Five Ways to Improve your English Pronunciation

In today’s blog, we’re going to look at several ways to improve and have fun with English pronunciation.

1) Listen to something - anything - in English. This can include your favourite TV shows, podcasts, TED Talks, as well as the audio tracks your teacher uses in class. You don’t need to understand every word. Just the act of listening to English will help you get familiar with the sounds. A good way of doing this is listening to or watching something that you’re already familiar with in your native language. This way, you won’t have to focus on the story and all of your attention can go into the language being used!

2) Make use of the phonemic chart. It might take you a little while to learn but once you do, it makes pronunciation much easier. English spelling can be difficult; often, we don’t say words the way we spell them. Phonemic script focuses on sounds instead of spellings, so when you look up a new word in the dictionary, as well as learning the meaning, you can immediately check the phonemic script and practise saying the word correctly.

3) Familiarise yourself with minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are words which differ by only one sound. One of the most common examples to look out for: sheep and ship. This is where you can really make use of your phonemic chart. Sheep has an /iː/ sound, while ship is /ɪ/. A good way of practising minimal pairs outside of the classroom is to make the sounds whilst looking in the mirror. Recognise how your face and mouth look. Your facial expressions will seem strange at first, but with practice, you’ll become used to producing the sounds and you won’t need to use those expressions anymore.

4) Record yourself speaking and listen back to it. None of us like hearing our recorded voices but, I promise, it helps! Pay attention to the sounds you have problems with. Do you have to pause and check before you say the word? Maybe you can’t finish the word at all? Noticing these things will help focus your attention on the areas of your pronunciation that need work. You could even ask a friend or family member to listen to it for you and see if they can find anything you missed. Remember to speak slowly. Your fluency will improve with time but, first, you need to get the sounds correct, then you can focus on a faster pace.

5) Recognise and practise stress and intonation.

English is a stress-timed language, which means that some syllables are longer (stressed), and some are shorter (unstressed). Marking word and sentence stress and then practising saying them will greatly improve your English pronunciation and also give meaning to your communication. Intonation and stress are how we communicate emotion in English and some great ways of getting better at this are to read poetry aloud or sing songs! These have a natural rhythm and will get you used to emphasising content words. As in point number 1, you don’t need to know the meaning of every single word, just practise the sounds. Don’t be afraid to make pronunciation “mistakes” when you’re learning English. Even native speakers struggle sometimes! The most important thing is that you use the language as often as you can and in as many different situations as possible.