraneous noise. Find content that features native speakers and pick topics that are of interest to you.

Podcasts are an awesome option. They are numerous, often free, you can find one on just about any topic that you can imagine. They use natural spoken language, feature a large vocabulary, and often have more than one person talking. People unconsciously adjust their speech upon realizing they’re talking wither a learner, so podcasts present a great opportunity to interact with «genuine» language.

Another important point is to repeat everything you hear, even the filler words like umm, uhh or err. These little words and expressions are often left out of textbooks but are an important part of sounding like a native speaker. That goes for times when the host misspeaks, too: this knowledge will be useful when you make mistakes, yourself, and gives you great insight into how native speakers go about formulating their own sentences.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

What is IPA?

In 1888 renowned linguist Paul Passy established the Association Phonétique Internationale (International Phonetic Association), a group of linguists and language teachers whose goal was to devise a system for transcribing the sounds of any language: the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The IPA works by assigning symbols, based on the Latin and Greek alphabets, to individual phonemes. Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up a word. The word “dog” (dɔg in IPA), for example is made up of three phonemes: the beginning ‘d’ sound, the middle ‘aw’ sound, and the ending ‘g’ sound.

A major advantage of the IPA is that it’s universal. Learning it enables you to understand how any word from any language should be pronounced, even if you don’t speak that language. Here are a few more advantages:

For an in-depth look at the IPA, check out Glossika’s phonics channel or this article: What is IPA and Should I Learn It?

How does the IPA help you to improve your pronunciation?

When you learn a new language, you’ll also be learning a mix of sounds: some totally new, some similar but slightly different to ones you already know. The IPA is a set of blueprints that instructs you how to make any sound, even ones you’ve never heard before.

Each IPA symbol has a three part name that tells you whether a given sound involves your vocal chords, where in the mouth it is made and how airflow is manipulated to make it. The same «parts» are recycled between sounds, so oftentimes, you can break down the sounds you already know to figure out new ones.

Take one of the F sounds from Japanese, /ɸ/, which is featured in Mt. Fuji.

Its full name is a voiceless bilabial fricative, whereas the English F sound, /f/, is called a voiceless labiodental fricative. They’re very similar: The only difference is that /ɸ/ is made with both of your lips (bi + labial), whereas /f/ is made by bringing your lower lip to your upper teeth (labio + dental).

That’s good news because English’s P sound, /p/, is a voiceless bilabial plosive. If you can say the word perfect, you already understand how to make a «bilabial» sound.

In practice, all this means is that if you put your mouth into the position necessary to say P, as in perfect, but then make an F sound instead, and you’ll have made that Japanese F sound. (Note that you shouldn’t completely close yours lips like you do in practice; leave a little gap for air to go through, or you won’t be able to make an «f» sound.)

The IPA looks somewhat scary because it utilizes many obscure sounding terms, but it quickly becomes very intuitive. Professional singers use the IPA to sing in languages that they don’t understand.

Active Listening and Self-Assessment

Active and Passive Listening and When to Use Them

Everybody knows that listening is a vital part of learning any language, but it might not be as obvious that there are actual two main types of listening: active and passive.

Generally speaking, when people talk about listening as a means of practicing a language, they’re referring to active listening. A lot of passive listening might help you internalize the flow of a language over the long term, but you’ll see more tangible and immediate results from spending time listening actively.

An active listening exercise for pronunciation might look like this:

The goal here is not to listen and repeat, but rather to totally focus your attention on what is being said and how it is being said. Speaking takes quite a bit of effort, and if you’re worrying about what words are being said or keeping up with the pace of conversation, you’ll likely miss important information about how those words are being said.

Once you’ve picked a few things out, perhaps how someone began a sentence with a high-pitched voice that gradually lowered throughout, or how certain words blend together (what is that? > wha-dihh-zat?), you can then make a point to practice those things in your next mimicking, shadowing or chorusing session.

Record yourself for better self-assessment

Self-assessment is an integral part of all of the above methods, but unfortunately, you can’t always trust your ears – especially when in the moment. Your ears might even trick you: the «sh» sound in English (/ʃ/) and Japanese (/ɕ/) aren’t the same, but they’re close enough that your brain will probably interpret /ɕ/ as /ʃ/ until you’re told that they aren’t the same. Compare she and し (shi).

Recording your own voice, walking away for a few days and then and playing the recording again will likely be a real eye-opener. When you listen back to your own voice, you’ll hear things that never occurred to you while you were speaking them. While a bit discouraging at first, this is an excellent way to clarify what pronunciation hurdles you still have to get over.

