Some people think that they have no problems with diction and this is true. However, when they come, for example, to get a job on television or as a radio presenter, they can immediately be told that for this they need to improve their diction. What methods can easily and quickly improve your diction level? There are several ways to help solve this problem in a short time.

You will need:

First Steps to Persuasive Speech

To speak confidently, beautifully and euphoniously, you need to perform a number of exercises. The first step is to learn how to pronounce plosive sounds well and clearly. Of course, if voiceless consonants are inaudible, then the level of diction will drop significantly. Due to the fact that the voiceless sounds themselves, in their structure, are quite quiet and incomprehensible, they must be pronounced much better than other vowels.

For example: p', t', k'.

Speak dull sounds without a voice, but with very great activity, as if exploding these sounds. After completing the exercise, pronounce the same sounds, but with your voice. This can be done by using consonants that follow the unvoiced ones.

For example, by, then, to, etc.

After completing the exercises, add voiced vowels and sibilants.

Books and reading aloud are a great help in improving diction

The second and very serious mistake of many is the incorrect pronunciation of the letter “G”.

Cuckoo cuckoo bought a hood

Lisping speech is an unforgivable mistake. Of course, if a person has an incorrectly developed bite or has a piercing in the tongue, then this is forgivable. However, it often happens that neither one nor the other is observed, so the culprit is a weak language.

To solve this problem, it is necessary to do exercises not only for hissing sounds. For example, you need to learn to pronounce the sound “C” accurately and clearly.

You also need to learn to relax the muscles of your mouth and tense your tongue. You can do it like this:

1. smile so that your teeth are visible;
2. pull out your tongue a little;
3. Use your mouth to blow a little air onto the tip of your tongue to hear a small whistle (this whistle is similar to the pronunciation of the letter “C”).

You need to see your mistakes directly

A good exercise is to read and talk in front of a mirror.

This is necessary so that you yourself can see your mistakes and see for yourself how your mouth muscles work. If you pronounce sounds and words, phrases in front of a mirror with diligent force, that is, make movements more flexible and strong, open your mouth more, etc., then over time you will hear that the level of your diction has increased significantly. And after such exercises it will be much easier for you to pronounce certain sounds.

Use third party items

Do exercises with foreign objects.

• For example, you can put small nuts in your mouth and speak tongue twisters with the nuts in your mouth, while pronouncing each sound well.
• You can also use, for example, a pen. Hold the pen between your lips or teeth, and then start reading the tongue twisters yourself.

It is worth considering that it is unlikely to succeed the first time, but there is no need to give up ahead of time. With long-term training everything will work out. Besides, you shouldn’t rush too much the first time.

It is better to pronounce each word at a slow pace, but clearly and clearly.

And it’s not just a matter of “we tell them.” Timbre and diction have a tremendous impact on how the listener perceives you. It has been proven that people perceive information presented in a low-pitched voice better than in a high-pitched one. A voice with a timbre that is too high is not only harder to listen to, but also less pleasant than a low one.

Good diction is even more important than timbre. If you are not an honored doctor of science or a professor, you have to make sure that your listeners understand you without extra effort.

It’s always a real pain for me to give speeches in the first half of the day. I'm a night owl and it's hard for me to think straight before lunch. By the way, scientists say that until 12:00 the human body is still in a half-asleep state, including the facial muscles and vocal cords.

To avoid inarticulate mooing during a performance, it is recommended to do a five-minute warm-up exercise consisting of 10 exercises.

1. Lower your lower jaw down. Slowly move it left and right.

2. Lower your lower jaw. Move it back and forth. Do this very slowly, smoothly and carefully.

3. Starting position – standing, hands on chest. Leaning forward, as you exhale, pronounce the vowels “u” and “o” long and drawn out, in as low a voice as you can.

4. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile, move the tongue to the corners of the mouth left and right. Make sure that the jaw and lips are motionless, and the tongue does not slide along the lower lip.

5. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Lick the upper lip with the tip of the tongue from one corner of the mouth to the other. Make sure that the tongue reaches the corners of the mouth, the movement is smooth, without jumps, the jaw does not move. Also lick your lower lip. Then lick your lips in a circle.

6. Mouth closed. Lick the teeth under the lower lip, then under the upper lip. Make sure that your jaw and lips do not move.

7. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Smoothly run your tongue over your upper teeth, touching each tooth and counting them. Make sure that the jaw does not move. The same movement applies to the lower teeth.

8. Mouth closed. The tense tip of the tongue rests on one or the other cheek. The same, but the mouth is open.

9. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Raise your wide tongue to your nose and lower it to your chin. Make sure that the lips do not stretch over the teeth, the jaw does not move, and the tongue does not narrow.

10. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Place the wide tip of the tongue on the alveoli behind the lower teeth from the inside, then lift it onto the tubercles behind the upper teeth, also from the inside. Make sure that only the tongue works, and the lower jaw and lips remain motionless.

Content:

Finding a person with good diction today is not easy. Few of us have a pleasant voice, the ability to pronounce words clearly and clearly for the people around us, without raising our voices or resorting to ways to enhance the impact of our speech. In fact, developing your speech is not difficult. Very rarely, exceptional speech abilities are given to a person by nature, but the rest can only be advised to spare no effort and time when working on diction exercises.

What is good diction and why is it needed?

The concept of “diction” means the clear pronunciation of sounds and words with their correct articulation. The mechanism that produces sounds is the speech apparatus, and very often its violations and defects become the reason that a person’s speech diction is of low quality. One of the main reasons for insufficient development of diction is considered to be inactivity of the lower jaw and the inability to open the mouth wide enough during a conversation. In this case, the words are not pronounced clearly enough, it is muffled, and the speech seems “crumpled”. They say about such a person that his diction and expressiveness of speech are serious. This deficiency is manifesting itself too strongly and requires immediate action to correct the current situation.

If you feel that your diction is far from perfect, then start addressing this issue immediately. Improving your speech is possible: specially designed speech exercises will help you eliminate deficiencies in the pronunciation of sounds. You can find everything you need on the site and start doing it. When thinking about how to improve your diction, remember that only work and careful implementation of the proposed exercises will help you improve. And make it truly expressive and pleasant for others.

Careful work on diction will make itself felt very soon. You will see that your social circle has expanded noticeably - those who previously avoided talking to you, tired of asking a hundred times and listening to slurred speech, today are happy to make contact, paying tribute to your eloquence. You will no longer be afraid of public speaking, and speaking with excellent diction will allow you to convey the meaning of the speech to the audience and contribute to its memorization. Very often, good speech diction contributes to successful career advancement - a person who has the ability to speak in public is excellent for high positions and leadership positions.

If you see that your child needs work on his diction, do not delay the start of classes by postponing it for a while and thinking that the problems will “outgrow” and disappear on their own. Additional classes to improve diction will help achieve several goals at once - improve speech, increase self-esteem and performance at school, allow you to find new friends and avoid ridicule about “porridge in your mouth.” The acquired skills of good speech diction will last a lifetime and will help in later life, studying at a university and building a successful career at work.

Speech technique exercises may not be the most fun of activities, but you only need to do them 20 minutes a day, moreover, you still have time to cook something, do laundry, or drive a car to another part of the city. Both and exercises for vowel sounds will help you while away the waiting time and help you make new friends, because it’s no secret that people are curious. It is very useful to check how far you have progressed in developing your diction when entering into a conversation, because quality communication is your goal!

Try to communicate with people as often as possible!

Various exercises for its development

1. Breathing and posture

1) Train your exhalation

Place your feet shoulder-width apart, with your hands on your waist. Exhale slowly through a small hole in your tightly compressed lips so that you feel the air resistance. In this case, you need to pronounce any quatrain. You can also perform this exercise in combination with walking, squats, running, and so on.

2) Train your breath

Lean forward and inhale (your back should be straight), then, straightening back, slowly exhale the air and make the sounds “gum-mm-m-”. Following this exercise, you need to do one more: with your mouth closed, inhale air through your nose, widening your nostrils, and when exhaling, tap them with your index fingers.

3) Lie down with one hand on your stomach and the other on your lower chest

Take a deep, deep breath (through your nose). The stomach should protrude forward and the chest should expand. After this, exhale freely (in no case sharply), returning the stomach and chest “to their place.”

4) Stand in a natural, relaxed position, place one hand on your chest to feel the vibration, and bring the other to your mouth to check your breathing. Now try to moan with different vowels: warm exhalation – moan (“UUUU”) – warm inhalation.

