3 Tips for Great Pronunciation!

ESL students often ask what they can do to improve their pronunciation at home. The truth is, the best thing we can do to polish our pronunciation is get plenty of practice. Here are three great tips for practising your English pronunciation by yourself.

1. Listen. That’s right- listen! We can only clearly pronounce the sounds that we have heard clearly. Great pronunciation starts with hearing the sound.

There are plenty of ways we can practice our listening at home. If we want to pronounce a particular sound clearly, it’s a good idea to listen to the same recording many times. For instance, if we are working on the “sh” sound  /ʃ/, we can look up “tongue twister sh” on YouTube and listen to the “sh” sound in tongue twisters like:

She sells seashells by the sea shore.

We can also do more general listening to tune our ears in to English sounds: watching movies with or without subtitles, listening to songs and listening to podcasts, are all ways we can begin hearing the sounds more clearly.

1. Move our Mouth. The second essential step for better pronunciation is to move our mouth to the best position to produce the sound clearly. If we have our tongue and teeth in the right place, we CAN make the sound.

How will you know if your tongue is in the right place? You’ll need a mirror or your phone in selfie mode. If you can see your mouth, you can check that your tongue, lips and teeth are in the best position. 

Most of the commonly confused sounds in English, such as “sh” & “s”,  “r” & “l” and “v” and “b”, can easily be practised in front of a mirror. 

1. Practice with a Partner. Finally, to really polish your pronunciation, you need to practice in conversation. This will help your fluency and give you confidence. You can meet a friend online, call another student on the phone, or do some focussed conversation practice with an ESL teacher to gain useful feedback. You know what they say: Use it or lose it!