Practice your pronunciation
Improve your Pronunciation
One of the main reasons people learn English is to communicate with people. It can be frustrating when you say something but people can’t understand you. Very often it’s not the grammar or vocabulary that’s the problem, it’s the pronunciation. To improve your pronunciation, practice, practice and practice some more! Remember you don’t need your teacher to practice you can do it at home. There is English all around you. So choose a dialogue from anywhere, could be from a movie, speech, blog, YouTube video or the radio.
What you can do…
1: First listen, either to the whole dialogue or just a few sentences.
While you’re listening think about word and sentence stress, the intonation and pauses in the sentences. Listen until you can remember the sentences.
2: Now try repeating the sentences.
Make sure you repeat them not once but lots of times. Don’t speak too quickly and really listen to how you are saying it, then try again, and make it a little bit better each time. You could even record yourself and listen to it!
3: Lastly here are some ways you could change it up and also some things to think about.
Take out the ‘little words’ and only say the stressed words. Say it with feeling to get the meaning across with just stressed words. Then put the ‘little words’ back into the sentences but try taking the same time to say it.
Think about how the ‘little words’ (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs) are pronounced. Is it possible to change stresses and does this change the meaning of the sentence?
Try it with different emotions – happy, angry, excited, and bored. Try saying it loudly, quietly, whispering, shouting, slowly, fast and exaggerated intonation.
If you can, now work with a friend listen to each other and give each other feedback.
Finally HAVE FUN practising your pronunciation!!