How to maintain good pronunciation and articulation

After taking our courses and classes students recognise that their speech became better but they fear that after some time bad speech habits might creep in. They are not wrong. I have been travelling to Italy for the last five years and have been learning Italian. I have noticed my foreign accent returned when I speak English although once my English speech was close to perfect.

I have started working on my speech with our apps and in this blog post, I will share my tips about eliminating a strong foreign accent and maintaining clear English speech.

1. Working on speech and maintaining good speech is similar to working in the gym in order to develop muscles and stay fit. The muscles of our lips, tongue and jaw should be regularly trained. This means training regularly for 2-45 minutes every day every other day.
   I recommend that you always start with a warm-up: muscular and articulation exercises. You will find them in all our books and apps. Do them for 2-3 minutes at the beginning of your training session.

2. After that work on the English sounds that make your speech difficult to understand. In our experience, almost all students need to work on pure English long vowels. Work on the same vowel for 3-4 days.

3. Prepare what you will say in advance and record your speech. Listen to your recording noting areas for improvement; record it again several timers if necessary until you are happy with the result.

4. Read a short text out loud and record yourself several times

5. When working with the apps copy not only the sounds but also intonation patterns and sentence stress

6. Slow down your speech and avoid saying too much with bad pronunciation. Remember that how you say it is often more important than what you say.

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Accent and voice

The main issues that our clients have are:

1. A strong regional or foreign accent

2. Weak voice

3. Rushed speech

To neutralise a regional or foreign accent we recommend doing an individual speech analysis and work on Received Pronunciation - a neutral British accent. After the speech analysis, we can tell how many lessons a student might need to neutralise their accent. Accent work involves working on pure English vowels and diphthongs as well as consonants to make articulation sharp and crisp. We have three apps that help with that:
‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎‎Business English Speech, Elocution Lessons.

Accent reduction tips

1. Identify English sounds that are difficult to pronounce for you and your nationality. For example /w/ sound does not exist in French and French substitute it with /v/ sound.

2. Learn the placement of the tongue lips and jaw for sounds you need to practice

3. Use the mirror to control the correct place your tongue and jaw for a particular sound

4. Listen to the model pronunciation, copy it, then record yourself and compare your speech with the model. Do three repetitions of one exercise
   

   The main features of a weak voice are bad articulation, lack of voice power and high voice pitch. Students can master their voice with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause. To enhance voice power we recommend breathing exercises.

   This app also helps with rushed speech.
   There can be a number of reasons to speak fast. I will focus on the two obvious:

   1. Feeling nervous. To overcome nervousness, we recommend that you take a couple of nice deep breaths to release the tension.

   2. Fast brain 

   A fast brain is something people are born with, you cannot change it.

   One may ask: can I learn to slow down and overcome my fast brain that forces me to speak fast?

   There is a simple yet very effective exercise that can help you to slow down:

   1. When you speak, try to separate each idea of thought by using pauses. Count 1, 2, 3 in your head after each idea and allow yourself to breathe and relax. Don't link all ideas; don't deliver them all in one breath.

   2. In a conversation with another person, make a pause after each question, do not jump on the answer straight away.

   3. Read out loud using the punctuation. In your head, count 1,2,3 in place of a full stop, and count 1 in place of a comma. Make even longer pauses between paragraphs.

For best results, we recommend one online or in-person lesson a week and working individually with the apps for 10-15 minutes a day.

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How long does it take to speak like native English?

It depends on five factors:
1. Your age
The earlier you start speaking English the easier it will be for you to talk like a native English speaker. When you start speaking in your native language your tongue, lips and jaw muscles are trained for your native language and the older you are the more difficult it would be to retrain them for English.

2. Your environment
Even if you live in an English-speaking country but your family and friends, peers and teachers speak with foreign accents you will unconsciously copy their accents. If you listen to music, watch films and news in your native language and not in English that too will contribute to you having a foreign accent. If you want to speak like a native English avoid speaking in your native language.

3. Hearing abilities
If you have good hearing abilities your chances of speaking like a native are higher than for those with poor hearing abilities

4. Time and effort you are prepared to invest in mastering English
To learn to speak like a native train daily for 10–30, rather than once a week for two hours. Regularity and consistency are the key.