If you do everything correctly, you should experience a feeling of yawning and freedom in the throat area.
The next stage is similar, only during a quiet moan you need to try to prolong it and emphasize it with a slight push of the diaphragm inward, then exhale warmly.

You should also remember that speech breathing largely depends
from correct posture. Therefore, practice the “book on your head” exercise every day.

At first, just walk at a slow pace with a book on your head, and then be sure to complement the exercise with arm movements and squats.

Exercises for diction: “Book on the head”

2. Articulation

Clear articulation of speech sounds (installation of the speech apparatus in a position that allows the formation of the desired sound) depends on the degree of training of the active speech organs - , . Therefore, practicing clear diction always begins with muscle training - articulatory gymnastics, which allows you to consciously control the necessary muscle groups. You can find exercises on our website. Briefly, here are some of them:

1) lower your lower jaw down, slowly moving it in different directions

2) Without changing the position of your jaw, gently move it back and forth

3) in a standing position, lean forward, holding your hands on your chest and slowly pronounce the vowels “u” and “o” in an extremely low voice as you exhale.

4) tense the tip of your tongue with your mouth tightly closed and alternately rest it first on the left, then on the right cheek.
Next, do the same, but with your mouth open.

5) stretch your lips into an open-mouth smile, moving your tongue left and right to the corners of your mouth.
When performing the exercise, the lips and jaw remain motionless, and the tongue does not slide over the lower lip

6) Run your tongue over the bottom and top rows of teeth, counting each one. The jaw is motionless, the mouth is open in a smile

Articulation gymnastics will allow you to develop the organs of the speech apparatus

3. Pronunciation of consonants and vowels

After practicing the clarity of the actions of the active organs of speech with the help of articulatory gymnastics, one should move on to developing the correct pronunciation skills of individual vowels and consonants of Russian speech and their combinations.

Vowel training requires not only developing the correct phonetic position when pronouncing each of them, but also comparing vowels. The fact is that vowels formed according to the laws of phonetics in different parts of the speech apparatus (“front-lingual”, “middle-lingual”, “rear-lingual”) can sound in different positions: some - at the teeth (front position), others - in the dome of the hard palate (middle position), the third - in the larynx (posterior position). In this case, the so-called “variegation of vowels” occurs during speech.

Exercises to train vowel sounds

"I" - "Y"

When pronouncing the sound [ AND] the mouth is open to the width of the little finger, the lips are stretched to the sides, the tongue is flat, the tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth, the middle part of the back of the tongue is raised as much as possible to the palate; when pronouncing the sound [ Y] the tongue moves back more than with [ AND].

In exercise No. 1 for all pairs we will pronounce the first sound several times in front of the mirror, first without a voice, then the second, and repeat it out loud.

Exercise No. 1

WILLOW, IL, Feast, SPIKE, WHALE, LEAF, OR, CIRCUS
REAR, SON, CHEESE, WAS, SOAP, SMOKE, BULL, FISH

"E" - "E"

When pronouncing the sound [ E] the mouth opens to the width of a thumb, the tips of the upper and lower front teeth are visible, the tongue lies at the lower front teeth, the back and middle part of the tongue rises up and forward and touches the molars; vowel E in Russian speech it is pronounced longer and more intensely than the sound [ E].

Exercise No. 2

Say the following words slowly and clearly:
ECHO, THIS, EXTRA, EPIC, ERA, EXTREME
FIR, EL, RACCOON, ROAD, ELENA, EVA

"AND I"

When pronouncing the sound [ A] the mouth is open in the vertical direction so much that two fingers, placed one on top of the other, can be inserted between the teeth. The tongue lies flat, the tip of the tongue does not touch the lower front teeth; when pronouncing a letter I [Ya] the tip of the tongue is much more forward and rests on the lower teeth.
We are trying to do all this without sound.

Exercise No. 3
Say the following words slowly and clearly:
ACT, ATTACK, AIST, ANNA, MAC, BAL, CANCER, START
PIT, YAR, ANCHOR, BERRY, MENCH, YAK, POISON, RAGE

"U" - "Yu"

When pronouncing the sound [ U], the lips are rounded, stretched forward and come together in the form of a funnel, the distance between the teeth is one thumb, the tongue is pulled back somewhat, the root of the tongue is lowered, the back is raised; when pronouncing a letter YU [Yu] the front part of the tongue rises more than with the sound [ U].

