How to PRACTICE Pronunciation by YOURSELF

everybody thanks for joining us for this video and if you're new here then welcome I'm Anna hope you enjoy our content so a lot of you guys have been asking me about how can you practice your pronunciation by yourself or what can you do to improve your pronunciation and accent so of course I'm gonna share with you my best tips in this video but first a little disclaimer I don't think that having an accent is bad in fact a lot of native speakers say that it's even cool and sexy and we're all different so clearly we can't all speak the same I personally love working in my pronunciation and that's why I do it because I wanted and because I enjoy it and I also think that it's important to work on your pronunciation because you're learning a foreign language and your goal probably is to speak that language with native speakers and for me it's as simple as showing respect to that language and to those people that you use that language with but that's just me but I do believe that if you communicate with native speakers either at your work or you just live in an english-speaking country or whatever your situation is that involves speaking English in your accent causes misunderstanding you have to work on your pronunciation at least a little bit or if you're just like me a self development and fuzziest and you just want to get better at it if not and you feel completely comfortable with your pronunciation that's fine too whatever makes you happy you can watch this video just for fun and I do practice what I preach so all the things that I'm gonna be mentioning in this video I did and still do okey-dokey if you're a beginner and this whole pronunciation thing and you know even if you're not is still worth brushing up on your knowledge we need to start with the basics with sounds what the sounds are in that particular language and accent that you're learning and how to make them it's important to get the mechanics of those sounds right because the positions of your tongue lips and jaw that you use to speak your native which may greatly differ from those that we used to speak American English for example then you proceed to practice separate words you can do it as you go as you learn those sounds so let's say you've learned how to make a short double O sound like in the word book so you can proceed to the words with the sound book --look hood cook etc here things are getting a little more exciting if starting off with sound seems very boring to you start off with words but sounds are the basics and when you're breaking down the pronunciation of words you're still gonna have to look and the individual sounds in order to pronounce them correctly now none of the following suggestions are sponsored I just want to give you some options from the bottom of my heart if you can't or you won't spend some money on taking a pronunciation course or hiring a pronunciation coach because we're at different positions and situations YouTube and yulish are your go-to places Rachel's English is an awesome channel she provides all the information and American pronunciation accents way with how to Irish mash the st. an amazing channel clear English corner one more wonderful channel on pronunciation and a lot more you're gonna have to choose the one that you like the best and of course practice if you're doing this totally on your own and you're not sure if you sound right record yourself and compare your pronunciation in your video or audio with that which you're imitating you will hear if something doesn't sound right and here I want to touch on an essential part of this whole working on your speaking and pronunciation process listen you absolutely have to listen a lot and pay close attention to the way native speakers speak use you glish to listen to how native speakers pronounce in certain words that you want to know how to pronounce you can even slow down a video there to hear it clearly the same goes for practicing different sound blends and transitions between sounds and phrases and sentences your job you're serious about this is to be very attentive curious and consistent and really practice and I want to pay attention to what I'm going to say right now working on your pronunciation takes time it's like working out first you'll learn how to do exercises then you work out for some time honing them and getting used to that routine then you start getting some results and then you maintain those results by working out regularly what this means is practice practice practice using what you learn and speaking regularly this should be your new normal well in a perfect world rate everyone's in a different situation and doing something is always better than doing nothing keep this in mind one more tip don't ditch practicing too fast and always review there are words phrases transitions and contractions that you don't have problems with but there are those that are not that easy for you and that need some extra attention polish them pronounce them at least a thousand times not at once of course work on them drill them until you feel that it's completely comfortable for you to pronounce them and they sound the way they're supposed to sound and then of course you want to get the hang of contractions because that's what makes native speakers speech sound natural and that's what some people consider as fast speech then if you need some help or you want some extra assistance or expert opinion and advice because it can be quite difficult to gather all this information put it all together establish a good routine that works you can sign up for a pronunciation course or hire an accent coach I can recommend you my pronunciation coach and give you his contact details you can take HUD Arsham ashes course you can sign up for Rachel's English Academy from Rachel's English there's all the information you need you can work on your own and at your own pace there and it's a very affordable as far as I know and then Lisa moissan also has a course and I believe gives private lessons and that's just to name a few there's a whole bunch of options so let's review the steps first sounds then words then phrases then sentences then you are in contractions and how to make them and don't forget about tongue twisters an amazing tool they are designed to help you work in those tricky sounds and tricky transitions let's take consonant blends like ths we have to learn to make the transition between these sounds smoothly and let's take a phrase not a tongue twister first things first and we'll slow it down usually that T in the word first gets dropped and then it connects to the next consonant better and more easily it flows and sounds more smoothly first things first first things first I'm not getting into too much detail with this I hope you got the idea or you can practice a question like what's the rush what's the rush what's the rush what's the what's the what's the rush a blant like w v which happens to