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The Pronunciation Clinic, Sydney

Pronunciation Tip of the Month

Happy 2023! I know you’ve probably made and broken a whole lot of new year resolutions! Here’s your chance to keep an important one: to make some real improvement in your pronunciation.

Here’s an exercise you might enjoy, that will make you more aware of English rhythm and intonation and will help you make your speech sound more animated, natural and native-like.

First go to your TV and turn on a news or current affairs program where the speaker is facing you on the screen. Turn down the volume and watch the speaker nodding their head and raising their eyebrows regularly throughout the program. Every time they lift their heads or raise their eyebrows, their voices are doing a little jump up in pitch. Now turn the volume on and watch how the voice and the body tend to move together.

It’s this up and down of the voice (intonation) that shows an English speaker’s involvement in what they are saying. If your voice stays flat and unvaried, English listeners will think you are less interested and less interesting than you really are.

To improve your intonation range:
– Record a few minutes of a TV program.
– Download audio and a transcript of the program (most ABC and BBC programs have audio and transcripts available online).
– Listen carefully to the short recording several times and draw little arrows where you think the voice is rising.
– Now try to make your own recording using the marked transcript as a guide.
– Finally compare your best effort and the original recording to see how close you can get.

Good luck till next month!