How to Practice English Pronunciation Alone

our weekly live stream my name is alicia

and in this week’s lesson we are going

to talk about

how to improve pronunciation by

yourself this is a super commonly asked

question

how do i work on my pronunciation if i’m

just alone at my house what should i do

these kinds of things so today i’m going

to talk about

a few tips uh to practice out loud

i’m going to talk about uh a few

a few ideas for recording yourself and

also a few other

little tips here and there that i hope

are helpful for everybody

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let’s go to today’s topic as i said

before in case you missed it

today’s topic is how to improve

pronunciation

by yourself so today’s lesson

will be some tips that you can use to

work on pronunciation

alone or if you go to a class

maybe like once a week or once a month

how do you maximize that time

how do you get pronunciation tips from

that time how do you improve

that way so i’ll show you today’s lesson

boards next if you want to take a

screenshot

please get ready so we are going to talk

about

these topics in today’s lesson

practicing out loud so some tips about

practicing out loud

about recording yourself finding your

weak points

and then a few other practice tips

so let’s get started also please don’t

forget to like and share the video yeah

hit the like button i’m gonna do that

it helps other people to find the lesson

okay i have shared it cool

okay let’s go to part one part one is

about

practicing out loud practice out loud

i know this seems maybe kind of obvious

but i think a lot of us me included when

we

study another language we do a lot of

reading

right or we listen or we watch videos

like this

and so we get lots and lots and lots of

input

but please don’t forget your output so

make sure

you practice out loud so out loud means

you practice

saying words you say phrases you say

sentences and questions

out loud yeah so make sure to practice

speaking make sure to practice speaking

don’t

just watch videos or read textbooks

practice saying things out loud

so you can practice reading your

textbook out loud or you could read

a news article out loud you could repeat

after a youtube video you could repeat

after this

if you want to make sure you have

practice out loud as part of your study

sessions yeah okay so that is tip number

one

tip number two here about practicing out

loud

if you attend a language class

make sure you speak during the lesson

if you attend a language class make sure

you speak during the lesson i included

this as a tip here because

in the past my students would feel

really

shy sometimes especially at the

beginning

they would feel really shy about

speaking uh in a language lesson

because they wanted to be perfect right

but the purpose of a language lesson

is to make mistakes it’s safe to make

mistakes there

and to get feedback right so

my job as the teacher is to listen to

you right is to listen to you

to check your skills and to give you

feedback and to give you

new information right how to improve

so you need to help your teacher right

make sure you speak during the lesson

so your teacher can give you feedback

about your pronunciation so i had some

students

they would say uh can you please tell me

like

what uh pronunciation points i should

work on those kinds of things

so i can’t just give you feedback from

one sentence

but if i listen to you speak during

class

for many weeks or many months i can tell

you

which parts are maybe weak points for

you and what are some things you

are pretty good at and also i can maybe

check the kinds of things you’ve

improved on

so i need to be able to pay attention to

you

for a while though okay so make sure

you’re speaking

in your classes if you go to a class

this is true

even for an online class make sure you

use that time and you practice speaking

okay then but just remember in a group

class

so maybe if you have a one-on-one lesson

just one person one teacher one student

great but in a group class your teacher

may not be able to give you feedback

every time you speak

but they may be able to tell you about

some weak points

so maybe don’t expect your teacher to

give you

feedback every time you open your mouth

rather think about maybe

expecting like some point like one point

a little a little tip here and there

from them

so and really think about that because

they are listening to you

okay all right so that is tip two

if you attend a language class that’s

how you can do it or if you have a

language partner or language tutor

you can ask them uh for this like maybe

give some feedback about your

pronunciation

okay next next tip try

talking to yourself to get used

to making different sounds try talking

to yourself to get used to making

different sounds so to get used to means

to become accustomed to for it to be

normal to

so make it normal to make these

different sounds

for example try describing

your actions around the house or

explaining your day out loud

okay try describing your actions around

the house or explaining your day out

loud so maybe if you’re home alone or

maybe your family’s there i don’t know

if you’re home alone try explaining your

actions so what are you doing right now

like i am watching this video or

i am listening to this video or when

you’re in the kitchen or you’re cleaning

something try expressing those actions

out loud or maybe at the end of the day

you can

talk to yourself a little bit about what

you did

maybe in the bathroom washing your face

or brushing your teeth

you can think about what you did that

day and pra

try saying that out loud so get used to

making those

different sounds so make sure that you

are practicing out loud so that you are

thinking about

how to make these different sounds yeah

okay uh all right so this is part one

then making sure you practice

out loud is extremely extremely

important please do not be shy

especially in your language classes

okay all right so that is part one

we’ll take one super short break and

then we’ll go

to part two about recording yourself

this is very powerful i do this

when i’m working on something too so

if you missed it before there’s free

stuff for you from the link

below the video if you’re watching on

youtube or above the video if you’re

watching

on facebook you can find all of these

and

more these are a few vocabulary

i showed you this one earlier these are

a few vocabulary and phrase

questions dialogue sheets that you can

use you can download them and put them

on your

phone or keep them on your computer you

can print them out and put them on your

wall

whatever near your desk to study

there are a bunch of these available for

free so check the link below the video

on youtube

or above the video on facebook you need

your name and an email address

uh to make a free account on the website

at englishclass101.com

and then you can download everything for

free so check it out

the team has some new stuff there too so

please have a look

okay let’s continue

to part two now if you haven’t please

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and others might enjoy okay let’s go to