The self-recording and playback method works great with the mimicking method above. Try listening to a short phrase from a native speaker, record yourself repeating the phrase, and then compare both recordings (actively listening!) to see where your pronunciation deviates from the original. Is your rhythm off? Maybe the «melody» of your intonation isn’t quite the same? Maybe you emphasized a word a little too much, or are really struggling with a certain sound?

(It’s also a great idea to date these recordings so that you can see your improvement over time!)

Final Thoughts

What’s important to understand is that, when we sound «foreign,» it’s often because ingrained pronunciation patterns from our native languages are seeping into our target language. Part of learning is figuring out what these patterns are and how they work in the language you’re learning – mimicking, shadowing and chorusing are all great ways to do that.

Whichever method resonates with you, whatever your reasons for improving your pronunciation level, two things will be key to your success.

Glossika can take care of all that for you. It takes useful phrases from a huge variety of topics in order to help you learn languages. With adjustable repetition speeds and pause lengths, you can use Glossika as a tool for nearly any language learning method you see fit. Now, Glossika also includes a self-recording tool, so you can easily self-assess your progress and hear how you grow over time.

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English Pronunciation | How to Improve Your Pronunciation in English

If you are learning the English language, accurate pronunciation is very important. Regardless of how good your English is grammatical, it is very important to pronounce well. This will help other people understand you well without having to repeat yourself. However, if you are not good in English pronunciation, don’t despair. Fortunately, it is quite possible to learn certain pronunciation habits. Provided you dare to confront, free up the time, and consciously get to work on them. Below we share with you ten tips that will help improve your pronunciations.

Table of Contents

Improving your English Pronunciation

10 Simple Tips to Improve Your Pronunciation in English

Decide on the option of English

English has different ways of pronouncing the same words. For example, in many cases, the British do not pronounce the letter ‘r’ while Americans do. Australian English uses very different vowels than British English, which means that the same word can sound completely different. So don’t get confused when you hear different statements. Choose which accent you want to teach yourself and look for films or series from the corresponding country to discover the characteristics of the pronunciation.

Break the words down into sound

Practice a number of basic sounds from the English language every day. Start with a few sounds, and these are letters or syllables. Breaking the word into syllables will make it easier for you to pronounce. After practicing the sounds of each syllable, switch to the pronunciation of the entire word, and then use the words in a sentence. This way, you will be busy improving your English pronunciation every day without any struggle.

Talk slower

Quick talk reinforces bad habits. You will find that many people rattle on in the hope that a wrong statement will go unnoticed. Try to find peace when talking, give yourself time to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words you will use when speaking. That way, you are actively recognizing errors and working towards a better English pronunciation.

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation: 10 Tips to Talk Like a Native

Imitate an English expert

There is no greater expert than the Englishman himself. In the media, you will find English speakers everywhere. You can turn on the English radio, watch TV, or follow an English series without subtitles. Listen very carefully and focus on the pronunciation of the English words. Even if you do not know the meaning of the terms, you learn the correct sounds and intonation. In this way, you can improve your English pronunciation well.

Practice on your own

Pronunciation problems often persist because people are afraid of making mistakes, hence avoiding some words as much as possible. As earlier said, imitating an English expert is the best way to learn some of the pronunciations that you find hard. Practice and speak out loud as much as possible. Don’t fear how you are pronouncing your words. Practice until you can get the right pronunciation. You can pretend you are introducing yourself to new people, giving instruction, presentation, and many more.

Listen to yourself

To know where your pronunciation problem is to start improving, it is important to realize where there is room for improvement. The best way to find out is to record your voice via your phone, iPad, voice recorder, etc. Listen carefully to your pronunciation and compare your pronunciation with that of an expert/native speaker. Try to note the points where your pronunciation differs so that you know what you need to improve.

Continue to record your voice and, at the same time, watch and listen to English speakers, especially the native. Actively look for areas for improvement by comparing yourself with different speakers and set goals for yourself. By setting goals, the learning process also becomes more fun because you work towards something.

Watch yourself

Talking is a physical movement. This is because the English language uses different sounds and movements of the speech organs. Stand in front of the mirror and see what happens to your face when you pronounce some words. How do your mouth, lips, and tongue move? Do they move in the same way as a native English speaker? Film yourself while you speak English and look back to check if you did it right.

Find a practice buddy

To improve your pronunciation, you must receive feedback. Look for a colleague or friend who also wants to improve his or her pronunciation and work on it together. Another person will often recognize errors in your pronunciation that you are not aware of. Agree to identify each other’s mistakes, record your conversations, and give each other unsalted criticism. By doing this, you are actively working on improving your English pronunciation.

