How to improve diction? This problem is very relevant today for many people. After all, a person who is naturally capable of speaking beautifully is a rarity. That is why, for centuries, oratory was considered the highest art, which it was believed that only a select few could master. Fortunately, today it is possible to eliminate various speech defects quite easily. Special exercises can help with this.
However, in order to solve the problem as effectively as possible, you first need to understand its very essence. Diction is the pronunciation of syllables and letters by the human speech organs. Diction is considered good if it is clear and smooth, if the words are pronounced clearly and at the same time loud enough.
Among the main causes of problems with diction are weak jaw mobility and the inability to open the mouth normally. As a result, a person’s speech begins to sound muffled, crumpled and unintelligible. Pay attention to how you speak. Do you manage to pronounce syllables and letters correctly every time, and does your speech always sound loud and clear? If you find any problems in yourself, take care of yourself immediately!
How to improve diction with training?
Exercises to improve diction were invented many years ago. Even the Roman orator Cicero always put 3-4 small round stones in his mouth before speaking in public and read excerpts from texts. By the way, this method is still used today by many speech therapists, although today pebbles are usually replaced with wine corks or walnuts.
In addition, there are also a number of modern exercises that can improve diction:
- Open your mouth and start moving your lower jaw left and right. Try to keep your head as still as possible. After 2-3 minutes, try moving your jaw back and forth. Continue doing the exercise for another 2 minutes.
- Smile as wide as possible. Circle the teeth of the upper and lower rows with your tongue. Count each one in this way, but it is not recommended to twist your jaw.
- Smile again. After this, run the edge of your tongue along the inner surface of your upper lip. Repeat with the lower lip. Finally, “slide” your tongue along the edges of your lips in a circle. Try to maintain maximum jaw immobility.
- Smile while exposing your teeth. After this, move your tongue from one side of your mouth to the other. Try not to move your facial muscles, keep your tongue between your upper and lower lips and not touch your lower jaw.
- Now stand on your feet and place your hands on your chest. Gradually tilt your torso forward and pronounce the sounds “O” and “U”. Gradually try to make your voice lower and lower.
Basic rules for improving the quality of spoken language
By following these simple rules, after a few weeks you will be able to improve your diction and speech. In order to achieve maximum results in the shortest possible time, try to perform the exercises daily for at least 15 minutes. Please note that until noon the facial muscles continue to “sleep”. By working on yourself, you can also become an excellent speaker.
Many people have heard the speeches of speakers who did not need to attract the attention of listeners with phrases: “Don’t be distracted,” “Listen to me,” etc. What is this? Natural talent? Perhaps an incredibly interesting or relevant topic? Competent speech construction? Probably both. Simply put, ownership. There is no doubt that only a person with a clear, competent speech. Perhaps it will not cause controversy to say that good diction is needed not only by media workers and public figures, call center employees or consultants.
Well-delivered, competent speech is one of the necessary components of career growth in those areas where communication with people cannot be avoided. Everyone needs it.
How to develop diction?
How to develop good diction? Of course, as in any business, several components are needed to achieve a successful result: desire, time and patience. The development of diction in adults can be done independently - just set aside time every day and practice. There is a large number relatively simple exercises, influencing the improvement of speech technique and the development of diction. A method known to everyone since childhood -. By repeating these small rhythmic phrases as often as possible, you can achieve noticeable results within a few weeks. How to quickly improve the diction of people with minor speech impediments? In this case, attention should be paid to tongue twisters that help solve a specific problem.
For example, if you have problems with hissing and whistling sounds, more often pronounce phrases with a lot of such sounds, for example: “Sasha was walking along the highway and sucking on a dryer.”
Correcting diction in adults, or developing it in adolescents, is also quite possible to do independently - depending on the requirements for timing and results. For independent work, it is recommended to pronounce tongue twisters by placing one walnut on each side in the mouth (behind the cheek). Progress will be noticeable quite quickly.