Exercise No. 4
Say slowly and calmly, without straining your voice, the words:

MORNING, COAL, US, MIND, BOND, TOOTH, BOW, COURT, NARROW, BEETLE
YURA, YULA, SKIRT, SOUTH, YOUTH, JUNGA, YULIA, JURODIVYY, HUMOR

"O" - "Yo"

When pronouncing the sound [ ABOUT] the lips are pushed forward and have a more rounded shape than with [ U], the tongue is pulled back somewhat and does not touch the teeth, the back of the tongue is raised upward. Vowel Yo [Yo] is pronounced with greater duration and tension than [ ABOUT].
I hope you remember to try silently first.

Exercise #5
Say the following words:
WASPES, AXIS, PERCH, WINDOWS, LAKE, DONKEY, HOOP
TREE, HEDGEHOG, CONTAINER, WIGGLE, YUCK

Exercises for training consonants

Consonant training begins with placing the speech apparatus in the correct phonetic position and practicing clear pronunciation of each of these sounds. The second stage is the combination of these individual sounds in combination with each other and with the addition of vowel sounds according to a special training scheme.

1. Plosive sounds “P” - “B”

They require a particularly tight closure of the speech organs and the active overcoming of this obstacle - the “explosion” of the closure with a strong stream of exhaled air.

1.1. "Cork"

Let's check how well the labial muscles are prepared for the formation of plosive sounds " P" And " b". Purse your lips tightly, even slightly pull their edges over your teeth, biting them slightly. Using the air in the mouth (without exhaling!), sharply break through the bow, as if you were shooting out a cork held between your lips. Do not release your lips, let the air stream break their bow.

1.2. "Explosion"

Shoot the “cork” now with an active exhalation: ppp! Don’t tense up, just keep your lips tightly compressed. Don't try to get more air. It’s not the quantity that decides, but the energy of the push (impact of the diaphragm) and the precise focus of the exhalation on the tips of the lips. Do not allow an aspiration at the end, much less a vowel sound; you should not get “ph” or “pppp...”. If you get a smacking sound instead of an explosion, you are drawing air in instead of pushing it out. Having achieved a clear explosion on the sound " P“(don’t be surprised if this doesn’t work out right away, you need daily hard training, including gymnastics of the labial muscles), turn on the sound of your voice along with the exhalation - “bbb”. Train both consonants in a pair, while maintaining a clear differentiation by voicing: “p” - “b”, “p” - “b”, “p” - “b”. Do not allow a vowel sound at the end of the sound: “py” - “would”.

1.3. "Table tennis"

Imagine that your right hand is a table tennis racket. Practice hitting an imaginary ball with a racket, hitting it with the back of your freely hanging hand - ppa! up. Make sure that the vowels explode on the lips, continuing the plosive consonant, rather than falling back. Send sound to different points in the room: up, right, left, down.

Having practiced these combinations, turn on the sound of your voice as you exhale: bba!.. bbe!.. bbo!.. bbu!.. bby!.. bbi!..

Pair a dull and a voiced sound - pabba! pebbe! pobbo! pubbu! pibby! pibby! Double a voiced consonant, placing stress on the first syllable. Throw the balls easily, freely, without muscle tension.

2. Whistling and hissing sounds “S” - “Z” and “Sh” - “Zh”

2.1. "Puncture"

Check by ear to see if there is a puncture in the inflated chamber of the volleyball by squeezing it near your ear... That’s right... You can hear a tense, even whistle of escaping air: “ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss" Imitate the sound by accurately observing the articulatory setting. Remember that with the sound “s” the tip of the tongue is lowered and pressed against the front lower teeth, the body of the tongue is tense, forming a “slide” with slightly raised edges, and the exhaled air “rolls” along it. From time to time press the “ball” harder, the sound intensifies.

