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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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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189. Secrets of Successful Self-Presentation

Self-presentation is a skill that can make or break your social and professional success. In this article, I will outline some mistakes and give useful tips in this area.

Self-presentation is presenting oneself to others; others here are more important than self. Many people make a mistake by starting their self-presentation by listing their achievements, accomplishments and rewards rather than what benefits they can bring to the people they present to. For example, instead of saying “I hold a Toastmaster bronze reward”, you can say “I am a keen presenter as I have 15 years of experience in public speaking and would love to step in to present to customers and partners”. The statistics show that most people shy away from presenting, which can make you a valuable asset for a team where presentation skills are needed.

The second mistake is too much information. Avoid too many personal details that are of little interest to others such as what your mother does or what is your favourite beach. Just say things that are relevant to the situation you are in and focus on the purpose of your self-presentation.

The third area I want to talk about is speech and voice. If your speech is difficult to understand and/or your voice is unpleasant this can be a problem. The good news is you can fix it. Read about techniques to master speech and voice in my articles. Here I just want to mention the main mistakes: mumbling, speaking with a half-closed mouth, hesitating and using filler words such as “eehm, aaahm, like, basically, you know,” etc.

What can you do to make your self-[presentation successful? I recommend the SUS approach for the content:
Simple, Useful, with an element of Surprise.

Use short simple words, make it useful for others and add something unique about yourself that might surprise others. For example, if you are an elegant lady people might be surprised that you ride a high-speed motorbike.

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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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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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174. How to achieve good, fluent, educated English?

Listen to good English speakers such as Boris Johnson, Stephen Fry, etc. Listen to their speeches and copy the way they speak. For example, Boris Johnson knows how he can deliver a strong message and be heard with the use of specific, powerful, and colourful adjectives and adverbs that add strength, meaning, and urgency:

"profoundly optimistic"
"insidiously programmed"
"a deep human instinct"
"astounding achievement"
"deeply and dangerously wrong"
"vital task"
"overriding anxiety"
”colossal character”

Read classics. References to classic literature will add depth to your words and meanings.

Read poetry. Reciting poetry will immensely enrich your vocabulary. I recommend that you memorise new words, phrases and metaphors in the context, then try to use them in your speech. Aesthetics, colourful language, compactness of expression, and the use of metaphor make poetry a source of interesting expressions.

Remember, how you say it is even more important than what you say. Modulate your voice, stress key messages, and use pauses this will help you to achieve good educated speech. ‎Fluent English Speech (British English) or ‎Fluent American Speech (American English), and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
I also recommend the app Business English Speech. It contains 43 lessons from the book Get Rid of your Accent for Business, Part Three, ISBN 9780955330025. It works best with an accompanying video course. This app was designed for top-level professionals, diplomats and lawyers. With this app, you will practice sophisticated English expressions and RP.

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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.

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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.

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161. Android Apps to master English speech

British English:

Elocution Lessons - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal for children and people who just started learning English. This app has 48 lessons. It contains short, commonly used phrases, sentences and verses that are easy to repeat and it also has useful tips for teachers of English. It is actually useful for everyone as it contains essential, everyday English.

Get Rid of Your Accent - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of a regional or foreign accent and to speak with Standard English or RP (Received Pronunciation). It has 42 lessons; it contains effective practical exercises to perfect all English sounds and perfect your articulation.

Fluent English Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app is a follow-up to the Get Rid of your Accent app.  It is ideal if you want to develop fluency in English and sound more like a native English speaker. It contains exercises for difficult and connected speech patterns, natural flow of speech, intonation, sentence stress and onomatopoeia. 

Business English Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app was designed for top-level professionals, diplomats and lawyers. It is the only app on the market that has both English pronunciation and business vocabulary training. It contains 43 lessons with material gathered from interviews with CEOs, CFOs and MDs of global companies and helps to develop proficiency in English.

Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of monotonous speech and become a successful presenter and public speaker. It contains practical exercises for voice modulation and the use of pauses.

Get Rid of Chinese Accent - Apps on Google Play
This app is the same as the app Get Rid of your Accent with an additional bonus - Chinese translations.

General American English:

American Accent App - Apps on Google Play
This app is ideal if you want to get rid of a foreign or regional accent and master Standard American accent. It has 42 lessons. It contains effective practical exercises to perfect all American English sounds.

Fluent American Speech - Apps on Google Play
This app is a follow-up to the American Accent App. It is ideal to develop fluency in your American English speech. It contains exercises for difficult and connected speech patterns, natural flow of speech, intonation and sentence stress

More on www.batcsglobal.com

158. Stop sounding boring and depressing!

A good many of our students are high achievers and they want their speech to be sharp as a sword with which they conquer the world. They take our elocution lessons in order to feel confident to:
- run meetings,
- speak in front of a large international audience
- present sales pitches,
- dominate in political debates,
- speak in the High Court of Justice,
- create educational video courses in the world's top universities, and so on.