How to improve diction and speech through breath control?
This is a very important aspect in improving diction and speech. There are quite a few different exercises that mainly help teach a person to pronounce texts as long as possible, without interrupting them with breaths or pauses in places where this would disrupt the semantic or emotional load of the text. very important for a speaker.
How to improve your diction while spending time reading your favorite books? Need to read out loud, clearly articulating all sounds, paying attention to the emotionality of the text. Starting with well-known works, you can move on to completely unfamiliar texts. A good exercise, which is aimed not only at developing diction, but also at the ability to behave in front of a large audience and improve memory, is poetry.
You can learn several poems, gradually increasing their size, and recite them with your family or friends. It is important to monitor your diction, not being upset by possible flaws, but carefully recording them.
In this situation, you will need the help of specialists. As in the case when it is necessary to eliminate a serious speech defect, it is better to turn to professionals - individually or in group specialized courses, where they will help identify all speech defects that the listener may not have paid attention to. People for whom speech production is a profession will select individual exercises and tell you how to improve your diction specifically in your case.
Many consider competent speech to be a talent that is given to a select few and is necessary only in some areas of activity. In fact, everyone should think about how to develop speech. After all, good diction makes you listen to the person speaking and trust his opinion more. In addition, such a skill often contributes to career growth, especially if performing job duties requires frequent communication with people.
Basic techniques and exercises for speech development
Below we present the most effective exercises to improve your diction. Clear speech and a well-trained voice are the result of long and hard work on oneself. Therefore, it is necessary to perform these exercises regularly, and not occasionally, because this is the only way you will make progress in the development of your speech.
Warm-up for the articulatory apparatus
Before performing any exercises aimed at developing diction, short warm-ups will help you to prepare yourself for clarity of pronunciation. One of her options is to tightly clench a pencil with your teeth and say a phrase approximately 10-15 words long. Then take out the pencil and say the same phrase again. In order not to think about choosing a text every time, you can use any poem when performing this exercise.
Exercises aimed at improving their mobility and accuracy will also help you begin to speak better and strengthen the muscles of the organs involved in the speech process. After all, these are the characteristics that are required for the development of diction and high-quality pronunciation of sounds.
As you know, the most mobile organ of articulation is the tongue. Therefore, most of gymnastics is connected with it. There are many exercises, the regular implementation of which will eliminate the need to think about the question of how to develop speech. For example, you can stick out your tongue and try to reach it first to the chin, and then to the nose. Or, as if using a brush, use smooth movements to draw lines from the teeth to the larynx.
Pronouncing phrases with artificially complicated articulation
Tongue twisters for developing diction are considered a classic training option. With their help, you can practice clearly pronouncing different consonants in a calm environment. To achieve excellent results, it is enough to devote at least 5-10 minutes to exercise every day. However, to develop good diction there is one important rule: each phrase must be pronounced at a slow, medium and very fast pace.
You can start training with the simplest sentences, which teach you to clearly pronounce one or two sounds. For example, these could be:
There are also more complex phrases that help you understand how to learn to speak words clearly and quickly, in which the pronunciation of two or more sounds in difficult combinations is practiced:
- The talker said to the talkers: “I said, don’t tell the talker that the talker has started talking,” the talker has a talker. The talker began to speak, and the talker’s throat began to talk slightly, and then the talker said finally: “Stop talking, talker talker.”
- The commander spoke about the colonel and about the colonel, about the lieutenant colonel and about the lieutenant colonel, about the lieutenant and about the lieutenant, about the second lieutenant and about the second lieutenant, about the ensign and about the ensign, about the ensign, but was silent about the ensign.
- There is firewood in the yard, firewood behind the yard, firewood under the yard, firewood above the yard, firewood along the yard, firewood across the width of the yard, the yard cannot accommodate firewood! We'll probably move the wood from your yard back to the wood yard.