5. Method of learning English and teachers
Choose an effective method with professional apps and a qualified speech tutor.
We had many students with strong foreign accents who told us they had a degree in English. In EFL colleges pronunciation is often neglected and qualified speech/accent tutors are very rare. The difference between an English teacher (TEFL) and a speech or elocution tutor is vast. EFL teachers focus on grammar, use of English etc, whilst speech tutors know how sounds are formed in the mouth and by listening to students they know exactly if their tongue position is too low are the law position is too closed, for example.

In conclusion, I want to mention that there are many accents and dialects in Britain: Northern, Scottish, Cockney, RP and many others. RP or Received Pronunciation is taught to foreigners because it is understood around the world and is called Standard English. RP is also a compulsory accent to learn for actors in British drama schools. American accents vary too: Southern, New York, Boston, etc.. You can learn to speak with a General American accent which is an accent of educated American people who have mastered their speech such as news presenters, diplomats and presidents. It involves working on your articulation, pronunciation and intonation.

You can master to speak like a native with professional apps based on RP:
‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (based on General American accent), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The apps are available on the AppStore and Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model (actors with perfect pronunciation were used to create soundtracks for these apps). The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you make the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain:

1.       A CD function, recording and comparing functions

2.       Spelling variations for all sounds

3.       Fluency and difficult speech patterns exercises

4.       Intonation and sentence stress exercises

5.       Pronunciation and articulation exercises

6.       Words, sentences, verses and tongue twisters to make your speech clear

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194. When /r/ is pronounced and when not?

In British English /r/ is not always pronounced:

1. In three vowels /ɑː/ as “car” and /ɜː/ as in “Sir”, /ɔː/ as in “fork”.

2. In the three diphthongs /eə/ as in “pair”, /ɪə/ as in “ear”, and /ʊə/ as in “sure”

3. In place of schwa: doctor, teacher, sponsor
   
   N.B: Unless it is a linking /r/ as in “car accident, under arrest” where the first word ends with /r/ and the next word starts with the vowel sound.

In American English /r/ is always pronounced, and they have two schwas:

1. Coloured schwa where /r/ is pronounced in words such as “sponsor, doctor, teacher”

2. Schwa in words such as “away, agree, the”

The /r/ sound should be pronounced between two vowel sounds in words such as “cherry, carriage, marriage”.

The /r/ is difficult to pronounce because of a particular tongue position.

Speech organs position for the English /r/ sound:
The tip of the tongue curls back slightly in the roof of the mouth, just behind the alveolar ridge, and the breath squeezes past whilst the tongue is still and not vibrating.

Some people with lazy tongues substitute /r/ with /w/ sound, Johnanat Ross does that, instead of “red roses he says “wed woses”. Some people do not pronounce /r/ at all. Japanese and Chinese often pronounce it as /l/ sound and they say “lead” instead of “read”.

You can master all sounds of English including the /r/ sound with the apps based RP:
‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model (actors with perfect pronunciation were used to create soundtracks for these apps). The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you make the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain:

1. Spelling variations for all sounds

2. Fluency and difficult speech patterns exercises

3. Intonation and sentence stress exercises

4. Pronunciation and articulation exercises

5. Tongue twisters

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193. The difference between "sh" and "ch" sounds

Many students make mistakes when pronouncing "ch" and "sh" sounds. I am a phonetician with 17 years of experience. In this blog post, I explain the difference between these sounds and give you precise instructions on how to pronounce them correctly.

1. The sound “sh” has a phonetic symbol /ʃ/

Speech organs position:

The tongue tip is near the bottom of the mouth and the air escapes along a passage in the centre of the tongue with lips slightly rounded. This makes [ʃ] sound.

[∫] sound

Spelling variations for the /ʃ/ sound: sh, ch, s, ss

Highlighted bold letters pronounced as /ʃ/

sheep, shirt, push, wish, fashion, cashier

moustache, champagne

pressure, session, Russia, sure, Sean

2. For the sound “ch” with a phonetic symbol /tʃ/ an extra effort is required to add /t/ to /ʃ/.

Speech organs position:

Make the [t] “two” sound at the same time as making the [ʃ] “shall” sound. This makes the [t∫] “church” sound.