In other words, they want people to listen to them.

We first work on the clarity of their speech and help them master RP (Received Pronunciation, actors master RP in drama schools in order to play upper-class characters in classic plays).

However, intonation and inflection are even more important if you want to sound interesting so that others enjoy listening to you.
Here is just one example of how different patterns of inflection can be used.
Most of the time we would use a simple falling inflection at the end of a sentence. Within a sentence that has separate phrases, we would use a rising inflection at the end of each phrase and finish the sentence with a falling inflection. Here are a couple of examples:
“The plane, which is flying to America, was delayed.”
”The giant, who was called Bill, was very frightening.”

Using rising inflection where appropriate will make the speech much more interesting.

Usually, people sound really boring and even depressing if they constantly use simple falling inflection. What I have noticed is that often people from a particular culture have a habit of using simple falling most of the time (for example, in an authoritarian culture like Russia). When I asked them to say something in a different way (with simple rising inflection or circumflex rising) they told me they felt unnatural. Indeed, our intonation and inflection are influenced by the environment we grew up in. Often we outgrow or change our childhood environment and lift ourselves to the next level. Therefore, one might ask: is the way I speak fitting my current environment?

When we record our students’ speech they are often shocked to hear the way they sound. They want to do exercises that can help them sound more interesting.

I would like to share these exercises with you.
1. Listen to good RP speakers; a small section at a time, a minute long or less
2. Analysie their inflection and make a note of when it rises and when it falls
3. Copy them

To get rid of constantly using simple falling use this simple exercise: instead of telling people what to do ask them to do it, and instead of demanding ask for a favour. When we ask a question our inflection rises.

It will also be useful to get rid of negative words in your vocabulary. Think about how you can avoid sounding negative. For example, instead of saying "We had another slow day", just say what happened: "Today our sales reached the same levels as yesterday".

You can learn and practise intonation/inflection and voice modulation with the apps Fluent English Speech and  Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause. The functionality of the app where you can listen, repeat and compare is perfect for mastering the intonation.

More on www.batcsglobal.com/elocution-lessons

156. Tips to improve public speaking skills and boost confidence

You can boost your confidence by realising that you are a unique human being and that your contribution to this world is welcomed. What you do and say matters and has value. Do not try to copy others, develop your own style, have fun and be happy.

What I have noticed is that people who lack confidence are not happy with their own physical appearance. Such people are often victims of the beauty industry and spend a fortune on plastic surgery and procedures.

By daring to be your natural self, having a haircut that you fancy but that may be not in fashion and clothes that others might find odd looking will boost your confidence; it will shout out “I don’t care what you think of me”.

Secondly, educate yourself and master the skills that you want to have and that might be of value to others. Monetise these skills and become prosperous. Money is a huge confidence booster.

To become a good public speaker work on straight posture, correct breathing, speech, voice, use of gestures, and visual aids to boost your presentations.

Here are a few public speaking tips :
1. Practise articulation exercises regularly. This will help you to have clear and crisp speech

2. Use pauses. It is one of the most effective means in public speaking; it separates ideas, creates a dramatic effect, creates anticipation and so much more.

3. Stress key messages. This technique helps to make your speech easy to listen to

155. How can I become better at small talk?

Small talk has three main purposes:

1. It helps to break the ice and create a friendly atmosphere

2. It is a great opportunity to size up the other person

3. It is an opportunity to showcase your personality and social status in a subtle way

What can be discussed during a small talk? I would suggest something general, positive and relevant to the situation you are in. The topics of small talk could be weather, holidays, school, university, places, sports, music, art, shopping, etc.

What topics should be avoided during small talk? Topics that are controversial and those that might embarrass, offend or make people feel uncomfortable. Definitely religion, politics, and very private/personal things. Avoid talking about wars, your political preferences, judging people from different religions and cultural backgrounds, your diseases and sex life.

To get better at small talk I recommend that you smile and connect to a person on an emotional level by being understanding and sympathetic This will help another person feel comfortable and safe.

Another thing you can do is adjust yourself to another person and create a rapport. For example, if you are a PhD in Quantum Physics and you talk to a builder may be the topic of your dissertation is not the best way to break the ice! What would work better when you talk to a person try to find some common ground sport for example. Or, if you see that the other person looks very sad your laughter and a smile would feel odd. Perhaps, a neutral expression would work better. Be sensitive to people’s needs and feelings.

I recommend not rushing your speech and allowing space for pauses to make the talk relaxed and pleasant. Do not interrupt the other person, instead listen with full attention and nod along when appropriate. Connect with what was said and continue by saying something to support the other person.

Avoid arguing, and try not to appear superior. Let the other person shine.

How can you showcase yourself during the small talk? First of all by the way you speak and listen. If you boast and interrupt others it can only show a lack of manners. If your speech is bare and primitive that might imply a lack of education. People will understand that you have been properly educated if you use a rich vocabulary.

More on www.batcsglobal.com

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