How Do I Improve My English Pronunciation?

How can I improve my English pronunciation?

This is a question we get asked a lot.  There are a lot of different techniques you can use to improve.  The best tip I can give is to be consistent and to be patient.  To see real improvement you will need to practice often.  Progress will be slow and you might feel like you're not improving.  Be patient!  It takes time to see improvement.  I’ll give my top 5 tips to improve your English pronunciation below.  Pick the ones you like the best and practice them every day! 

1.  TV Show or movie monologue

Do you have a TV show or movie that you like? First, Find a speech or monologue that a character gives.  Print out the words so that you know exactly what they are saying.  Then, record yourself speaking.  Try to speak in your normal speaking voice.  Don’t go too fast!  Next, listen to your recording and circle all of the words that you had trouble pronouncing or that don’t sound correct.  Last, make a list of those words on another piece of paper.  Let’s say the words you had trouble saying were “Barn, must, and break”, write 5-10 other words that have similar pronunciations. 

For example:

-Barn -Must -Break

-Farm -Rust -Br____

-Corn -Dust -Br____

-Earn -Best -

-Horn -Test -

-Torn -Jest -

Practice reciting your list of words everyday!  Really try to over enunciate them.  Do this for two or three weeks and then re-record yourself giving the character's speech.  Listen to your new recording to see if you’ve improved and make a new list of words if necessary.  If you want to improve your listening and reading using this method, read about it here.

2. Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters can be a great way to train your tongue and lips!  My students always have a great time doing these!  We like to make up our own tongue twisters for sounds that they have the most difficulty with.  Find 3 or 4 that you like and say them every day.  Practice saying them slowly at first.  Don’t worry about saying it quickly.  Focus on over pronouncing each syllable.  Here are a few that I like.  

-Four fifty fingered fortunate fighters freed fifty five fellow friends for forty four french fries.  

-Ravaging ragged rascals rarely run rampant over ripened, robust, red, rear roses.  

-Red leather, yellow leather

-Unique New York

Don't worry about grammar here.  This is only for pronunciation practice.  This is a good opportunity to experiment with your tongue placement and mouth positions. 

3. Find a pronunciation teacher

Sometimes it can be hard to improve pronunciation on your own.  Finding an experienced pronunciation teacher can help you improve much faster than doing it by yourself.  A lot of libraries offer free English classes!  Find your local library and ask about classes.  The library has so many resources for language learners! If you do not have a local library, look for local tutors that specialize in pronunciation! If you decide that you want to pay a teacher for this service, I would suggest getting a native speaker.  In some cases they will cost more, but in my opinion it is worth the extra cost.  

4. Listen to audio books or podcasts  

Find audio books that you like and read along as you listen.  This helps you see and hear how things are pronounced.  Sometimes when I’m reading, there are words that I don’t know how to pronounce because I have never heard them out loud before.  This is a great way to fix that problem.  Find a podcast that also has the transcript for their episodes so you can follow along as you listen.  If you like current events, a great YouTube channel to watch is called Morning Brew Daily.  They have the transcripts for each video so you can read along as you listen.  

5. Have a goal! 

It is important to have an end goal!  Do you want people to understand you more easily or are you trying to speak with a specific accent?  Decide what your goal is and work towards that!  It is also important to understand that accents are different all around the world.  It is OK to speak with an accent and it is not something to be embarrassed about.  Try to give yourself some grace if there are some words that you can’t say exactly like you want to or even how the other person expects you to.  There will be misunderstandings even with perfect English.  Remember only 7% of communication is with words.

Improving your English is a gradual process! It will take time and patience.  If you have dedication and practice consistently, you will improve. If you have tried all of these methods and still don't see much improvement, try one of our classes! Our experienced teachers can help! 

If you have any questions, DM us on instagram at eslwithhanandmorris 

Thanks for reading,

Tyler