Spelling variations for the /tʃ/ sound: ch, tch, t before u

Highlighted bold letters pronounced as/tʃ/

Church, Churchill, chap, which, orchard, achieve

catch, butcher, clutched, matched, Thatcher

literature, posture, moisturise, architecture

The examples are taken from the app Get Rid of your Accent UK1.

The same app is also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, first go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain exercises for:
1. Difficult and connected speech patterns
2. Natural flow of speech
3. Intonation and sentence stress
4. Pronunciation and articulation

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192. Get Rid of German Accent

Three things distinguish German accent:

1. Germans do not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants.

2. Lack of liaisons

3. Intonation patterns

1. For example, the words “sad, mad, Dad” with voiced /d/ ending and “sat, mat, debt” with unvoiced /t/ending have different meanings, but Germans pronounce them in the same way.

2. The second feature of a German accent is they often tend to separate words in a phrase while English glide from one word to another and use liaisons.

There are three main skills you need to master in order to speak fluent English:

1. Contractions
   In good fluent speech the particle “not”, verbs “to be” (“am, is, are”), “to have” (“has, had”), “will” and “would” are shortened. The shortened version of a word is called a contraction.

2. "Throwing away" skill, an expression used by actors. That involves using schwa, or neutral vowel in prepositions (for, from, to, etc) and articles (a, an, the), thus "throwing away unimportant words", an expression used by actors.

3. Connected speech patterns or liaisons; liaising prepositions with words. In our app ‎Fluent English Speech, we list eight connected speech patterns and have a whole chapter devoted to each with practical exercises.

4. Speak in phrases or "word blocks", rather than in separate words, connecting words in a phrase. For example in the phrase "I'd like a cup of tea", we have two blocks: 1. I'd like, and 2. a cup of tea.

3. Often Germans speak English in a monotonous way which makes them sound dull and boring.
To sound more interesting we recommend working on the sentence stress and inflection.

To get rid of German accent we recommend apps based on RP:

‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎ American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.
When starting your practice with these apps, first go to “How to use this app” and click on: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

The apps contain exercises for:
1. Difficult and connected speech patterns
2. Natural flow of speech
3. Intonation and sentence stress
4. Pronunciation and articulation

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191. Confusing English Spelling and Pronunciation

In many languages, words are pronounced in the same way they are spelt. That is why people who learn English often make mistakes in pronunciation and develop thick accents. As a result, they are being asked to repeat themselves which can be very annoying. I was there myself.

In English spelling and pronunciation are not identical. English inherited a lot of foreign words, including Latin, French, Dutch, and German and they kept the original spelling but anglicised the pronunciation.

For example, the sound / ʌ/ as in “duck” can be spelt with "o" in words “come, oven, front, company”, or with “u” in words “bus, lunch, pub” and with “ou” in words “ country, double, trouble”.

Another example is the sound /a:/ as in “father”. It can be spelt with “er” in words “Derby, clerk, sergeant” or “ar” in words “car, park, dark”.

Sound /f/ is usually spelt with “f” in words “ fake, fix, frame”, but it can also be spelt with “gh” in words “laugh, tough” or with “ph” in words “phone, philosophy, phobia”.

At the same time, words with different spelling and meanings may have the same pronunciation. Here are a few examples: one - won; soul - sole; steal - steel; mean - meen; write -right.

Many letters are silent in English. For example, silent /w/ in words “write, who, whimsical, wholesale”, or silent /l/ in words “walk, talk, chalk”, and so on.

The good news is that you can overcome this difficulty with apps based on RP where you can find spelling variations for all English sounds. When working with the apps, do not look at the spelling when you practise the sound for the first time to overcome the confusion in pronunciation. Listen and repeat the sound in words, phrases and verses. We had many students who despite knowing the fact that spelling is not the same as pronunciation kept reading in the same way as it was spelt because this was their habit.

I recommend starting with the app ‎‎Elocution Lessons. Then follow up with the apps Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech (British English) or‎ American Accent App (American English) which were developed for advanced learners of English.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model.
The apps contain:
1. Spelling variations for all English sounds,
2. Mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry.