2.2. "Locomotive"

The steam locomotive slowly dissolves the steam: shhsh... shshsh... shshsh... So he moved from his place: sh-shsh-shsh... sh-shsh-shsh... He went faster and faster: shshsh-shsh-sh... shshsh-shsh-sh... shshshsh-sh ... Exhale the air with vigorous thrusts of the diaphragm. Watch for the correct articulatory position of the sound. Remember that the tip of the tongue is raised upward, forming a “bucket” in the dome of the hard palate, into which the exhaled air hits.

2.3. "Mower"

Sharpen the braid with a whetstone. The block slides from one side to the other of the blade: sss-zzz... sss-zzz... sss-zzz... sss-zzz... The scythe is sharpened, you can start mowing. A swing of the scythe, and it noisily cuts the grass: zhzh... zhzh... zhzh...

3. Sounds " L" and "R"

3.1. "Telegram"

Tap out the text of the telegram with a telegraph key: la-la-lal! le-le-lel! lo-lo-lol! Lu-lu-lul! ly-ly-lyl! li-li-lil! The stress falls on the last syllable. Keep the rhythm.

Try starting the engine of a toy car... With the exhaled air (without the sound of your voice), cause vibration of the tip of your tongue raised to the upper teeth: trrr... trrr... trrrrrrr... trrrrrrr... tr... Turn on the sound of your voice (the engine has started!): drrrrrrr... drrrrrrr...

4. Combination of plosive consonants

Let's combine three plosive voiceless consonants together, taking them in all possible combinations: ptk, pkt, ktp, kpt, tkp, tpk. We will practice each of them separately (without vowels!), making sure that each next explosion is clearly audible: p! T! To! Then we will begin to bring them closer together: p-t-k! Finally, let's combine it into one combination: ptk! Make sure that the noise of exhaled air does not slip between the consonants, and even more so the sound of the voice, it would not turn out p/h-t/x/-k/x/ or p/y-t/s-k/s.

Having worked through each of the combinations, connect them with the main row of vowels, pronouncing them in one phrase with the emphasis on the first syllable:

bird-bird-bird-bird-bird-bird!

Having worked out all the combinations in this way, create variants of “phrases” and “dialogues” from them: “Ptka-ptka-ptko?” - “Tpka-tpka-tpka!”

Diction training: public speaking

5. Double consonants

The habit of omitting consonants in the middle of a word also contributes to carelessness of speech, especially if there is a combination of several consonants, even simple doubling. We often hear: military, instead of military, usually, instead of usually, etc. It is necessary to ensure that the double consonant sounds longer than usual, like a long sound.

Often one of two identical consonants drops out at the junction of words spoken together or a word and a preposition, changing the meaning of what was said; for example, instead of coming from a building we hear a publication. The pronunciation of such words can be trained by selecting paired words with one and double sounds: submit - otdat (pronounced oDDat); not that, Comrades - not that, Comrades; to cut - to do again (pronounced razZdelat), etc.

6. Pure sayings

To practice individual speech sounds and their combinations, specially composed phrases are used - pure phrasing. They repeatedly repeat the trained sound or combination of sounds. To completely or partially get rid of speech defects, it will be enough to have about five tongue twisters in your arsenal with various combinations of incompatible sounds. Here are some that we would recommend to you:

The bull was blunt-lipped, the bull's blunt-lipped bull had a dull white lip.

From the clatter of hooves, dust flies across the field.

The Turk is smoking a pipe, the trigger is pecking at a grain. Don't smoke, Turk, pipe, don't peck, smoke, crack.

Prokop came - the dill was boiling, Prokop left - the dill was boiling. Just as dill was boiling under Prokop, dill was boiling without Prokop.

Radishes rarely grew in the garden bed, and the garden bed was rarely in order.

The blunt-nosed white-nosed pig dug, dug up half the yard with its snout, dug and dug up.

She was at Frol’s, she lied to Frol about Lavra, she’ll go to Lavra, she’ll lie to Lavra about Frol.

Senka is carrying Sanka and Sonya on a sled. Sledge - jump, Sonya off her feet, Sanka - to the side, Senka - to the forehead, everyone - into a snowdrift!

The cuckoo sewed a hood for the cuckoo. The cuckoo put on a hood: he looks funny in a hood.

The heron was wet, the heron was dry, the heron wasted away, the heron was dead.

Bristles on a pig, scales on a pike.

Chitinka flows in Chita.

He is not stupid who is stingy with words, but he is stupid who is stupid in deeds.