- The cap is not sewn in the Kolpakov style, the bell is not poured in the Kolokolov style, the cap needs to be re-packed, re-capped, re-forged, re-capped.
- The snake was bitten by the snake. I can't get along with the snake. From horror it has become narrower - the snake will eat it for dinner and say: “Start over.”
Pronouncing tongue twisters
There are also special tongue twisters for developing diction and eliminating problems with the pronunciation of certain sounds. A good way to figure out what exactly needs to be corrected is to listen to your own speech from the outside. Once the problems have been identified, you can begin to work on developing your diction.
First you need to learn how to pronounce an isolated sound correctly. Then it is necessary to achieve differentiation in speech of similar sounds, for example, “s” and “sh” or “r” and “l”. A significant help in correcting your speech can be pronouncing special phrases, for example:
- Lara played the lyre.
- Forty mice walked and found forty pennies, and two poorer mice found two pennies each.
- The Ligurian traffic controller was regulating in Liguria.
- A Cossack with a saber galloped towards Sashka to play checkers.
- Sasha walked along the highway and sucked on a dryer. Beavers wander into the cheese forests. Beavers are brave, but they are kind to beavers.
- The bull is blunt-lipped, the bull is blunt-lipped, the bull has a white lip and is blunt.
- There was a white-winged ram, which killed all the rams.
- I was at Frol’s, I lied to Frol about Lavra, I’ll go to Lavra, I lie to Lavra about Frol.
You should move on to working on the next sound only after you have achieved the correct pronunciation of the first sound.
Reading aloud
In addition to speaking tongue twisters, it is also useful to read aloud to develop diction. Recording your voice on a voice recorder can be a good incentive. Few people, having heard their speech, would not want to improve it. By reading passages from books and making audio recordings, you can practice your pronunciation until it becomes almost perfect.
How to learn to speak so that it is really pleasant and interesting to listen to you? When reading aloud, avoid monotony and change your intonation. In addition, it is worth changing the volume and speed of reading, learning to highlight the most important points with pauses. But at the same time, control your speech so that such pauses are appropriate and not too long.
Also, do not lose sight of the fact that a calm and confident voice is best perceived by others. Whether he will be like this largely depends on the mood and internal state of a person, his ability to control emotions. However, by developing diction, you can learn to speak calmly and convincingly. For example, why not imagine yourself as a politician and talk about the state of the economy in the country while sitting in front of a mirror?
Vocabulary expansion
Another important aspect that needs to be taken into account is the need for constant intellectual development and vocabulary replenishment. A well-developed person can carry on a conversation in any situation and find the right words. To become just like this, you should read more, solve crossword puzzles more often and attend various trainings on.
If you devote even a few minutes every day to working on improving your diction, within a few months you will begin to speak well, and your voice itself will be transformed beyond recognition. Moreover, all the efforts made will undoubtedly be rewarded over time.
Diaphragm training
In the question of how to deliver a speech, a very important aspect is the ability to control breathing. Without it, the text may be interrupted by pauses and breaths in places where this violates its meaning or worsens its emotionality. As a result, speech will become abrupt, and the meaning of what is said is perceived worse.
Therefore, one of the first exercises to develop diction should be training to develop proper breathing:
- Place your feet shoulder-width apart, straighten your spine, place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Inhaling through your nose, push your stomach forward. Then calmly exhale air through a small hole in your lips, returning your chest and stomach to their original position.
- To start speaking better over time, you can make the exercise more difficult. To do this, try to maintain proper breathing and at the same time walk, run in place, imitate chopping wood or sweeping the floor.
- You can improve the development of diction with the help of the following exercise. To begin, inhale calmly, and as you exhale, hold out any vowel for as long as possible. When you can hold a vowel for more than 25 seconds, try changing the tone of your voice.
Main causes of speech problems
It is impossible to achieve positive results in the development of diction if you do not understand the causes of speech disorders. Only rarely are they associated with health problems and develop, for example, due to an abnormal jaw structure or a short frenulum of the tongue.