In all these apps, there is a link in “How to use this app” to the page: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality. Click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.

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190. Get Rid of Japanese Accent

We had many students from Japan and the main reason why their speech was difficult to understand is that they had bad articulation. What can they do to make their English clear?

We have identified six areas of English speech which are particularly difficult for them:

1. There are long and short vowels in English, in Japanese, all vowels have the same length.
2. They have difficulty pronouncing English diphthongs and they separate the two vowels in a diphthong.
3. English consonants are crisp and well-articulated. Japanese speakers of English often do not make a distinction between /l/ and /r/, /b/ and /v/, /n/ and /m/.
4. In good English speech, pronouncing/t/ and /d/ and /s/ and /z/ endings is important. Japanese often do not pronounce them at all.
5. They often separate words and do not know how to speak in a connected way and use liaisons.
6. Their intonation patterns are quite different from English and they often stress wrong syllables and words.

What can we recommend to overcome the difficulties mentioned above?
1. When learning English words, practice them with the correct pronunciation. Most online dictionaries and Google Translate offer the sound version of a word. A more advanced step would be to memorise the phonetic symbols of English sounds.
2. Practise pure English long and short vowels and diphthongs. Pay attention to word stress.
3. Do articulation exercises every day for 2-5 minutes. It takes time and effort to build your speech organs muscles for English consonants.
We suggest that you practise English vowels and consonants with the apps Elocution Lessons and Get Rid of your Accent and the accompanying video course Get Rid of your Accent Part 1. In all these apps, there is a link in “How to use this app” to the page: the difficult sounds typical for your nationality. Click on Japanese to work effectively with a more focused approach
4. Practise word endings, liaisons and sentence stress with the app Fluent English Speech and the accompanying video course Get rid of your Accent Part 2. The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent.  Here, you will master all English sounds and intonation. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words,

To get the best results we recommend that you book a few elocution lessons

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188. Teaching Received Pronunciation to kids

We are often approached by parents who would like their children to speak with RP. Received Pronunciation (RP), the standard accent of British English which is characterised by clear and precise articulation and other qualities.
RP is an accent taught for many decades since the BBC popularised it and many know it as BBC English. In the past, it was called Queen’s English and Oxford English. RP is the accent that boys learn very quickly in schools like Eton if they do not want to be mocked for their regional sounds. Clearly, RP is associated with the quality of one's education and a certain social and economic position. It is interesting to note that a study revealed, that the more refined the RP of a person the higher their social status and the better their economic situation. No wonder that parents would like their kids with regional or foreign accents to master RP.

Parents complain to us that their kids pick up bad habits that make their speech difficult lazy and difficult to understand. Some parents tell us that they want their kids to blend in with kids who already speak with RP which they developed in their families and private schools.

Below are a few things to consider.

1. First of all let's talk about the ideal age to start learning RP. 11 years old is the earliest age to start learning RP. If you begin too early your child might find it too technical and boring.

2. Secondly, lessons should be light-hearted and last no longer than 45 minutes. Do not bore the kids with too much theory and technical explanations. 

3. We recommend lots of rhythmic and articulation exercises. Specifically for children we have published a book and an app based on RP:
‎‎Get Rid of your Accent for Beginners (book)
Elocution Lessons (app)

The book and accompanying app contain plenty of short phrases, sentences, poems and verses. Your child would enjoy learning to speak RP with them. They will master all sounds of English and intonation. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. All our apps and books contain 10% theory and 90% practice.

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186. Does correct pronunciation come with time as we learn new words and phrases?

Correct pronunciation depends on many factors:

1. At what age do you start learning English

2. How good is your listening/copying abilities

3. Have you learned English from the start with correct pronunciation

If you start learning English as a child in an English-speaking country from people who speak RP then your pronunciation will be good.

If you start learning English words and phrases abroad at the age of 26 from non-RP speakers (like I did) then you will likely have a foreign accent and bad pronunciation.