Cook Peter, cook Pavel. Peter swam, Pavel swam.

Here are a coupleadviceovto put it bluntly:

1) You need to work on pure phrasing slowly, carefully checking the installation of each sound, carefully practicing its correct sound.

2) Before you start working on pure tongues, carefully study the pronunciation norms. You need to know how individual sounds and their combinations are pronounced according to the laws of oral speech, so as not to develop the wrong skill. For example, the words “rarely” (radish rarely grew in the garden bed) and “bed” sound like “reTko”, “gridka”; “sewed” (sewed a hood) as in “ShShyla”, etc.

3) Record exercises with pure speech on a voice recorder; this will allow you to hear yourself from the outside, notice and quickly correct speech deficiencies, and also make adjustments during the work process.

4. Intonation

Intonation is responsible for a lot: melody, tempo of speech, strength of pronunciation, timbre of voice.

And in order to achieve expressive intonation, you need to remember the famous saying: “All life is a theater, and the people in it are actors.” After all, it is by becoming an actor that you can “hone” your intonation. Since the most effective exercise for working on it is reading by roles.

And imagination will also be a great help here. After all, if you are working on intonation pronunciation alone, then you should imagine different interlocutors in your imagination and tell “them” some text, adapting specifically to “them” and changing the intonation. You can read more about it in the article.

5. Tongue twisters

Tongue twisters for diction can be very useful for developing good pronunciation of sounds. They are familiar to almost all of us, and the words are chosen in such a way as to teach a person to pronounce almost incompatible sounds quickly and clearly. Repeating the same tongue twister phrase for diction several times, you will notice that each time previously disobedient sounds become easier to pronounce, and unintelligible speech becomes understandable and articulate. You will find a great variety of different tongue twisters on our website. Here are the most suitable ones:

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 yard, the yard cannot accommodate firewood. Drive the yard back to the wood yard.

Thirty-three ships tacked, tacked, but did not tack.

A bear with raspberries ran past little Marina.

The brawler ram climbed into the weeds.

A cap on a cap, a cap under a cap.

The big guy Vavila merrily moved his pitchfork.

The jackal walked, the jackal galloped.

Feofan Mitrofanych has three sons Feofanych.

The sergeant with the sergeant, the captain with the captain.

The net caught on a twig.

Watermelons were being reloaded from truck to truck. During a thunderstorm, the body fell apart in the mud from a load of watermelons.

It's terrible for a beetle to live on a bitch.

In the hut, a yellow dervish from Algeria rustles his silks and, juggling with knives, eats a piece of fig.

The gypsy tiptoed up to the chicken and tsked: “chick!”

Koshchei is not treated to cabbage soup.

6. Acting techniques

Take advantage of diction training - put walnuts, a cork or a pencil in your mouth and say a few tongue twisters, or read the text.

Say the words slowly, emphasizing each letter and concentrating on each word.

That's all for now. Let your charming voice and impeccable diction give you one of the wonderful keys that will help reveal the wonderful speaker in you!

Working on diction using acting techniques

Competent speech is the key to success in life. After all, people are judged not only by their clothes, but also by their ability to correctly convey thoughts and write correctly. A person who knows how to express his thoughts simply, concisely and clearly, and construct sentences correctly, is always perceived more positively. Interlocutors, listening to competent speech, automatically assign a completely different, higher level of life competence to a person.

Have you ever lost or not gotten a job because you had too many writing errors or had to clearly explain why you were the right person for the job? The development of competent speech is one of the basic tasks of every self-respecting person. Even if you don't speak in public, the ability to speak beautifully and clearly is valued by everyone. So, how to develop competent speech?

Read fiction

Reading high-quality fiction can hardly be called a waste of time. In the modern world, we are exposed to a very large flow of information; we mainly listen to news or read it on the Internet. But the Internet, entertaining reading and business literature cannot replace good books by recognized domestic and foreign authors.

Reading novels helps to intuitively write correct, beautiful sentences and develops a sense of language. By reading fiction and scientific articles in special publications, a person expands his horizons and vocabulary. If you want to make your speech more lively and imaginative, read poetry. Identify the rhythm, metaphors and figures of speech that you would like to use.

