so another important part of English
fluency of course is pronunciation right
speaking clearly, clear pronunciation so
we can understand you and what you're
saying so there are some ways to improve
this there are some great ways to
improve this but you don't have to lose
your accent many students ask me how can
I lose my accent I don't want to speak
with a you know Spanish accent or a
German you know but you don't have to
lose your accent that is quite difficult
and it's not important it's part of who
you are your culture your background you
just have to find how to speak clearly
so we can understand you so native
speakers can understand you I have three
fun ways to do this let's talk about
them number one
reading aloud reading aloud what is this
reading aloud so this is something that
I always teach my students to do and it
works really well it's simple but it
really can help reading aloud is when
you speak out the words as you read so
you don't just read silent you read and
speak out many of my students do this so
they have had good results let me give
you an example I'm going to read
apart from my story Darrin's passion my
little mini story about travel which you
can find in the free audio book talking
about travel if you don't have it yet
this is on page 8 and 9 of the travel
book talking about travel Darrin loves
to travel it's his passion he doesn't
like his job at all so he finds
fulfillment in traveling around the
world whenever he can so that's just an
example of me reading aloud right
reading a story so you can find a short
story and I give you some in this
a short little story not too long or
even just one page from a book you have
and read it out aloud but you must
follow this system first start slowly
start really slow because this helps you
to think carefully about what you are
reading and think about the words and
how to say them number two try it with
the big mouth technique what's this
well as you might know I'm also an actor
I have a lot of experience working as an
actor in theatre and TV and films and
actors of course have to read aloud then
read the script out and they they need
to practice the voice and the speech so
I know a lot about this and how it can
help you so we use a big mouth technique
this really helps this is when you open
your mouth ah wide and you exaggerate
the sounds that means you make it bigger
first in the beginning let me give you
an example Darren loves to travel this
is not a normal way to speak but it
helped you relax and exercise your mouth
and jaw muscles so you can start to make
the English sounds easier and better
because we have many sounds that are not
in your language that are not native for
you so you have to train your mouth to
become more relaxed and fluid so Darren
loves to travel it's his passion he
doesn't like his job at all so you make
it really strong like that also to help
you with this use your imagination and
imagine a small bowl you know a round
ball inside your mouth place it on the
middle of your tongue so imagine this
ball is sitting in the middle of your
mouth on the tongue
your job is to talk around this ball so
that makes you it forces you to speak
with a much more open mouth he works
very hard in his office for a big
software company so even if you don't
know the sounds if you don't know if you
are making correct sounds this will
still help you'll be surprised
also you can listen to the audios here
you can listen first you can listen to
me I will talk about that more but speak
with a big open mouth and then after you
can relax do this a few times and then
start to just relax your mouth and do it
normally Darren loves to travel and your
mouth will be more relaxed so this is a
great one try this next one number two
is another practical exercise I'm sure
you have heard of tongue twisters right
what's a tongue twister so this is your
this is your tongue okay would you use
to eat and drink and talk make sounds
and twist to twist means to move it like
that so it you can exercise your tongue
and make sounds this is a fun way to
practice certain sounds that you have a
problem with I'll give you a few to
practice during this mini challenge a
common sound that is a problem for many
English learners from many countries is
the th sound the soft th how do we make
this we stick our tongue between the
teeth just softly like this and we blow
some air just try it now with me stick
your tongue here and blow some air
through the teeth
you can do this in front of a mirror to
check the tongue this is not natural for
many languages so you have to train your
tongue in your mouth so I'm going to
give you some tongue twisters to
practice this let's start slowly and
then you can get faster let's try a
tongue twister three thirsty things on
Thursday three thirsty things on
Thursday and you can get faster three
thirsty things on Thursday three thirsty
things on Thursday do it together with
me three thirsty things on Thursday
three thirsty things on Thursday three
thirsty things on Thursday faster so
maybe some spit will come out your mouth
that's good you're using the tongue
you can exaggerate make it more in the
beginning and later you can just relax
your mouth and do it normally next one
youthful dudes threw that tooth in the
booth youthful use threw that tooth in
the booth so this one is a little more
difficult because often when the th is
at the end of the word or in the middle
it's more difficult than the beginning
if you know what I mean so three maybe
it's more it's easier than youthful or