I have decided to master my pronunciation and with my partner, speech coach Linda James, I have created a full line of apps for iOS and Android, paperback, audio and e-books, and video courses:

Elocution Apps for iOS
Android Apps
Elocution Books
Elocution Video Courses
New# Elocution Courses

Useful links:
How to prepare a 2-minute speech
Think and speak with power and persuasion

How to proceed with accent reduction:

• Book a speech analysis via Skype to get a personalized assessment and recommendation.

• For steady progress, buy an elocution course suitable to your needs

• For the fastest progress, add in-person lessons in London or Skype lessons to your book/app/video course combination.

Accent reduction tips

1. Identify English sounds that are difficult to pronounce for you and your nationality For example /w/ sound does not exist in French and French substitute it with /v/ sound.

2. Learn the placement of the tongue lips and jaw for sounds you need to practice

3. Use the mirror to control the correct place of your tongue, lips and jaw for a particular sound

4. Listen to the model pronunciation, copy it, then record yourself and compare your speech with the model. Do three repetitions of one exercise

5. Download the apps ‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English)

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184. Why is English popular and Chinese is not?

Factors contribute to English becoming the most spoken language in the world:

1. The political power and importance of the British Empire led the people of India and Pakistan, Asia and Africa, North America, and Australia to study and speak English

2. The Industrial Revolution of eighteen century made English the language of trade, business and new technological inventions

3. The dominance of the BBC in English. English was the language of World news in business, trade, science and culture

4. By 1750 when British industrialisation had kicked off, the importance of the English language was utterly empowered and magnified by the nascent empire - the United States of America.
   The tremendous success of the USA as a political and economic superpower makes English a must-to-have skill if one wants to participate in this success

5. With the popularity of Hollywood, American SItcoms English dominates the World cultural scene

6. English is a proto-European language and the most malleable of languages which also increases its reach

Therefore to be successful and advanced people should read, speak and understand English.

Chinese (Mandarin) will not overtake English as the most-spoken language because:

1. China does not attract top talent due to the autocratic political system resulting to all new technological and scientific inventions and developments taking place in the West

2. The vast majority of Chinese often copy what was invented in the West (English-speaking countries)

3. China’s autocratic political system is not attractive to copy or follow for progressive people

4. The Chinese film industry is not particularly attractive to other nations resulting Chinese not dominating the cultural scene

Therefore despite a large Chinese population, it is not absolutely vital to study and speak Chinese to be advanced.

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181. Should I learn to speak with an American or British accent?

I have mastered the British accent spoken by the upper classes in Britain. It is called Received Pronunciation (RP).

Then I went to the USA, New York and researched American accents. What I have found out is that the most sophisticated General American accent is close to British RP.

I personally prefer British RP as it is regarded in the world more, but if you plan to live in the USA then I recommend that you master the General American accent. When I was in an airport restaurant in New York and asked the waiter to bring me a fork, he could not understand me as I pronounced it in the British way. In the word “fork” Americans always pronounce the /r/ sounds whilst in British RP it is not pronounced. Also in the long vowels /ɑː/ as “car” and /ɜː/ as in “Sir”, and in the three diphthongs /eə/ as in “pair”, /ɪə/ as in “ear”, and /ʊə/ as in “sure” the ruling applies.

Another point is that British English is more crisp because in RP consonants are well articulated. For example, in the American accent where the /t/ sound is between two vowel sounds as in “later” is pronounced as a fast /d/, in British RP it is a well-articulated /t/ sound.

I have developed and published apps for both British RP and General American pronunciation.

You can master which one you need with the apps ‎‎Elocution Lessons, Get Rid of your Accent UK1, ‎Business English Speech and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English). There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

The same apps are also available on Google Play. They are based on the bestselling books in the series Get Rid of your Accent and have audio and recording buttons.

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178. The most effective way to learn a foreign language

I have decided to learn Spanish. In this article, I will share with you the most effective way to learn a foreign language. I'll use Spanish and Italian as my examples. Because I already speak Italian and I learned it fast. I speak five languages and my BA degree is in Languages. I will preach what I practice.

Number one: to learn the language fast we must have the purpose and the motivation to do it.

For example, my main motivation for learning Spanish is that want to live in Spain during the winter period because I cannot stand English winters. So instead of misery and drizzly English winter, I want to experience Valencia's sunshine, swimming in the sea and watching the sunset whilst looking at the mountains.

