Reading Tips to Improve Your Pronunciation

If you're working on pronunciation, these tips can help you use reading as a way to practice outside of class, either by yourself or with a couple of friends.

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How to Improve Your Pronunciation

By Kenneth Beare

Top Tips

• Choose a paragraph and read aloud.
• Choose a paragraph and mark each sentence with a sound script (helpful pronunciation markup). This will help you read more naturally, and thus pronounce correctly.
• Choose a few sentences from your reading material and highlight content words. Read these sentences focusing on accenting these content words while quickly speaking over the structure words.
• Once you become comfortable reading a single paragraph aloud, read an entire page by reading a paragraph aloud and then reading one silently.
• Choose some nursery rhymes to practice. They will help you with pronunciation through rhythm.
• Read a short story or a few paragraphs to a friend who is also studying English. Compare the differences and discuss what might be the reasons for the differences.
• Choose a paragraph, short article, or newspaper story with new vocabulary. Use the Babylon dictionary or another online pronunciation resource to help you learn the correct pronunciation of these words.
• Read a play with some friends. Each friend takes a different part. Start with short scenes. Once you are comfortable, read longer pieces together.