to hear di"erences that you didn’t notice before, and your
pronunciation will become more like that of your model.
Listen extensively. Listen to as many di"erent kinds of
English as you can, whenever you can. Surround yourself
with the sounds of English, even if you don’t understand
everything. Listen to news and talk sources on TV, radio, or
the Internet. (National Public Radio is one of my favorites.)
Find podcasts on topics that interest you. You have to hear
the language a lot in order to have enough “sound data” for
your brain to work with—to build up a sense of its sounds,
rhythm, and intonation patterns. Just listening to textbook
“repeat after me” sentences isn’t enough (although it’s not a
bad way to practice). You need to hear real people speaking
real language for a long time. The more exposure you have to
the sounds and music of authentic English, the more they’ll
feel natural.
Don’t try to practice everything at once. Choose a sound
that causes you the most trouble and concentrate on
improving that !rst. Listen for it when you’re watching TV or
listening to someone talk, and monitor your own
pronunciation of it. When you can produce that sound more
comfortably and accurately, move on to another sound. This
often works better than trying to improve everything at the
same time.
Start slowly, then speed up. If you’ve ever learned to
dance or play a musical instrument, you know that you can’t
do it at full speed right from the start. You have to go slowly
at !rst, thinking consciously about each movement, how they
!t together, and what comes next. After you’ve practiced for
a while, the movements start to feel more comfortable and
automatic, and you can do them more quickly and smoothly.
Pronunciation is the same way. Practice reading a passage or
saying a di#cult word slowly at !rst, and then gradually
speed up as it becomes more comfortable.Carry a small notebook to write down words that give
you trouble or interesting words that you notice and want to
practice later. You could use a smart phone to keep a list of
these or to record interesting new words that you hear. Keep
a dictionary (paper or electronic) handy to look up new
words and check their pronunciation.Practice reading aloud. Find something to read: a news
story, a page from a novel, a dialog, even a page from a
textbook. Mark pauses, intonation patterns, and words that
you particularly want to work on. Practice reading out loud,
and then...Record your voice. Listen to the recording and self-
monitor. Try to hear which sounds aren’t quite right, then204