be not that easy for some reason these two sounds get confused a lot and let's just take one word November November not November November our L blimps are hard as well practice saying just this phrase just so we are crystal clear just so we are crystal clear crystal clear crystal clear or this tongue twister upper roller lower roller upper roller lower roller upper roller lower roller this one's super hard shadowing oh my gosh yes absolutely I have a bunch of videos I'm shadowing and the things regarding this topic that might be useful for you I'll link them in the description so make sure to check them out a funny thing get ready for your face muscles to hurt for some time until they get used to those new positions and about those words that you drill and tongue twisters when you hit that moment during your practicing when your tongue doesn't listen to your brain anymore stop and give it a break it can be just a couple of hours or it can take a day or a couple of days but after that break you'll notice that it's become easier to pronounce that word or a phrase is because of muscle memory another thing start slowly if there's a word or a particular phrase that gives you trouble that you just can't pronounce right whether it's because of the speed or because of some sound blends they just don't come out right break it down and slow it down let's take the word regularly for instance break it down into syllables and slow it down regularly regularly regularly regularly it helps your mouth and brain understand what you should do and how you should pronounce it and then when you speed it up you're working on the muscles they have to get used to going to those positions fast and transitioning between them and you're working on your muscle memory now another thing in a very important one crucial even if your intention is to learn to speak with a certain accent and to succeed at this there are a few things that you simply have to do first when you're practicing exaggerate you're working on a foreign language a totally different accent you will feel weird and like an imposter for some time while you are getting used to this new you it's completely normal overdo sounds and exaggerate stresses and intonation since when we're speaking we tend to tone down those things but you just have to get the feel of the intonation and you have to learn to head those sounds properly especially vowel sounds like for example along esau like in the word weak or leave or sheep stretch it out and prolong it get used to holding this e in those words we leave so that in conversations they don't sound like weak or wick or live or leave or ship or sheep sheep we leave or the air sound when you're practicing exaggerated air air air so it doesn't sound like earth earth is a different sound what sounds weird to you sounds normal and understandable for a native speaker remember that the same goes for intonation shadowing is the best way to work on your intonation and in general but please don't restrict yourself even if it feels super weird to you imagine that you're an actor and you want to get a part in a movie and in order to get it you have to copy someone down to little as details one more point is consistency if you start it you have to keep moving in this direction no matter what forget about awkwardness and shyness meaning that in conversations with other people especially non-native speakers try to speak using everything that you've learned even if you think that it's still not perfect that's the most difficult thing I'd say because you won't believe how many stories I've heard from people saying that they are being shamed and ridiculed for their pronunciations and accents and by non-native speakers for the most part and then even further shamed and ridiculed for trying to speak with a certain accent or working on their pronunciation they are told that this is stupid and that they will never speak like natives and that they simply sound fake I work on my pronunciation I work with people who want to improve their pronunciations and I analyze so many different native speakers speeches some speak slowly some speak really quickly some have a lisp some pronounce the American are strongly some pronounce it more lightly there are many different accents just within the United States alone but of course there are some basics that we have to acquire the only thing that you have to remember is that as long as you work and try and stay consistent you move forward you improve and you progress and do whatever you feel like doing and try not to stress over this this is your business in your life Alysha say to those people that we appreciate their opinion and they have the right to do whatever they want but at the same time so do we we're human and we have different tastes and beliefs as they say different strokes for different folks what sounds like a good idea for one doesn't sound that good for someone else and I just want to get one more thing out there if someone's being truly mean to and nitpicky to you like you can sense and feel and totally tell that their words or actions are completely out of place know one thing those are deeply insecure people and they protect their inner problems insecurities on others because that's their way to feel better yes they put down others and that's not good but you should have some empathy for them if some of you are into psychology you know what I'm talking about don't get offended because it's not about you kind happy with their lives confidence successful people usually don't have any interest and bringing down others they are on the contrary encouraging and supportive now I know that it sounds so boring when I say be patient it takes time stay consistent and repeat repeat repeat but it's actually my biggest piece of advice okay sorry if it's video was a little bit all over the place there's just so many things that I wanted to mention and it's sometimes so hard to condense everything into one video and not to make it an hour long so I hope at least this information helps i'm sending you lots of love and i want you to concentrate on the positive side of things and stay safe and strong and healthy and you know what to do give us a thumbs up subscribe and hit that Bell icon to get a notification every time we post and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: English Fluency Journey

Views: 304,717

Keywords: english fluency journey, how to practice pronunciation, how to practice pronunciation by yourself, how to practice english pronunciation, how to practice american pronunciation, how to learn american pronunciation, how to learn english pronunciation, how to improve pronunciation, how to improve pronunciation by yourself, how to improve american pronunciation, how to improve english pronunciation, how to improve your accent, how to improve american accent, get rid of my accent

Id: 9RK_HDwXz9Q

Length: 14min 50sec (890 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020