part

two part two

is all about recording yourself

recording yourself i talk about this a

lot

but we’re going to talk about it again

because it is very important

so what am i talking about when i say

record yourself

i mean you can if you want make a video

but

audio recording so that means for

example use your phone

like record yourself with the voice

function on your phone

maybe you have like some voice recorder

some microphone or something you can use

great if so

but the point is record yourself

speaking somehow we’re going to talk

about why

okay so record yourself

to compare your spoken language

to a native speaker’s spoken language so

compare

your spoken language to a native

speaker’s

spoken language i’ve created i think six

yeah six steps to to do this

to record and check and review

so let’s go step by step this is a guide

you can use to work on your

pronunciation

with a recording so first number one

find a video or audio file to use

for practice find a video or audio file

to use for practice this could be

youtube it could be

podcast it could be something else maybe

not

music for this one i wouldn’t really

recommend music for this one

try to find something that you can

easily play again and again and

something that’s maybe not super

long so maybe like a few minutes long or

another good one if you have some like

listening cds

uh to study english with those are also

really really good to use

okay so find a video or

audio file to use for practice

pronunciation practice and listening

practice

then number two choose a part

to use to practice your pronunciation

choose a part to use to practice your

pronunciation

so don’t choose a 10 minute

block don’t choose 10 minutes of audio

that’s too much maybe you’ll be

overwhelmed

choose like a minute or 30 seconds

so a short time a few sentences or

maybe one paragraph to practice to use

to practice your pronunciation

okay three listen to the native speaker

and try to repeat what they say

so record yourself as you do this listen

to the native speaker

and try to repeat what they say and

record

yourself when you do it the first time

just do your best

okay then number four

listen to your recording and compare it

sentence by sentence to the native

speaker

so i mean you record yourself and next

listen to your recording and listen to

the native speakers recording also so

listen to them

maybe maybe not the same exact time

but listen to both files and look for

these two things

what sounds the same so what are your

strong points

what did you do a good job with what

sounds

the same in your pronunciation to the

native speaker

what sounds different so

maybe it’s one letter or maybe

you find some sound you are making

differently

from the native speaker look for those

points that are

different they sound different and

practice

these parts so look for those points

that sound different from the native

speaker and focus your practice

on those so try to make

those sounds in the same way as the

native speaker does

if you practice only the parts that

sound good already

you’re you can’t improve the parts that

are weak

right so focus your energy on those

parts that sound different

yeah okay

all right then

record yourself again after practicing a

few times

so this can be in the same day like it’s

great to do so you record yourself one

time

listen to it i need to practice this

and this so practice a few times and

then

10 minutes later or 30 minutes later

record yourself again

and then check the difference you might

be surprised honestly

i use this strategy another strategy

uh for practicing music actually so i

try to practice

a new part the first time i go oh my

gosh

i record it sometimes for a really

difficult part i record

maybe my first day of practice and then

i practice a few times in a week and

then

i record myself again the next week and

i find oh

i improved but it’s hard to track your

own progress right

it’s hard to know when you’ve moved

forward

so recording is super super helpful to

understand

how you are improving okay

so that’s my last point here number six

in red review

please please please please please

review so record

your review sessions and compare them to

your first

time this step will help you understand

how much progress you have made okay

so this is a quick guide you can use

to work on your pronunciation yourself

so i’ll show this again

in a screen in so you can take a

screenshot later too

okay cool so this is

a very very helpful uh not

just for improving your pronunciation

but also building your confidence yeah

so you can see

the ways in which you improve

okay that is part number two

good so please record yourself that’s

very very helpful

all right we will go now to part three

time’s going quickly um so i’ll just say

very quick as well if you missed it

earlier there’s free

stuff you can find free vocabulary pdfs

from the link below the video if you’re

watching on youtube or above the video

if you’re watching on facebook check

these out two down

you can download them practice with them

when you

like okay let’s go to the last

point or the last board for today the

last one for today

is about finding your weak points i want

to

talk about this and then some practice

tips

in general so find your weak points

first i talked about this before

but what sounds do you notice

are always different when you record

yourself

speaking what sounds do you notice are

always different

when you record yourself speaking so

all of us depending on our native

language or the languages we

already know we will have strong points

and weak points

in the language that we study right in

terms of well pronunciation and

