Can people understand you when you speak?

5 years ago

Let’s say you are rather fluent, but you don’t feel comfortable with your accent because people don’t understand everything you say. These tips can help you improve your pronunciation:

· Learn to listen. Listen to other people and listen to yourself. Pay attention to detail.

· Pay attention to how your mouth, tongue, and lips move, and where they are placed, when trying to produce sounds like those of an English speaker.

· Break words down into sounds. What specific sound is not coming out right?

· Add stress to sounds and words. Intonation makes a big difference: it can change the meaning of a sentence.

· Listen! Use pronunciation podcasts and videos. 

· Pinpoint your mistakes. Record yourself and ... listen to yourself! What is wrong? The first step to start improving is finding out what it is that you are not doing right.

· Practice with somebody (somebody who has a native English accent) who can help you. Preferably, an expert!

While having an accent is not a problem -- actually, accents are beautiful, and a part of your identity -- having a bad pronunciation can be a problem, if it is bad enough to interfere with your communication. 

Is your pronunciation good enough to be understood?