On a regular basis, my students ask me, “Morksensei, how can I improve my English pronunciation?” In an earlier post, I explained five things that linguist Dr. Stephen Krashen would say on this topic, but I have two additional tips to share here.
1. Speak loudly (and clearly)
Tip number one is to speak clearly loudly and enough. Many people learning English as a foreign language worry about having an accent or saying words differently because of influence from their native language. However, there are plenty of people who have learned English as a second or even third language to a very high level, yet still maintain their native accent. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, native speakers often find foreign accounts cool, or attractive, or sexy. Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas maintains his Spanish accent and the famous Jackie Chan still has his Chinese accent, but both of these men are easy to understand and actually have an extremely high level of English. And one reason they are so easy to understand is because they speak loudly enough or clearly enough. Many English learners may want to hide their mistakes by speaking quickly or softly. Whatever the reason is, I recommend trying to show more confidence when you speak English by projecting your voice and enunciating (speaking clearly) and you might be surprised at how much more easily other people will be able to understand you.
Now, I am assuming with this tip, that your main goal in communicating in English is to be easily understood, not to remove your native accent, which is often hard to do.
In fact, actors often hire accent coaches to help them speak in different accents. Being an actor is definitely an example of a case where changing your accent is extremely beneficial to your career.
If you do hire an accent coach or take some sort of accent modification program to help you, your rate of progress will depend on what kind of accent you have, how long you’ve been speaking English, how often you speak English, and how much exposure you have to the language – both listening and speaking.
To be honest, everyone speaks with some sort of accent, and I’m referring to native speakers as well. People often say they want to “lose” their native accent, or reduce it. But even actors tend not to lose their original accent. Instead, they focus on “adding” or “modifying” their accent. Professor Eusebia Mont leads the Accent Modification Program at the University of Maryland. She says that for regular people, not actors, the purpose of accent modification is to give students tools to use when they need others to understand them more clearly. So again, the main goal is being able to be understood by others, and not to sound a certain way, like native-like.
Now if this topic interests you, there are several known methods of accent modification. One example is the Compton method or Pronouncing English as a Second Language, or PESL that was developed in the 1980s. A second method is called the Tomatis Method. This includes using headphones to listen to electronically-modified music and voices (see links below).
Now, if you really feel you need to erase your native accent when speaking English, then again, I encourage you to read my older post with Dr. Krashen, but the second tip I have for you might also help you to make your pronunciation more native-like.
2. Identify Pronunciation Patterns
English sentences have a rhythm. There is a systematic arrangement, or order, to the words and expressions. When you listen to someone speaking English, try humming along with the rhythm of their sentences. I don’t know – Imagine you’re a bug making sounds like that of an insect.
Here’s an example: “What are you doing in there?” When watching the video below, you can hear my voice going up for “doing” and ending in a distinct down tone.
There are some basic pronunciation rules you can learn and take advantage of as well. For example, keywords in a sentence are usually stressed, while less important words are not only unstressed but also said more quickly.
You don’t say, for example, “The glass of milk is on the table.” Instead, you say, “The glass of milk is on the table.” Glass, milk, and table are all stressed, while all other other short words are softly voiced and said more quickly. Let me say that again. “The glass of milk is on the table.” Did you catch the differences? I can also hum it. Um um um um um um um um um. Um um um um um um um um um.
If you want to be better understood, I suggest you try to focus on the rhythm of your sentences – the rise and fall of stress and intonation when you talk. This is just as or even arguably more important than the pronunciation of individual words.
Some English learners like to listen to music and sing the lyrics of songs. If that’s you, you’re in luck, because singing is a good way to get the rhythm of the language.
In fact, Carolyn Graham, an English instructor from New York, discovered that using music intentionally can help English language learners understand the beats and rhythms of the English language. She wrote a series of textbooks called Jazz Chants. I’ll put a link to a video with her demonstrating her technique in the description below. Check it out!
3. Watch and Listen to Videos, Podcasts, Programs…
A third tip to improve your English language pronunciation is to watch and listen to videos and other shows, like podcasts, or programs in English.
For example, you can listen to stories while looking at the script. This is usually easy to do on YouTube because you can click the CC button to see the words, or you can open up the transcript next to the video. However do be careful – automatic scripting by Google is often inaccurate (meaning there are mistakes) – some mistakes anyway. If you read before you listen, you can note down any words you think may be hard to say, and then try to say them aloud. Then play the audio and read along.
You can also try recording yourself reading it slowly and clearly. Listen to your recording. Are you speaking loudly and clearly enough? Speaking more slowly than you normally do can make it easier for others to understand, and as I said earlier, speaking loudly and clearly with confidence helps a great deal as well.
4. Make Video Recordings of Yourself Speaking
Tip number four is to make video recordings of yourself speaking – “selfie videos.” Record a few sentences of yourself talking with your smartphone. Then watch the video and think: Was my voice loud enough? Did I say all the words clearly? How was my voice infection, intonation, pacing (meaning your speed), and rhythm?
Next, ask an English-speaking friend to listen to the video. If you don’t have anything to record with, though, try reading the story or whatever you are saying to a friend. If you have no native-speaker friends, it’s OK – share with someone whose English is better than yours.
5. Listen to Online Recordings
My fifth tip has to do with the pronunciation of individual words or short phrases, and it is to listen to online recordings. Online dictionaries are a great resource for this. These days, many online dictionaries have audio files from a variety of different native speakers. The Merriam-Webster Learners’ Dictionary is an example. I’ll put a link below in the description box. You just have to click on the small icon (or picture) to play the sound of the word.
You can also use a website like Google Translate. Google Translate is powered by AI and is useful for many things. One of those things is indeed pronunciation. Type in a word, then click on the small picture to hear the pronunciation. Clicking it a second time will play the recording more slowly so you can hear each part of the word clearly.
So there you have it. Five more tips for improving your pronunciation: speaking clearly and loudly enough, identifying pronunciation patterns, watching and listening to videos, podcasts, and other recordings in English, making selfie videos, and listening to online recordings of individual words and short phrases. Is there anything else that YOU do that I have not mentioned here? Let me and other learners know by commenting below. Don’t forget that you can always talk with an English teacher or use your browser or AI chatbots to help you find more information on English language pronunciation and intonation patterns.