My second motivation is to spend time with my friends there some of them cannot speak English well. If I speak Spanish I will have fun at parties with my friends.

So if I am going to spend my winters in Spain I would need to buy a sim card, buy food in a supermarket, I might be using a train. I will go horse riding and dancing there. So what I am going to do?  I am going to write a list of topics where I would need to speak Spanish: supermarket, mobile phone shop, train station. I would gather vocabulary for these topics. I will write it down in my exercise book.

Now to a boring part. I cannot proceed without learning by heart the structure of basic Spanish grammar. I know I must learn by heart the conjugation of important verbs such as “to be, “to have”, to go” with pronouns; past, present, and future tenses; numbers, measurements, days of the week, months of the year, and so on. So I am going to invest 4 weeks to learn the structure of Spanish by heart, not more than that because it would be too boring.

So instead of overinvesting in grammar I would buy audio books and listen to them when driving. This is what I did when I learned Italian. I would listen to a detective story several times. The first time I just understood the main idea, when I listened to the same book the second time I understood more details and more words, and then as I progressed I could understand everything. There are books for different levels of language: beginners, intermediate and advanced. I will start with a beginner’s level.

On top of that, I will arrange with my Spanish friend to speak in Spanish for 5-10 minutes every day and in return, or exchange I will speak English with her for 10 minutes. I will practice my topics with her. It should be every day not once in a blue moon.

To summarise: to learn to speak in a foreign language we must have great motivation and purpose to do it, learn the basic structure/grammar by heart, listen to audiobooks, and speak every day.

Is that too much? Well, I have some advice for you: I want you to forget everything  I said and just get a pillow dictionary instead.

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177. How can I improve my English as a non-native speaker?

For all who wish to improve their English as a non-native speaker, I want to recommend six techniques:

1. Stop learning English, and start speaking it by repeating three new useful phrases several times a day. Your speech organ muscles will get used to English, you will enlarge your vocabulary and gain the confidence to speak. Repeating, repeating and repeating, like parrots!

2. Reduce the time speaking in your native language and increase the time you speak in English.

3. Listen to English TV and Radio channels, make a note of phrases you hear and repeat them five times several times a day. In the past, I met Greeks, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and their English was advanced. Guess what these countries have in common: English TV channels that are not translated into their native language. Listen to audiobooks in the series Get Rid of your Accent from Audible, or download our apps: get rid of your accent uk1 and Fluent English Speech. All audio tracks were recorded by trained actors, just listen and repeat after them. There are also accompanying video courses Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.

4. Practice 15–45 minutes with the apps
The most useful tool for learning English is the app Elocution Lessons. You will master the most commonly used words and phrases, verses and passages with correct pronunciation and perfect use of English. You can listen, record yourself and then compare your speech with the model - all in one app.

5. Write 8–10 sentences a day on a particular topic

6. Read a short article in English 3 times out loud (250 words)

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172. Who's more eloquent Stephen Fry or Russell Brand?

Stephen Fry is more eloquent. Russell Brand is very witty but he has speech inadequacies, he does not know how to articulate the /r/ sound as in ”red”; he produces this sound using lips and pronounces /w/ instead of /r/. He would say “wed, wed woses” instead of “red, red roses”.

Speech organs position for the English /r/ sound:
The tip of the tongue curls back slightly in the roof of the mouth, just behind the alveolar ridge, and the breath squeezes past whilst the tongue is still and not vibrating.

There are other pronunciations of the letter "r" or sound /r/:
In other languages, the letter "r" is pronounced differently from English.
For example, the French vibrate the tongue towards the back of the mouth.
Russians, however slightly vibrate the tip of the tongue very quickly as the breath passes through.

In our experience of teaching speech, the English /r/sound is particularly difficult for Japanese and Chinese students. They often pronounce the /r/ sound using their lips and the result is the /r/ sound replaced with a /w/. Russell Brand does the same.

Tips to pronounce the /r/ sound correctly:

·        Do not vibrate your tongue, keep your tongue still

·        Do not use the lips to pronounce /r/

·        Practice lesson 41 and articulation tongue exercises with our apps Get Rid of your Accent UK1, Elocution Lessons and Business English Speech.

