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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also share this lesson too if you think
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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
if you don’t know your local time please
use your google skills or
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always share a link in my instagram
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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
from the link below the video if you’re
watching on youtube or above the video
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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