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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.
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5 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… [...]
March 12 2011
[...] James: How to Improve Your Articulation [...]