Fast Results E-Zine
When you sign up, you'll get instant access to my article archives, exclusive content and other freebies. Plus, we will never sell, rent or share your information so sign up today.
Search
Bookmark this Page
Blog Carnivals
Blogroll
Resources
Categories
- 10 Things (3)
- Blog Carnival (8)
- Bullying (4)
- Career (56)
- Communicators in the news (20)
- events (1)
- General (15)
- Goal Setting (21)
- Health (1)
- Inspiration (24)
- Interpersonal Communication (35)
- Job Interview (28)
- Leadership (5)
- Learning (2)
- Motivation (54)
- Networking (18)
- Online Success (8)
- Personal (6)
- Politics (20)
- Public Speaking (130)
- Quick Tip (7)
- Review (2)
- success (4)
- Time Management (5)
- Toastmasters (29)
- Video of the Week (14)
- Writing (5)
Archives
- July 2010 (6)
- June 2010 (13)
- May 2010 (3)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (11)
- February 2010 (12)
- January 2010 (6)
- December 2009 (7)
- November 2009 (12)
- October 2009 (12)
- September 2009 (3)
- August 2009 (6)
- July 2009 (11)
- June 2009 (16)
- May 2009 (8)
- April 2009 (7)
- March 2009 (10)
- February 2009 (7)
- January 2009 (8)
- December 2008 (5)
- November 2008 (3)
- October 2008 (7)
- September 2008 (11)
- August 2008 (9)
- July 2008 (18)
- June 2008 (9)
- May 2008 (14)
- April 2008 (14)
- March 2008 (11)
- February 2008 (10)
- January 2008 (13)
- December 2007 (13)
- November 2007 (2)
- October 2007 (4)
- September 2007 (3)
- August 2007 (4)
- July 2007 (3)
- June 2007 (4)
- April 2007 (1)
- February 2007 (2)
- January 2007 (3)
- December 2006 (2)
- November 2006 (7)
- October 2006 (6)
- September 2006 (12)
Are there words that you frequently stumble over when speaking? Do people have a tough time understanding what you’re saying? Is English not you’re first language? Many people, including professional speakers, struggle with their articulation. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to work on improving the way you pronounce words.
I have two techniques that I highly recommend for those of us that desire better articulation. Both of these techniques not only help you speak more clearly, but they also have some added benefits.
The Radio Repeat:
Your car is an excellent place to practice your articulation. Simply repeat the words that you hear spoken, I recommend trying this with either talk radio or an audio book as the people that typically speak on these types of programs have above average articulation and grammar (another challenge for a lot of us). Talk radio hosts and guests are typically good speakers and the voice over actors that record books in an audio format need to speak well and clearly to be hired for the job.
The nice benefit from this technique is that you can do this while you’d otherwise be unproductive. Also, this technique requires you to listen so you’ll be improving that skill as well. And when you repeat what you hear, you greatly increase your memory retention.
If you’re concerned that people in other cars will think you’re crazy, roll up your windows and put on a Bluetooth headset and they’ll think you’re just yapping on the phone.
The Reader:
Reading out loud is an excellent way to practice articulating your words. You can read a magazine or newspaper article, a book or even ads from the junk mail that you get. If you have young children, I recommend reading books to them as it has the added benefit of encouraging them to read. Children’s books also have interesting rhyming patterns and uses of alliteration that can give your articulation a real workout.
Like repeating what you hear on the radio, reading out loud helps your memory retention so it’s an effective way to learn something. Technical articles from your field have the added benefit of forcing you to learn how to properly pronounce terms – and as a rule of thumb, you should look up the meanings and pronunciations of words and terms that you’re unfamiliar with.
So if you’re struggling with your articulation, try out these two techniques. Like any other skill, the more you practice the quicker you’ll improve. Before you know it, you’ll be speaking more clearly.
ShareCheck out these Related posts:
- A Fast Way to Improve Your Articulation It’s amazing how sometimes you can find a good...
- Quick Tip: How to Stop Mumbling You have a lot to say and are enthusiastic...
- Public Speaking Success: Three Ways to Improve Your Speech Delivery A good delivery is the icing on the cake...
- Public Speaking Success: How to Give a Great Speech Nothing strikes fear into the heart of someone more...
- How to Improve Your Memory Whether you’re trying to memorize the main points of...
- Tips For Toastmasters: Speaking at Rotary and Other Service Clubs So you’ve got a speech that was a bit...
- Your Pre-Speech Checklist: Ten Things to Do Before a Big Speech Part of the reason that even experienced speakers feel...




(No Ratings Yet)calendar
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jul | Sep » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
Recent Posts
Popular Articles
- Interview Question: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Public Speaking Success: How to Get Ideas for Speech Topics
- How to Answer the Strengths and Weaknesses Job Interview Question
- Hannah Montana Takes “Racy” Photos
- A Fast Way to Improve Your Articulation
- Job Interview Questions: Where Do You Expect to Be in Five Years?
- How to Improve Your Articulation
- Personal Power: Should you Focus on your Strengths or Strengthen your Weaknesses
- Public Speaking Success: Three Ways to Make a Speech More Interesting
- 10 Questions to Ask During a Job Interview
- Public Speaking: How to Write a Powerful Conclusion for Your Speech
Recent Comments
- Reid Walley
on Why Most Self-Help Books are Garbage - Why Most Self-Help Books are Garbage | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Does Having a Job Make You a Slave? - Why Most Self-Help Books are Garbage | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Video of the Week: Watch “The Secret” - Quick Tip: How to Stop Mumbling | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Public Speaking Success: Why You Shouldn’t Practice Your Speech in Front of a Mirror - How to Be Liked | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on The Good Heckler - How to Be liked | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Dealing with Bullies - How to Be liked | Overnight Sensation - Public Speaking, Communication and Personal Development
on Networking Can Be a Complete Waste of Time - Marianna
on On Being Shy
recent entries
- Why Most Self-Help Books are Garbage
- How to Be Liked
- On Being Shy
- When Words Take on a Life of Their Own
- Parents Should Act Like Parents
- Three Ways to Close Gaps in Your Resume
- Do People Really Care About Public Speaking?
- Do You Need a Job to Get a Job?
- 10 Things I’ve Learned About Using Twitter
- Watch Your Language
Wordpress theme by Wordpress Themes & made free by Internet Marketing Center
© 2006-2008 James Feudo All Rights Reserved.



4 users commented on " How to Improve Your Articulation "
September 2 2009
Great post. One other thought is to write your speech so that you minimize the number of possible “verbal stumbles” that you might have. Make sure that you don’t have words that start with the same letter one after another, etc.
- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental Communicator Blog
“Learn How To intimately connect with your audience in order to make an lasting impact in their lives.”
September 18 2009
English is not my first language, in fact I try to improve my articulation using ‘The Reader’approach by reading books to my kids. I will try to use ‘The Road Repeat’ approach as well.
Thanks for the post.
-Gopi
October 6 2009
[...] time when trying to read them fast. It’s a lot of work for both your brain and your mouth – it’s like free weights for speaking articulately. It’s no secret that reading out loud can help improve your articulation but if you want to get [...]
June 7 2010
[...] George Bush- Excellent Debater – See video in 94? By musicalremedy Anyone know how sharp a debater George W. Bush has been known to be in the past? I was very impressed with debating from 94 I recently saw- Maybe I should have taken the tough speech teacher or any speech class in college..? Bush apparently learned debating in Yale (from same instructor as John Kerry) Well for those wanting-to-improve speakers like me (and it could help me with communicating well to people on different fronts, business and personal) there’s this site with ideas to improve your articulation (like repeating talk show radio’s word formu… [...]