have you ever moved to another country and had to learn a brand new language from scratch once you
overcome the first hurdle of learning the new language then you need to sound as fluent and
as clear as you can in order to be understood you know years ago i moved right across to the other
side of the world to holland and i didn't speak one word of dutch so i know what a struggle it
can be to not only assimilate into a brand new culture but also have to learn a language fast
hi today in this video i'm going to give you three exercises to
fast track you to more clarity and fluency when speaking in english you ready let's go
q a tuesday all your voice questions
answered hi i'm elisa james qualified voice coach and founder of the voice of confidence
public speaking course i teach people all over the world how to sing act and speak with confidence
and power using proper voice techniques the reason i'm sharing this video today is because
many of my clients around the world need to speak english at work with confidence
and clarity however because they've not learned correct pronunciation many people can't understand
what they're saying even though they actually have a pretty good command of the language
in fact many of my students can read and write in english really well but because
their articulation is not yet correct they're not easily understood if this is happening to you you
could be missing out on gaining a brand new job or getting that promotion that you really deserve
there are two main reasons for this issue number one is that english has consonants that other
languages don't have and number two is english vowels need more space and airflow than other
languages so let's correct these two main issues so you can be heard and understood more clearly
when you're speaking in english first consonants that need correction the very biggest sticking
points in my students are these th v and w let's start with the most difficult one th voiced and th
non-voiced th is such a common sound in english and it's really important that you get it right
there are two kinds of th sounds one is made at the articulators only like this as in the word
thin and the other one is actually the voice and the articulators like this
or this let's practice both sounds until we get it just right first of all let's place
the tongue right across the bottom of the mouth flat at the bottom of the teeth like this now
blow air through the tongue and the teeth using your belly muscle as your gas pedal one more time
now place your hand in front of your face and make sure that you feel the
air actually hitting your hands let the air come out for about three seconds like this
now say a th non-voiced word straight after the three seconds try it with me
thin
thick that's how the non-voiced th sounds now let's try the voiced th sound this time
let's put the hand on the voice box let the sound vibrate inside the voice box this time
and let's hold the sound for three seconds as well ready
the best way to understand this is to make the non-voiced sound first then activate the
voice box to make the voiced version of the th sound let's try it non-voiced to voiced ready
do you notice when the tongue is in exactly the right place
the shape does not change at all between
non-voiced to voiced this is very important now let's add a word at the end th like this this
these i suggest that you try the non-voiced to the voiced sound
over and over and over again until you get it just right some of my clients try this
it's not that blow air first then add voice hmm
in the description under the video i've added some really great reading passages for you to practice
this exercise daily but make sure you master both the non-voiced and the voiced th before you start
to read the entire passage now the next two sounds that many esl students mispronounce are v and
w let's start with w w is made with a very small lip opening as though you're blowing into a straw
and then we're adding sound just at the tip of the lip
let's try sustaining the w sound for three seconds
to really feel the air and the vibration forward in the mouth then add a word at the end like this
would
a v is a very different sound and it's not used in many languages in a v the teeth actually
sit on the top of the bottom lip and then you activate the tummy muscles to pull the tummy in
and blow the air up to the teeth to make the lip and the teeth vibrate together like this
look at the placement of my teeth on top of my bottom lip let's add a word
very voice vote you can see how the v is very different to the w once you get these consonants
very crisp and clear people will be able to follow you much more easily now let's go on to number
two giving vowels some more space when speaking english as a second language many people clip the
vowels short which makes the word sound completely different so a word like hit which is short
and heat which is longer can get mixed up so here i'm going to teach you some really easy ways to
learn the proper shaping of english vowels to give you much more international sound when you speak
let's try the following sounds together ah as in father has a dropped jaw and a dipped tongue
a as in hay has a lifted cheeks and a dropped jaw e as in feet is a smile
sideways in the mouth or as in hot is a dropped jaw but now the cheek muscles are very
forward and all as in hood the lips are very forward and very round now let me show you how
to do this as a simple exercise to practice daily i'm going to use my hands r long shape a open e
let's try it together use your hands this indicates the shape of your mouth are you ready ah
you want to take your time and let the air flow flow through the vowel as you're speaking the word
now here are a few sentences that really show you the shape of the vowels one at a time first is r
my father loves art next is a he hates wet hey next is e he feels it with his feet next is
o he forgot that it's hot and lastly it's good he has a hood so the trick is to allow more airflow
and space in your vowel so it breathes make them sound a little longer than usual so you can really
feel the airflow flowing out of your mouth when you're speaking this will make the vowel much
longer and more relaxed don't clip them short make them longer here's a short sentence to practice
for rounded vowel sounds around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran
no i'm just being silly let's try it properly around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran
so practice these two tasks with the consonants and the vowels that i shared with you in this
video and you will be well on your way to speaking more clearly and being understood
by all the other english speakers please share in the comments below the biggest challenges
you're having with the english language and i'd be happy to shoot a video just for you
i hope you got value out of this video today if you enjoyed it please share it
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and make sure you subscribe to my channel and i'll see you next time bye
you