Use dictionaries

Look for new words. If you hear or read a word whose meaning is unfamiliar to you, feel free to take a dictionary and find out what it means. The origin of words is a very interesting science. What if this becomes one of your hobbies?

In addition to the usual dictionary, there are dictionaries of metaphors, foreign words, special terms, even dictionaries dedicated to a particular science. Use them all - and your vocabulary will begin to grow quickly. You can always find the most accurate word and apply it in conversation.

Play educational games

As you know, children acquire almost all their knowledge of language before the age of seven. A child develops competent speech with the help of the people around him. There are also many games and techniques that allow you to develop your imagination, expand your vocabulary and learn to speak beautifully.

If possible, listen to yourself from the outside. Make an audio or video recording of your voice. If you are afraid to speak into a voice recorder or get an inaccurate result, ask someone close to you to record you during a normal conversation.

Evaluate your speech. Competent speech is always free from all unnecessary things. How accurately did you convey your message to others? Was she clear? Could it have been said shorter, clearer, more understandable? Are you pausing in the wrong places? Are you constructing your sentences correctly? Are your thoughts confused, are you jumping from thought to thought, confusing your listeners?

Watch the accents. Incorrect accents (call, jalousie and other tricky words, of which there are many in the Russian language) reveal an illiterate and ill-mannered person. There are two options: do not use these words or open the dictionary, textbooks and remember them firmly.

Edit what you've written

Have you written a letter, a message to a friend, a report to management or an artistic essay? Whatever it is, review the text as carefully as possible and try to give it a critical assessment. This is great speech training. If you practice “cleaning” your writing, you will see results very soon. In addition, spoken language will also change significantly!

Once you've written something, try to "switch" to something else (at least go and make yourself a cup of tea), and then return to the text with fresh eyes. Imagine that this is someone else's text. Does it have errors? How accurately is the thought expressed? Is everything clear to you as an outside reader? Is it possible to formulate this idea more clearly and concisely?

Correct speech and competent speech are always bright, expressive and understandable. Get rid of words that do not carry any semantic meaning. They often take up a third of the text, which is why your idea definitely loses. If you can use a simpler and shorter word, use it. You can also try reading it out loud (be sure to do this if you are preparing a speech that you will give).

Develop your voice

Not only grammatically and lexically correct speech is important for communication. Proper communication also includes using your voice. If you have applied all the methods outlined above, but at the same time express your thoughts in a monotonous voice, devoid of any intonation, listening to you will be unpleasant and not very interesting.

It's worth developing your voice. Do exercises, listen to speakers and try to repeat after them. Sign up for a public speaking course. Even with little effort, the results will please you, and your interlocutors will stop yawning.

Results

Competent speech is not given at birth. You need to work on this constantly, throughout your life. But even if you devote very little effort and time to developing your speech, but reading becomes your good habit, you are guaranteed a more interesting and successful life.

You can't help but pay attention to your speech. In the vast majority of cases, when people begin to study this issue, they are horrified by the way they talk.

This refers specifically to pronunciation. After all, we all grow up in a certain language group, where a specific local dialect or outright Surzhik predominates.

For this reason, we have prepared a short material on the topic diction development. We were prompted to do this by the indignation caused by such words of some TV presenters as: “pasatrel” instead of “looked”, “skaal” instead of “said”, etc.

But at all times, clear diction and correct speech were considered a sign of a person’s education and development.

That is why you cannot be or count on it if such simple things as diction are at an indecently low level.

By the way, we have already talked about. Pay attention to them.

Let's make one last digression. You've probably heard the saying: “You are greeted by your clothes, but you are escorted by your mind”. This is a largely fair remark. The same goes for diction.

When you first meet a stranger, the first thing he notices is your appearance and the way you speak.

If your words are chaotic, and their sound resembles a tape jammed in a tape recorder, then it is unlikely that a person will like or trust you after the first communication.

Therefore, the importance of good diction for any person is difficult to overestimate.

How to improve your diction

Before moving on to specific tips, you need to find out the meaning of the term itself.

Diction(from Latin dictio - pronunciation) - clear pronunciation of sounds in accordance with the phonetic norms of the language.

Today, in many large cities there are various organizations offering courses to improve diction and voice production.

Perhaps for some this is the only option to work on themselves. However, we are confident that with a little effort of will, you can correct pronunciation problems even at home.