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

171. How effective are the accent reduction training programs?

The answer to this question depends on three factors:

1. The teacher’s competence and work experience

2. The student’s ability to hear the differences in sounds and the amount of time and effort he/she is putting into the accent reduction process

3. The quality of training material: books, apps, video courses

Which teachers to choose?
Accent reduction should be taught by a qualified speech tutor (in the past speech tutors were called elocution teachers). A qualified speech tutor knows how sounds are produced in the mouth, the exact position of the tongue, lips and jaw for a particular sound. This is the key. To achieve the best results book a few elocution lessons.

What is expected of a student?
To reduce an accent one must substitute old habits of speaking with new ones which takes time and effort. It is a process. Usually, we recommend mastering a sound minimum for a week. Some sounds are easier and some may take longer to master. For example, /w/ sound does not exist in Russian. It is produced with lips going forward in a tight whistle and requires certain lip muscles. If the muscles are not trained it might take a while to train them to produce an energised /w/ sound. It’s a bit like going to the gym. If I tell you to go to the gym and come with a six-pack after one session you know that it will not happen. It is important to practice regularly, every day for 15-45 minutes rather than two hours once a week.

How to practice? Which books and apps to use?
I recommend that you download professional accent reduction apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English).
There is also an Elocution Lessons app to master essential English and a Business English Speech app that contains business vocabulary (both are for British English).
All the above apps have accompanying video courses, Get Rid of your Accent Part One and Get Rid of your Accent Part Two.

It is also a good idea to listen to good RP speakers, copy a section at a time, and record yourself.

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166. Voiced and unvoiced sounds in English

It is very important to distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds in English due to two reasons:

1. To be aware of the difference

2. To be understood

All vowels and diphthongs are voiced.

Unvoiced sounds are easier to pronounce because they are made with breath only:
[s] soup, [p] pick, [t] tick, [k] kick, [tʃ] church., [ʃ] shoe, [f] fan, [θ] think.

When pronouncing voiced sounds extra effort is required because they are made with vibrations of vocal cords: [z] zoo, [b] bubble, [d] dog, [g] giggle, [dʒ] George, [ʒ] rouge, [v] van, [ð] that, [l] lock, [m] meter, [n] nun, [ŋ] king.
Because an extra effort is required, many students substitute voiced consonants with their unvoiced partners, particularly at the end of the word. Moreover, in some languages, for example, German and Russian it is not a pronunciation mistake to substitute a voiced consonant with its unvoiced partner: “dog” may sound like “dok”, or “bed” like “bet”. In English, as you can see from these examples, the meaning of the word changes if you do not observe voiced consonants.

In English, plurals and past tense are identified by word endings.
Rule: If the sound before the ending is unvoiced, then the ending will be unvoiced too. If the sound before the ending is voiced, then the ending will be voiced.:
Plurals: cats /s/, kicks /s/, dogs /z/, beds /z/
Past tense: kicked /t/, picked /t/, begged /d/, dragged /d/

It is rather difficult to pronounce consonants at the end of the word in English for some nationalities such as Spanish and Chinese. They tend not to pronounce the ending at all. This creates an impression that they do not know English grammar, namely how to create plurals and past tense. Because of that, their speech may sound uneducated.

We recommend practicing voiced and unvoiced consonants with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English) and book a couple of elocution lessons.

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164. Be in control and exude authority

Good barristers, politicians and business leaders sound confident, in control and have authority in their speech and voice. Can it be mastered? Yes, and I will explain how.

First of all, in order to achieve authority in your voice be in control of your breathing. Good breath control will bring energy to your voice.

Secondly, good articulation will help you sound clear, more energised and powerful. You can master it with the apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 (British English) or ‎American Accent App (American English).‎

Thirdly, avoid sounding monotonous and saying everything on one level of pitch. Change the pitch, power and pace according to the emotion/meaning of a particular message. We can recommend the app 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause if you want to learn and practice this technique.

To achieve authority, speak in a straightforward way and stress the key messages. To make the keywords stand out use a louder or quieter voice (depending on the meaning). Raise the inflection when saying keywords and vice versa, use downward inflection with unstressed words. Learn more about inflecltion and sentence stress in the apps ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or Fluent American Speech (American English).

