hello I'm Emma from English in this
video I'm hoping I can convince you that
you should practice your English
pronunciation every day and it's easier
than you think I want to give you some
simple ideas to help you make daily
pronunciation practice just a regular
part of your routine so let's get into
it
the chances I you're watching this video
because you want to work on your English
accent which means that there is
something about it that frustrates you
so firstly I want you to tell me about
it
tell me about what makes you feel
frustrated about your accent tell me in
the comments below the video I know what
this is like people misunderstanding you
because you're not making the right
sounds
or even just feeling like it's not how
it's supposed to sound why am i so
awkward you know it's not smooth it's
not easy to talk to people and so your
English conversations never really last
that long it's hard to fit in you know
and as you start using English at work
you realize my accent sucks you feel
like people aren't taking you seriously
you don't get invited to social
functions and you start feeling really
crap about yourself I know this because
these are the same pains that so many of
my students go through changing your
accent helps you to feel accepted it
helps you to fit in and even excel with
whatever you want to do it takes years
of work of specific and deliberate
training to first try to hear and
recognize the sounds and then start
making them yourself
I mean you've probably been speaking
English with your accent for years now
right so it's gonna take some effort to
break those habits now I think but one
of our biggest challenges as adults is
creating regular habits you know we're
also busy with kids and family and work
and travel and all of the extra stress
that goes with that stuff you know it's
incredibly difficult to find the time to
focus on something consistently but that
is exactly what you need to do if you
want to change your accent and make it
clearer you've got to bring daily
pronunciation practice into your life
right I've got three things that I want
to share with you today that I think you
should be doing to improve your
pronunciation every day the first
really great daily habit that will help
you to improve your pronunciation is
super simple read out loud
it doesn't matter what you read as long
as what you're reading is in English and
doing this daily will help you to get
your mouth muscles working and creating
the sounds that you need to use when you
speak English
it really is as simple as that and it
doesn't need to take you long you know
five or 10 minutes a day is plenty that
kind of exercise is really easy to fit
into your daily routine right no excuses
probably the best place to do this is at
home you know somewhere where you're not
afraid to project your voice to push
your voice out I want you to read like
this you know practice pushing those
sounds out of your mouth you don't need
to worry about being perfect you know
you're just getting used to making those
sounds and making those sounds together
with other sounds in English so reading
out loud is a really good way to sort of
stretch and warm up your mouth ready for
English so it's a good idea to do it
before you go to class or before you
have a phone call before you have an
English meeting you know activate those
muscles train them remember what those
sounds are and how to make them reading
out loud is an awesome way to practice
your pronunciation
speaking of sounds get to know English
sounds and in particular the English
sounds that you struggle with this is a
really really important place to start
okay there are lots of English sounds
that you're totally cool with you know
but there are probably quite a few that
feel unnatural and they don't really
sound right as you speak if you don't
know what these sounds are for you then
find out a good place to start is just
by researching the sounds that are
difficult for people who speak your
native language for French people it's
definitely going to include the sound at
the start
of words hat hero hotel for Vietnamese
people it's going to be final consonants
like out behind for Arabic speakers
Indian speakers for everyone really th
sounds this that these those enthusiasm
whether bus there are probably five to
eight sounds that are problem sounds for
you alright once you've worked out what
they are make a list of those sounds
stick them on your bathroom mirror and
practice them every morning out loud
every day just start I mean out the
creases it's gonna take some time but
the fastest way to correct those sounds
is to consistently practice them if
you're unsure if you're pronouncing
words correctly use an online dictionary
to check super easy right drastic you
probably go to the gym right or maybe
you go for a run to keep fit or swim
just consider this your pronunciation
workout your English workout you've got
to do it regularly to keep fit and to
get stronger and you know think about it
it hurts a lot if you don't go to the
gym for a while you know and then
suddenly you're lifting weights and
you're like oh this hurts if you haven't
spoken English in a while it hurts you
know your muscles ache because they're
not used to it but if you go to the gym
regularly you get fitter you can last
longer you're not a sore after each
session gradually you can start to
increase the weights right your tongue
is a muscle as well it needs to be
trained and stretched and twisted into
the positions that English requires you
are already so awesome at making the
sounds that you need for your native
language but you need to do a little bit
of extra work to activate
of the English sounds that don't exist
in your language so a daily tongue
workout a deathly mouth workout is the
fastest and the simplest method to
improve your English pronunciation now
told oysters might seem like a bit of a
joke to you but if you can find a few to
help you practice those difficult sounds
of yours then doing them a few times
daily will help to strengthen the
muscles you know and help you to make
those sounds more easily I've got a link
to a video I made on tongue twisters up
here check it out get started there but
find ones that are relevant for you how
can a clam cram in a clean cream can
six-six nicked 6 slick bricks with picks
and sticks
so you've probably noticed that English
words when they're spoken naturally
sometimes change you know the
pronunciation can change as we increase
the speed of our speech in fact they
often do and there are lots of
grammatical words that actually have two
forms of pronunciation a stress form and
an unstressed form some some two to the
schwa sound is really important to help
you practice word stress and sentence
stress in English studying connected
speech is also going to help you to
learn how to do this and to sound more
natural when you speak I've got lots of
videos about connected speech and
pronunciation up here in this playlist
but these are all really important
aspects of naturally spoken English that
you can work on to help you improve your
pronunciation but you can't practice
these things while you're just
pronouncing English words individually
they have to be part of a sentence so
how can you do that you need some
controlled practice and imitating and
native speaker is a fantastic way to do
this you may already know that I've
created a whole course of videos around
how to imitate a native speaker with
lots of practice
you know in these lessons I help you to
copy and then shadow me as I speak
they're really awesome quick 10 minute
videos that you can practice your
pronunciation with there are a few on my
channel already but if you'd like to
support English and purchase my
imitation courses where you can do that
right up here then you'll have lots of
different videos to practice with lots
of natural phrases and expressions to
learn so what am I going to say next
daily habit that's right okay get into
the habit of practicing with one lesson
every day that's just 10 more minutes of
pronunciation practice every day alright
in the lessons I'll show you how to
shadow a native speaker and this allows
you to practice the rhythm the pace the
pause the intonation that's used and
this technique is something that you can
start practicing with any video it
doesn't have to be my lessons you can
choose whatever video whatever native
speaker you want to shadow whatever you
choose I focus on one lesson or one
video every day for a whole week okay so
give yourself the time to go over and
review build confidence with it right
once you've done that make a recording
of yourself and compare it to the
original listen to yourself and try to
identify what you're doing wrong what
are the sounds that you're not quite
getting I've added the link to my
imitation course below in the
description and I'll also add one of the
ones from my channel at the end of this
video okay in a video a couple of weeks
ago I said that with language practice
it's easier to create a habit once you
attach it to another activity you know
like for me I always listen to an audio
book while I go for a run you might say
okay I'll practice my pronunciation
every morning after I brush my treat my
teeth my truth or I'll read out loud for
ten minutes
every night before I go to bed so attach
it to an activity
but to become a regular part of your
routine changing your pronunciation is
gonna take time so you must make it
happen regularly you know you've got to
create that daily habit and you've got
to do it every day for a year
which seems like forever but time flies
if you get started today and you do it
every day you'll be speaking clearly and
confidently before you know it I hope
you enjoyed this lesson and you found it
useful if you did make sure you let me
know in the comments below
you can find me on social media over
here and as promised here's one of my
imitation lessons so that you can take
it right now and practice hit the
subscribe button if you haven't done
that already and I'll see you in there