You can also choose to compare yourself with other people around you and see how they pronounce certain words. Normally, there are a number of fixed characteristics of English that are difficult for people in a certain region. Listen carefully to how your fellow countrymen pronounce some of the English words to find out what common problems are. You often recognize a wrong statement less quickly than yourself. By listening to the pronunciation of other people, you can check whether you make the same mistakes.

Sing a song

Learn the lyrics of an English song by heart and reverb with it. Through singing, you learn to relax, and the pronunciation will feel more natural. Singing also ensures that you work on your stress, sentence rhythm, and intonation.

Practice English sounds.

There is a special alphabet in which each letter describes a certain sound. This is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This special alphabet can be a useful help if you want to focus on specific, individual sounds. Look up the pronunciation of English sounds via the IPA on the internet and talk. That way you can improve your English pronunciation well.

Conclusion

There are many ways you can improve your English pronunciations by practicing it yourself. The above tips can guide and help you become better with your pronunciation. However, it will be best if you keep practicing. Become familiar with English words, and you will find that you naturally become more confident when speaking it.

English Pronunciation Infographic

Pin English Pronunciation: How to Improve Your Pronunciation in English

Pronunciation lessons

Improve your English pronunciation with these useful lessons.

8 Advanced Guide To Improve Pronunciation in English

To speak fluently, we need to improve pronunciation in English. Pronunciation is essential whenever you learn a second language, and it will be the same in terms of understanding the English language.

Your English learning will be in vain if you cannot improve your pronunciation. Imagine writing a sentence in English perfectly, but you fail to pronounce the accents accurately. Does it sound good? Undoubtedly not. That’s why we need to improve our pronunciation of English.

Your English pronunciation cannot improve overnight, and it takes time. But never give up. Just keep patience and follow some advanced tips. After implementing all the tools, you also be able to gain accurate pronunciation.

Accuracy in pronunciation doesn’t mean you have to speak like a native speaker, but the listeners should understand your sounds.

8 Tips to Improve Pronunciation in English

Today we will discuss eight advanced tips to improve your English accent. Let us see all the tips:

1. Speak Loudly

Speaking louder is an effective way to improve your English pronunciation. Whenever you learn English as a second language, you have to talk about this language regularly. But many of us feel shy to speak in English in public. To avoid your shyness, you can speak alone in front of your mirror.

After start speaking, try to focus on your pronunciation. In the beginning, you may not identify the pronunciation mistakes. But no worries. Keep going and be careful with your accents.

2. Listen Quietly

Before fixing your accent, you should improve your listening skills. Listening skills are considered effective skills, and the other three skills (reading, speaking, writing). It’s essential to understand the accent first, and that’s why we need to listen quietly when a native delivers a speech.

As a second language learner, it’s not easy to understand every word of a native speaker. To improve our listening proficiency in English, we may follow the following tips:

3. Listen and Repeat

It’s a great way to improve your English pronunciation. When you listen to anything in English, try to repeat them in the same way. It helps you to fix your pronunciation errors. It doesn’t seem easy to understand every word for the first time but try your best to guess the words as much as possible.

4. Follow a Native Speaker

Do you follow a native speaker to improve your pronunciation? If the answer is no, then please follow a native speaker to get a better accent. Just imitate the native speaker whenever you hear anything from him. Now the question is how can you find a native speaker?

Nowadays it’s not a difficult task to find an English-speaking speaker. You may use digital or social platforms like Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Here you will find a lot of resources or instructors who help you to fix your pronunciation errors.

5. Watch English Movies and TV Series

Watching English movies and TV series are exceptional ways to improve the pronunciation of English. Whenever you start watching English movies for the first time, you will never understand the accents properly.

But never give up. Just listen to the speech and try to understand. After continuously follow the way, you will be able to understand the pronunciation.

6. Focus on Stress and Intonation

Stress and intonation are the fundamental pillars of learning English pronunciation. To get accuracy in pronunciation, you need to focus on stress (used to emphasize a certain syllable in a word certain word in a phrase or sentence) or and intonation (used to raise or lower the voice).

7. Use a Dictionary

Dictionary is very helpful to get the accuracy in accent. Use a dictionary that includes phonetic alphabets or transcripts. If you can follow a dictionary, you will be able to develop your pronunciation for no doubt. So don’t waste your time. Start following an appropriate dictionary for you.

8. Utilize Speech Organs

We human beings produce sounds by using our speech organs such as; tongue, mouth, lips, etc. Pronunciation is a physical movement. As second language learners, we need to place or move our mouths and lips accurately to get the proper pronunciation.

It sounds weird when you start practicing it for the very first time. But no worries! You will get accurate accents by following this habit regularly.