For many people, speech problems are caused by incorrect pronunciation of whistling and hissing sounds, as well as the absence of the “L” or “R” sounds, or a violation of their pronunciation. A weakened articulatory apparatus may also be the cause.
Even if a person can speak well, pronouncing all sounds correctly, in particularly significant situations his speech may become slurred and unclear. After all, when pronouncing words, the articulatory apparatus needs to very quickly switch from one movement to another. This can only be achieved through active and intensive work of the muscles that need to be trained, for example, by regularly pronouncing tongue twisters for diction.
However, the main reason for slurred, quiet speech is a person’s shyness and lack of self-confidence. In such a situation, the development of diction is a secondary problem. First of all, you need to work on your own character and fight complexes.
Why is it necessary to develop a child’s diction? He is still small, but he will grow up and his speech will improve on its own. Many parents think so, not attaching importance to even such obvious defects in the child’s speech as a lisp or unclear pronunciation. Experts insist that one must work hard on diction as early as possible, so that the child’s speech does not turn into a “speech mush” over time. Otherwise, the speech therapist will have to work hard to make the preschooler’s speech literate, intelligible and beautiful.
Why is it so important to develop diction in children?
Let us remember that the concept of “diction” includes clear pronunciation of words and sounds. Psychologists note that correct pronunciation of words and sounds affects the overall development of the child and contributes to the faster formation of mental operations. Fuzzy speech negatively affects a student’s school success and the quality of communication with classmates and friends. In the future, writing literacy in primary school depends on the correctness of oral speech. You need to realize that correctly delivered, clear and competent speech is an element of a child’s success and an indicator of his attractiveness in the eyes of other children.
It is important for parents to notice a problem in diction at the initial stages of speech development, at about 2-3 years, when speech begins to develop very actively. There are many factors that influence the ability to speak clearly. Experts note, first of all, those that influence the development of diction. The reasons for poor diction in children may be:
- Impaired pronunciation of sounds;
- Absence of some sounds in speech;
- Replacing dull sounds with voiced ones;
- Shortening long and complex words;
- Rearranging syllables;
- Softening sounds;
- Replacing sounds with similar ones.
In some cases, poor diction is associated with the development of hyperactivity, instability of attention and poor self-control. With the progress of pedagogical science and medicine, many problems associated with diction can be easily corrected. In most cases, regular articulation exercises are sufficient to improve diction.
Effective exercises for diction
The main difficulty in pronouncing words is the need to quickly change the position of the tongue in the mouth. To master this skill, you need to strengthen your muscles and conduct constant training.
Exercises for developing the muscles of the speech apparatus
1. Exercises to warm up your lips:
"Speaker" - you need to open your mouth wide. The sound “a” is pronounced at the same time.
"Tube" - Pull your lips forward as much as possible. At the same time, the sound “u” is pronounced.
"Smile" - you need to stretch your lips, as if smiling, without opening them.
"Bagel" - stretch your lips as much as possible, pronouncing the sound “o”.
2. Exercises to warm up the tongue:
- you need to touch your tongue to the upper palate and then sharply lower your tongue with a clicking sound;
"Spatula"
- open your mouth, stick out your tongue, reach your chin.
"Sweetie" - you need to rest your tongue on each cheek in turn. Mouth closed.
"Pendulum" - you need to stick out your tongue. Stretch it now to the right, now to the left.
"Needle" - stretch your tongue forward as much as possible. The mouth is open.
"Mushroom" - reach with the tongue to the upper palate, so that the frenulum stretches.
"Turkey" - stick your tongue out of your mouth. Move it along your upper lip from side to side. Gradually increase the speed of movement and add a voice (pronounce different vowels while chanting).
"Mug" - open your mouth, stick out your tongue and roll it into the shape of a cup or mug.
"Drummer" - it is necessary to strike the upper teeth with the tongue, accompanied by pronouncing the sound “d”.
