How to improve your pronunciation - and why it matters

First impressions are made remarkably fast, and part of that impression is how well a person speaks. Is the person's speech easy to understand, and does he or she sound confident and caring?

People have difficulty speaking clearly for several reasons. Some are bilingual and have strong accents when speaking English. Others have strong regional accents. Some speak very fast and others have lisps or other issues.

Record yourself.

Here are three tips to improve your communication skills. First determine how clearly you currently speak. Record yourself reading for 30 seconds, speaking on the telephone (without having the other person's voice be recorded) for 30 seconds and then talking to someone for 30 seconds. Ask several native speakers of English to listen. Have them  tell you if they understood you some of the time, most of the time, or all of the time, in each of the 3 segments. For most people, reading aloud is the easiest to do clearly, because you do not need to think of the words to say. Write down the words they say are difficult to understand.

Practice

Second, practice those words and words that have similar sounds. If the sounds that are difficult to understand are at the front of the words, use a dictionary to find other words with the same sounds. Practice the words for several days, because they need to be spoken clearly in conversation later.

For faster progress

Do you need rapid progress so you can speak well at a conference or on the telephone, when giving a speech, when being interviewed for a job or by the media? If so,  professional speech coaching on pronunciation, non-verbal skills, small talk and  learning to speak slower can be invaluable. A corporate speech pathologist can do an assessment and then provide you with exercises and objective feedback on your progress.

How speech coaching is done

Speech coaching can be done intensively, in just 1 - 3 days of in-person coaching, with a follow-up plan. For those in the Raleigh-Durham, NC (USA) area, it can be done hourly. In some cases, communication coaching can be done online.

Many companies will pay for speech coaching as a career development expense. Some may suggest it if the person's speech affects his ability to work effectively. Others wait for a person to request this type of coaching.

Don't be self-conscious about your speech; if you can't improve it yourself, contact us today to get some help!

Worried about your communication skills affecting your job performance?

The telephone rang at Business Speech Improvement with a call from a person I'll call "Pat".  "I really want to improve my speech so I can get promoted."  Another call came from "Bob" (a pseudonym). "My assistant is great, but customers say she's so hard to understand, especially on the telephone.

Do you, too, see the connection between your (or your employee's) speech and job performance?

The first thing you need to do in this situation is to write down examples of exactly what you want to improve. Is the concern due to mispronunciations of various words, and if so, what are they? Is a fast rate of speech, or tone of voice, part of the problem? Maybe the primary issue is giving a presentation in front of  your supervisor or a client. Is the concern due to a regional accent, sometimes called "country speech"? Does the problem occur all the time, only when you are nervous or speaking to a certain type of person or group?

Then, decide how you want to get training. Do you want to get help through in-person or online coaching? These would give you helpful feedback and customized exercises for your specific needs. Another option is inexpensive e-books on communication, which give practical exercises and are available 24/7.

 Business Speech Improvement offers some small group in-person seminars, too; one on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is enrolling learners now. This is a three day intensive, customized seminar with  a follow-up plan.  Get  the help that you, specifically, need, in a small group environment. Time is included so you can practice some of the words you use at your job! Check it out now and find out how past learners felt about this seminar!

Great speech makes business sense; enroll in the seminar or coaching program of your choice and take the first step today!

American English Pronunciation: Which "th" sound ( ø or ∂) do I use?

                          

English has two "th" sounds, and there is a phonetic symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for each one. Attendees in the seminar on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals often ask me which "th" sound they should use for a given word.

If the word has a long vowel sound, use the voiced "th". An example is the word "bathe". If the word has a short vowel sound, use the unvoiced "th", as in the word "bath". If you are not sure,  use whichever sound comes naturally!

 

For more on Business Speech Improvement's seminars and e-books on verbal communication, click here.

Surprising rules of American English Pronunciation

Surprising rules of American English Pronunciation

American English comes from many other languages and countries. Non-native speakers are often surprised by some of our silent letters and exceptions to the rules.

There are  5 words in English with a silent "th" in them. They are asthma, clothes, months (but not month), isthmus and northeaster (which is a type of blizzard).

Five words in American English pronunciation have a silent "h" at the beginning of the word. (There are many more with a silent "h" in the middle of the word.) These 5 are heir, honor, honest, hour, and herb (although some people do pronounce the "h" in herb).  Many words have a silent h in the middle of the word, in English. When ""gh" and "rh" are at the front of a word, such as ghost and rhinoceros, the "h" is silent.

Do you want to learn more of these rules and exceptions? A seminar on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is now enrolling learners! Get the details and enroll today at www.Business SpeechImprovement.com/accents !