Improve your American English Pronunciation Today!

What will you do today that will move you closer to speaking English like a native? Read this article? Listen to the podcast? These are great beginnings but you and I both know you need to "step it up a notch" (Try a little harder) to start pronouncing English like a native.

Even if all you have is the lessons from this blog, it is a good place to start. For starters you can go back over this post and read it aloud. Reading aloud gives you more practice in verbalizing English, and takes away the burden of needing to create sentences and recall vocabulary at the same time, as you need to do in conversations.

Another thing is to make a schematic. Write down or print out a paragraph, hopefully something related to what you may talk about in your regular day. Then you take a pen or a pencil and mark up the paragraph.

For example circle the /r/'s, place a stress marker over the stressed syllables and underline the voiced consonants. Mark anything else that is challenging for you. Use different colored pens if it helps.

Now read the paragraph aloud. This is dedicated practice and will help you as you incorporate new pronunciation skills into your speech. It is best to record yourself reading aloud if you have that capability on your computer. If you `can record I suggest that you first record yourself reading the paragraph without the marks and then again after. You will be surprised to see the marked difference in the flow and intelligibility of your speech.