Important! For maximum effectiveness, each exercise must be performed for at least 2 minutes. To make it interesting for small children to repeat the same exercise over and over again, you can use rhymes, pictures, and small toys.
3. Exercises for a beautiful voice timbre:
"Long syllables» - take a deep breath. While exhaling, pronounce the syllables “bom”, “bim”, “bon” drawn out (you need to draw out the last sound).
"Q-X" - pronounce the syllables “Q” and “X”. When pronouncing “Q”, stretch your lips out with a straw, and on the syllable “X”, stretch your lips into a smile.
"Sound engineer" - one palm should be pressed to the ear, the second should be brought to the mouth at a distance of several cm. In this position, pronounce words, syllables and sounds. This exercise helps you understand the true sound of your voice.
Classes for children to develop diction at home
The best and most effective way to master the skills of speaking clearly is through play. The development of diction for all age groups will be faster in game exercises and interesting tasks. In addition to the development of the articulatory apparatus, such activities have a beneficial effect on strengthening the relationship between parents and the child, and also simply bring him joy and pleasure from communicating with his parents.
Games that develop a child’s speech:
"Repetition" - training consists of the child repeating individual sounds and syllables. Often the lesson is carried out in a playful way. Mom or dad reads the poem, the baby repeats the final syllables of each line.
"Farm"
- this game is similar to the previous one, but the sounds must be pronounced as clearly as possible. Parents read a poem about the inhabitants of the farm, and the child pronounces the sounds made by the animals.
"Guess who" - you should play it after you have mastered the previous 2. Place pictures of animals (you can buy them in a store or make them yourself) in an opaque bag. The child pulls out a card and pronounces the sound that matches the animal in the picture. It's more fun to play in a group.
"Pantomime" - This is an alternative option to articulation gymnastics. The child is asked to show various emotions exclusively using his face. This is a good way to train the muscles of the speech apparatus.
"Police officer" - Whistles will be required to play. Children, when given the command “violator” or “criminal,” begin to blow a whistle. When you inhale, the stomach swells, when you exhale, it contracts. The shoulders remain in place during this process.
"Roaring Lion" - the game is aimed at practicing the pronunciation of a certain sound. Children are offered a set of words, quatrains, tongue twisters, passages of prose text (can be submitted as stages of a competition), where a certain sound is most often found. The guys read the proposed words aloud and practice the sound.
Tongue Twisters
In addition to games, tongue twisters have a great effect on improving diction. Every person has known them since childhood, but only a few have the opportunity to boast of the ability to pronounce them correctly, clearly and quickly. With regular training, tongue twisters effectively eliminate speech defects and significantly improve the quality of diction.
A tongue twister is a special text that is a combination of words with hard-to-pronounce sounds. They are aimed at developing the correct pronunciation of consonants.
- At the first stage, you need to select no more than three tongue twisters in order to train the pronunciation of a certain sound;
- The text is pronounced slowly and as clearly as possible;
- It is advisable to practice in front of a mirror;
- You need to pronounce the exercise emotionally and in a sing-song voice.
In addition to games and tongue twisters, when working on a child’s diction, it is very important to pay attention to the voice and speech breathing.
Enemies of beautiful speech
Speech is a reflection of a person’s level of culture. The concept of “beautiful speech” most often refers to literate speech. Today, the problem of stylistic speech errors in children is very relevant.
They clog up speech and spoil the overall impression of a person:
Parents can solve many problems with their child’s speech on their own at home. It is necessary to follow some recommendations and the positive effect will not be long in coming. Recommendations for parents on how to develop diction in a preschool child:
The problem of diction in children is relevant today. Almost every boy or girl has a violation of the pronunciation of sounds, syllables and words. It is important to pay special attention to this problem. It is necessary to work with the child not only at the moment when the problem has already declared itself, but also for prevention. A regular and systematic approach will help you cope with the task in the shortest possible time. The child's speech will be clear and beautiful.