Finally, think about physicality and be well in control of your posture and gestures. Have a good straight posture and gestures that support your messages.

What is the best way to practice it? Listen to speakers like Winston Churchill. Watch courtroom dramas and note how effective barristers speak. Here is a practical exercise for you:

1. Read a speech out loud and record yourself.

2. Underline stresses keywords and mark pauses in the printed copy of the speech. You can learn how to do it right with the app Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

3. Read the speech again and record yourself. If necessary repeat this exercise a few times.

If you need help book a few elocution lessons.

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163. Impact of modern technology on our ability to communicate in person

I believe that since the introduction of smartphones and messengers like Whats Up, Viber, and others people prefer to text and send images rather than speak.

It has both advantages and disadvantages. The obvious advantage is speed and convenience. The disadvantages are that people lose the art of communicating in person and do not know how to enjoy it. They lose their confidence when they have to communicate in person. These people are at a disadvantage in moving forward in their careers. Successful salespeople, CEOs, MDs, and top Politicians must have amazing in-person communication skills.

To master communication in person I recommend:

1. Learning to speak clearly

2. Learning to communicate not only thoughts but also emotions and feelings

3. Learning to use non-verbal messages, such as eye contact, posture and hand gestures to support your verbal messages

Many students who take our elocution lessons often tell us that they want to become confident communicators. Feeling confident is expressed by your body language, voice and words.

I recommend apps ‎Get Rid of your Accent UK1 and ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎American Accent App and ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause if you wnat to master your communication in person.

More on Get Rid of your Accent | Elocution Lessons

154. How to prepare for a presentation?

We recommend that people who take our elocution lessons should practise their presentations in the following order:

1. Write the structure of the presentation in key messages, introduction, body, and conclusion. For example:
   - in the introduction, you can greet your audience and say what your presentation is about;
   - in the body of the presentation you will discuss examples and statistics which support the topic and purpose of your presentation;
   - in the conclusion you will call for action.

2. Read the presentation three times and then do an audio recording. Listen to your audio recording and make a note of your mistakes then practise again until you are satisfied with the results. It is very useful to perform articulation exercises with the app Get Rid of your Accent for a few days before your presentation.

3. Finally, practise it in front of the mirror and make a video recording of yourself presenting

Practicing in front of the mirror is helpful for public speaking because you will be able to see how confident you look, and you will also see your posture and gestures. All three, confidence, posture, and gestures can support your presentation/speech or distract from it.

The main characteristics of bad posture are:

1. Slouching

2. Body tilted backward or forwards

3. Lifted shoulders

4. Looking down

5. Toes pointing left and right, looking like a penguin

6. Both toes pointing inside and heels pointing outside

7. One shoulder is higher than the other

8. Hunched back

9. Humping on one leg

I recommend that you stay straight and create zigzag eye contact with your audience. Do not walk from one side of the room to another as it can be destructive. Just use zigzag eye contact with your audience. Download the app 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause to practise posture preparation, use of pause and voice modulation. These useful skills will make all your presentations much better.

Let's take a look at the gestures that are weakening your presence and your speech delivery.

1. Lack of gestures resulting from the stiffness of the body. Sometimes a person feels so nervous that they grab their speech in their hands and hold it during their entire presentation. This creates a closed body posture and shows a lack of confidence.

2. Scratching your head, nose or any part of the body can look a bit distracting and even inappropriate.

3. Trying to adjust your clothes, and moving a ring on your finger are also gestures that indicate that the person feels somewhat nervous.

4. Touching and trying to improve your hair shows that you are not sure of your looks and feel you are not confident enough.

5. Too many gestures and repetitive gestures show you are trying too hard to compensate for a lack of confidence.

I recommend using descriptive gestures. Think about how your gestures can help your audience absorb the information easily. Using visual aids is also very powerful and brings an element of play into your presentation.
Just 15 minutes before presenting, perform body relaxation exercises so that anxiety does not interfere with the smooth delivery of your presentation.

You can find out more tips for speech mastery and public speaking on www.batcsglobal.com