grammar so maybe you know the sound is

difficult for me

or this word is difficult for me so

pay attention to that what sounds do you

notice are always

different and don’t avoid them right so

don’t avoid something just because

it’s difficult right if you work a

little bit at it

you can improve it and then you don’t

have to worry about it so much anymore

so don’t avoid the things that are that

you know are always difficult if you

always avoid it it’s never going to

improve right

okay so make sure you pay attention

what things are always difficult for you

then if you are taking classes

think about this what feedback do you

get

from your teacher about your

pronunciation what feedback do you get

from your teacher about your

pronunciation

so i included this because sometimes i

had students

it took it took quite a while i would

tell them for example

uh this sound like the er sound the

ending er

sound uh in words like father or mother

i’d say this sound is a sound for you to

work on like let’s work on improving

that sound

we’d work on that in class and so on but

it took a while for

the student to really start to try to

practice making that sound eventually

they got it they had to really slow down

and think about making the sound

differently

but eventually they got it it was

awesome super super cool

so please if you have a teacher or a

tutor

please think about the feedback you get

from your tutor about your pronunciation

take some time and think about applying

that think about making a change

in your conversation or in your lesson

yeah okay

and another point here this lesson is

focused on

pronunciation but practice

intonation and rhythm too

what is intonation and rhythm

intonation means like the rise and fall

of the language yeah so i just did that

rising and falling

naturally in english if you speak

in a very flat way in english it’s going

to sound

kind of strange we have at least in

english

kind of a natural rise and fall

depending on the sentence

so practice this too don’t focus

just on the words but make sure to

practice

mimicking or copying the intonation

of native speakers and the rhythm

as well so listen to the

emphasis in the words yeah so for

example

in a word like beautiful the emphasis

is on the first part beautiful right not

beautiful

right so please pay attention to rhythm

and

emphasis of words and sentences

as well okay

good all right finally we have just a

few minutes left

finally some practice tips some tips uh

general tips for pronunciation practice

okay so first make pronunciation

practice

a part of your regular studies make

pronunciation practice a part

of your regular studies so

of course maybe you have a textbook or

maybe you watch

these videos which is great super super

great

but also include pronunciation practice

like every day or

every week in your studies yeah so

make pronunciation practice a part of

your regular

study practice thanks very much rafael

on youtube that’s awesome thanks for the

support

okay then another tip

practice with different resources

practice with different resources so

for example youtube videos

podcasts music books

news articles whatever so if you

practice with the same thing

all the time maybe you will get

really good at sounding like that one

person so if you always use like my

videos well thank you thank you for

practicing with those but

make sure you use lots of different

resources think about the different ways

people speak

this will help your listening skills too

okay

whew almost there finally again

again review things you practiced before

review things you practiced before and

check your recordings

to check your progress check your

recordings to check

your progress so practice

make sure to practice and review

practice and review

so these are my tips for improving your

pronunciation quite a few but i hope

that you found something you can use

right away yeah there are quite a few

tips there so i’ll show you

today’s lesson boards again one more

time if you want to take a screenshot

go so we talked about practicing

out loud we talked about recording

yourself

some steps to record yourself and track

your progress

and we talked about finding your weak

points focusing on your weak points

and some practice tips okay

so i hope that you found this helpful

and you can use it

uh to start working on improving your

pronunciation

with or without a teacher okay so

i have to wrap it up we are almost out

of time but i’ll be back

next week of course next week’s lesson

information

is here so next week

i will be back on august 4th uh

wednesday august 4th

at 10 pm eastern standard time that is

new york city time

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use your google skills or

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to get that as well oh thanks very much

for uh sayonara nunez for supporting us

that’s super super awesome thank you

okay next week i’m going to talk about

how to give a basic presentation

how to give a basic presentation so

we’re going to cover just the

basic outline a basic guide for the

parts of a presentation

and how to connect our ideas there okay

so please join me again next week to

talk about how to give

a presentation all right cool so

i’ll wrap it up there thank you so much

to everybody for joining me again

this week don’t forget to find your free

stuff

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uh and enjoy the rest of your day have a

great

day have a great week have a great

weekend

and i will see you again next time see

you next week everybody everybody saying

thank you

bye cool cool cool so uh i will say

goodbye here now and see you again soon

bye