youth that's difficult with ths youths
this means young people youth a youth is
a young person you use ths is quite
difficult you have to pull it back when
you snake
youths let's get faster
youthful youth through that tube in the
booth youthful youths through that tooth
in the booth great so the sentence
doesn't make sense
that's not the idea it's not important
it's just for the sounds practice and
one more tom through Tim three
thumbtacks that's a difficult one tom
through Tim three thumbtacks tom through
Tim three thumbtacks tom through Tim
three thumbtacks
tom through Tim three thumbtacks Tom
through team three thumbtacks so even
for me it's difficult to do fast but try
slowly and then get a little bit faster
and this will teach your mouth how to
use the th sound one more sound that is
often very difficult for many students
is V the V sound but with this one we
bite our bottom lip just a little but
see I put my bottom lip here vah vah now
we don't usually bite it hard but to
practice in the beginning really make it
strong try to bite your bottom lip so
you can feel it though and do this boom
ba-ba-boom do this a few times every day
in the morning today you need to do this
and keep going
here are some tongue twisters for this
one he's a very vicious vampire
he's a very vicious vampire
he's a very vicious vampire
he's a very vicious vampire
great this one is a long one and more
difficult so let's go slowly
vivacious Vow vacuumed violets very
vivid vehicle the basis Bao vacuumed
violets very vivid vehicle
vivacious Bao vacuumed violets very
vivid vehicle and one more with a B
sound B and B can be confusing Betty
loves the velvet vest best Betty loves
the velvet vest best Betty loves the
velvet vest best Betty loves the velvet
vest best bet he loves the velvet vest
best great haha so you can read the PDF
transcript and practice these also I
recommend I recommend a children's book
to help with this it's called dr. Seuss
su ESS dr. Seuss he has a book called Oh
you can say this is a children's book in
English but it is great for simple
reading practice and also you can say
the sounds there are tongue twisters in
there so try this one
number three shadowing the shadowing
technique or we also call it imitation
so this is when you listen and you copy
what you hear it's very common it's very
simple and many teachers use it but it's
very useful and effective you can do
this with movies or TV shows if you're a
higher level so you can listen and pause
and copy but if you're still new to this
you should try it with the audiobooks
with my mini stories that I give you
here keep it
simple so there are a few ways to do
this correctly you need to really copy
exactly what you hear okay so you need
to copy some important points first the
sentence stress what are the strong
words in the sentence and the weak
sounds what are the weak sounds and also
the intonation so this is where it goes
up or down up or down in the sentence
I'll give you some examples and you can
copy from me Darren doesn't have a
problem with flying Darren doesn't have
a problem with flying so what is the
strong word in this sentence Darren
doesn't yeah doesn't in this case is
quite strong often it's not but here I
want to emphasize that he doesn't Darren
doesn't have a problem with flying also
flying is quite strong the weak sounds
are hover hover have a problem have a
problem with so it's joining together we
call this connected speech have a
problem with Darren doesn't have a
problem with flying you can also try to
use the emotion as well try to even use
your body to really make it stronger let
me give you another sentence to shadow
and copy I get excited when the flight
gets all bumpy I get excited when the
flight gets all bumpy what are the
strong words here excited bumpy the
other ones are softer aren't they so I
get I get I get excited when the when
the flight when the flight so a lot of
it is is joining its can
when the flight gets all gets all when
the flight gets all bumpy I get excited
when the flight gets all bumpy so this
is from my story from the traveled story
the free audio book talking about travel
you can find this I can give this to you
you can see this in the MINI CHALLENGE
use this story to help you now I'm going
to give you a little exercise practice
I'm going to talk about my day so the
first time just listen and then after
you can practice shadowing here we go so
this morning I woke up about seven seven
o'clock and I got up about 7:30 then I
cleaned my room and I had a shower after
that I got ready for a student I had a
Skype lesson at 8:30 so I got a drink of
water and I sat down to teach my student
at 8:30 she's from China and she lives
in Melbourne so we chatted and practiced
English for one hour it was great
after that I had a short break and I had
some breakfast I had some fried eggs it
was really nice
I had some fried eggs then I had
something to drink I did a bit of
cleaning then I had to have a
consultation with another student at 11
o'clock on skype I met with her she's
from Brazil she wanted to talk to me
about my English classes so it was
really nice to me okay so it's just a
simple short one to start with and in
that one I talked about my morning
routine my morning today so we will go
back and listen to this one and pay
attention to the sentence stress and the
connected speech you can copy it and
practice okay great
so for today's challenge you need to do
this exercise to practice shadow and
copy me
in this exercise good luck
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