The main thing here is to have perseverance, a desire to change, and regular practice. Everything else is a matter of time.

Therefore, we offer you the most effective methods for improving diction. Check them out and start taking action now.

Diction exercises

A classic example of working on oneself is the ancient Greek orator Demosthenes. This outstanding Greek had very poor pronunciation and was extremely ashamed of it.

It must be said that this was a time when oratory, rhetoric and eloquence were valued as perhaps the highest personal values.

To overcome himself and achieve success, Demosthenes put small stones in his mouth and tried to recite famous poets out loud as clearly as possible.

Then he ran up the steep climb of the mountain, and when he was completely out of breath, he again recited poetry, making incredible efforts on himself.

His last exercise was to shout over the surf. When the waves hit the shore, he spoke as loudly as he could to an imaginary audience, continuing to tell them poems.

These amusing and seemingly stupid activities led to the fact that Demosthenes became one of the most prominent and famous orators. Today, not a single book about the art of eloquence is complete without mentioning it.

So no matter how bad your speech is today, you can improve it, so go for it!

Now let's move on to the exercises themselves.

Articulation apparatus training

• “Fence” - clench your teeth and smile widely. Hold this position for ten seconds and return to the starting position. Make sure that the upper and lower rows of teeth are clearly visible. Repeat the exercise several times.
• “Tube” - without opening your teeth, stretch your lips forward. At the same time, you can drag out the sound “oo-oo-oo-oo” for ten seconds. Repeat the exercise.
• “Needle” - open your mouth and extend your sharp tongue as far as possible. Hold this position for five seconds. Then relax your muscles. Repeat several times.
• “Damn” - show your tongue to your reflection by placing it on your lower lip and making it as wide as possible. Repeat.
• “Lick your lips” - relax your lower jaw and try to keep it in one position. Lick your upper lip, extending your tongue as far as possible. Repeat the same action with your lower lip.
• “Swing” - touch your upper and lower lips with your tongue alternately. Perform the exercise at a slow pace and try not to move your chin.
• “Hamster” - close your lips and press the inside of your tongue onto your cheek for five seconds. Repeat the manipulation with the other cheek.

Breathing training

Therefore, pay at least a little attention to this, especially since there is nothing complicated here. There are hundreds of breathing exercises; which one to choose is up to you.

• Stand straight, feet shoulder-width apart. Take a deep breath, and then, slowly exhaling the air, calmly read any quatrain. Repeat several times.
• Learn to breathe with your belly. We will not go into the intricacies of the physiological structure of the diaphragm, but simply explain: when inhaling, imagine that the air is entering the stomach, and not the lungs. This is a very important, and perhaps the main point in breathing exercises.
• If you walk a lot, try reciting poems as you walk without your breathing bothering you. The body itself will tell you the right rhythm.
• This exercise can be done in any body position. Take a deep breath, and then, slowly exhaling the air, make the sound “mm-mm-mm.” Alternate it with the sounds “m-m-m-e-e-e”, “m-m-m-o-o-o”, “m-m-m-u-u-u”, “m-m” -m-a-a-a”, “m-m-m-y-y-y”, “m-m-m-i-i-i”.

Here it is important to understand that when doing exercises for diction, breathing does not play some mystical role, but a completely physiological one. Therefore, the most important thing is for you to understand the importance of breathing exercises.

By observing your breathing for at least a few minutes a day, you will be surprised at the results you get.

Tongue twisters for the development of diction

Tongue twisters that are used to develop diction are very different. You can find a lot of them on the Internet. In principle, it doesn’t matter much which tongue twisters you use.

The main thing is that they practice pronunciation of all letters of the alphabet.

Below we present classic tongue twisters that activate all the muscles of the speech apparatus of a Russian-speaking person.

Keep in mind that all pictures are optimized for social networks, so you can safely save them to your wall.

By the way, you might like the popular tongue twister about the Japanese: . Be sure to read it!

And for real connoisseurs, we have prepared it in Russian.

Finally, here is a poem by the famous poet Valery Bryusov, which is often used by announcers to prepare for a performance. It includes hard-to-pronounce words that help to do high-quality gymnastics of the speech apparatus.

And if you don’t like tongue twisters, then to develop your diction it will be enough to read this verse regularly.

Storm from the shore

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