How do I improve my pronunciation?

Question

Althogh my english grammer is not bad, my pronunciation is very bad. That's why I feel difficulty to communicate with other people.
How can I imporve my pronunciation and reduce my strong accent?

Answer 1

Here some quick tips that you need to apply in a daily basis:

1) When a native talks, pay attention to his intonation and the rhythm of his speech and the movement of his lips. Train yourself by watching the News on TV and quality programs and try to repeat what they say with the same intonation and the same rhythm. Duplicate the sounds... it's like that young children learn a language, they just duplicate the sounds that they hear they don't need a master degree to speak a language. You may know a word of vocabulary but if you don't say it with the right intonation in your voice, people won't understand you.

2) Train yourself to learn the intonation and the rhythm of a native when he speaks. When you are at this point of your learning curve, don't try to speak fast but be focused to pay attention to your speech and the person speech. Some people may show some signs of impatience ... so what? You can find very patient people who will take time to listen to you and even encourage your efforts.

3) Use a tape recorder to record your voice and evaluate your progress. Read some portion of English books aloud. By reading more, you will improve your fluency. Science has shown that it's take 3 months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles to speak a new language. Your mouth muscles may be painful for a while with all these practices ... so what?

4) Don't be shy to talk ... don't be intimidated to engage conversation with natives. Be self-confident. I know that it's not comfortable to speak in front of people in a language that you don't master YET. It's part of the learning curve and it's not definitive, you have to practice in order to improve your fluency. You are not fluent YET but a day you will.

5) Take your time to pronounce the endings of the words like "ed", "s" ... I know that ESL students have some difficulties to pronounce properly "can't", if it's not pronounced properly, the natives don't seem to hear the difference with "can".

I was an ESL student (5 years ago), and it was almost a nightmare for our ESL teacher to help us to pronounce the "can't". When I had to use the "can't" in my conversations with American people I used "I cannot" instead, to avoid the frequently question "what did you say? you can or you can't?". I know how frustrating it is when someone asks you several time to repeat yourself ... I've been there!

6) Write down every word that you have difficulties to pronounce and ask a native to pronounce them for you.

7) Buy or borrow audio-books from your local library and pay attention to the reading try to duplicate and record yourself on your tape recorder. Listen to English music and sing some songs.

8) Use a dictionary to look up the pronunciation of the words that you don't know. Reading an English word does not tell you how it is pronounced.

9) Be patient. Don't be hard on yourself and don't get discouraged. If you don't see progress, don't beat yourself but keep learning. Learning a new language is progressive, you won't master a new language overnight. Don't be shy to ask for help. There are a lot of natives who will be happy to help you if you ask them so.

More: http://languageslovers.blogspot.com/2007/11/esl-how-to-reduce-your-foreign-accent.html

Answer 2

hii , nice to know that ur from india too well im also an indian , and yeah speaking a language is really easy ! what did u mean when u sadi , u cant speak clearly in any language ?? if that is so then u need a doctor. but if its only one subject like english or wotevr then there are quite a few solutions to that. firstly u need to find the reason why you cannot speak fluently is it that ur very shy ... ? once you have found that try to eliminate that by focusing on ur goal to become a mass communicator ! try watching news on the televison and observe how they pronouce different words and study their body language ! u know what ?? hrithik roshan the famous bolywood actor had the same problem in engish and he daily took out time in his college days and watched the bbc news religiously , tried readng newspapers fluently and soon he didnt even notice that his weakness had totally vanished ! i know it will take time but ur still young try it and im sure that will help ! hope the answer helped u ! tc god bless( jai hind )

Answer 3

Get a tape or recording of the English words you are having trouble with.
List to the tape then pronounce the words back practicing saying the same way the person on the tape is saying them.

If necessary said in front of a mirror and watch yourself pronouncing the words.

Just like anything else it takes a lot of practice.

If you have a friend get him or her to help you and coach you. That is another good way. to Lose your accent.

Answer 4

Are you married? Maybe I can help.