How to learn to speak beautifully and express your thoughts correctly

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How to learn to better formulate thoughts in conversation? It seems to me that I was better at this before, but now I noticed that everything is only getting worse. And it’s not just about filler words. It's just hard to make speech coherent. It's like I don't have enough vocabulary. But I used to read a lot, and even now the text is my work. Can you give me some advice? Maybe there are some that I can use today to speak a little better tomorrow? Thank you!

Anonymously

Inga Brik

Announcer, dubbing actress and author of a blog about speech techniques.

Hello! I have been teaching speech techniques for many years and from my experience I can say that one problem always leads to another. If you feel that you cannot formulate your thoughts correctly and your speech has become less coherent, then use the following recommendations.

What does it mean to “speak beautifully” and why is it important to learn it?

We all want to communicate freely with other people, easily convey our thoughts to them, be able to interest the interlocutor and look decent in his eyes. This helps us achieve a certain level of success and become popular.

Let's describe a well-delivered speech:

• leisurely;
• easy, without long awkward pauses and unexpected hesitations;
• it does not contain profanity or filler words;
• the narrative can be called meaningful;
• accompanied by moderate gestures and facial expressions;
• sounds emotional, not monotonous.

The ability to speak clearly, consistently and convincingly will be useful in all areas of life and will help out in any situation. Whether you are a professor at an institute or a teacher at school, a businessman, a sales manager - with the help of speech you can attract the attention of the audience or get an important contract signed.

The art of eloquence is useful to any person. It allows you to influence people, control their actions and actions, and charge the audience with your energy and mood. Ultimately, having mastered this art, you will easily become the life of the party, be able to speak brilliantly in front of people and successfully negotiate.

For a speech to sound beautiful and convincing, the speaker himself must be an energetic, educated, well-read and self-confident person. Only in this way can he captivate the audience, inspire trust and sympathy, penetrate human souls and motivate people. And it’s good if a person knows how to develop charisma. Then listeners will certainly want to make their secret dreams come true and begin to take active action.

But this is the emotional side of the issue. It is often discussed at various motivating and inspiring trainings, where they teach how to become a leader. However, sometimes a person simply needs to deliver a clear, intelligible, confident speech with a competent and logically structured narrative. It includes the following required elements:

• diction (clear pronunciation of sounds);
• pace (the ability to speak slowly or quickly, without slowing down or chattering);
• voice volume;
• intonation;
• literacy;
• rich vocabulary;
• purity (absence of parasitic words);
• accuracy (use of the most appropriate words to express thoughts, structured narration without “water”);
• expressiveness (metaphors, comparisons, synonyms, figurative expressions and other linguistic means).

A person begins to develop speaking skills from birth. Parents constantly communicate with the child, read fairy tales to him, teach him poetry - all this contributes to the formation of correct and beautiful speech. But an adult will have to develop his speaking skills on his own.

Retell it

Not only reading helps improve the quality of speech, but also retelling. Often retell anything to your loved ones: books, films, events of the day. As a result you get:

How to learn to speak beautifully?

• Memory improvement. The brain is forced to remember and logically arrange the sequence of events.
• Improvisational skill. After all, you strive to become not a reader, but a speaker.
• The skill of expressing thoughts.

Working on speech technique

Form and content are the main aspects that characterize speech. The form represents the technical side of the issue. These include: diction, voice volume, speech rate. Content means semantic content, i.e. correctly formed thoughts, well-structured speech, ability to lead a discussion, rich vocabulary. For a speech to sound beautiful, it must be thoughtful.

Working on speech skills is a fairly lengthy process. It includes the following areas:

• diction training;
• practicing speech techniques;
• speech development (increasing vocabulary, clearing parasitic words).

Diction training

Diction is the correct and clear pronunciation of sounds. If you have problems in this area, you can identify them in one of the following two ways:

• independently, using a voice recorder of the conversation;
• with the help of a pronunciation specialist - speech therapist.

In the first case, you need to read aloud an excerpt from the text (it is better if it is the text of an audiobook spoken by a professional actor) and record it on a voice recorder. Then listen to the recording, compare it with the actor’s and highlight the shortcomings. To be safe, let someone else close to you listen to this recording. Let them share their opinions too. This will help you identify diction flaws that you will have to work on in the future.

In the second case, I advise you to contact a speech therapist - a specialist who diagnoses and corrects speech defects in people of different ages. Basically, parents whose children have difficulty pronouncing words most often turn to a speech therapist. It is at preschool age that it is easiest to get the correct pronunciation. However, you should not be embarrassed by a speech therapist if you have not been a child for a long time, and problems with diction have not gone away.

The most common diction disorders:

• burr;
• lisp;
• stuttering;
• fuzzy whistling sounds;
• “swallowing” individual sounds, etc.

Regular classes with a speech therapist will help you quickly establish correct pronunciation and consolidate it.

Systematic training of the speech apparatus is also important. Be sure to do the following exercises at least once a day:

• perform articulatory gymnastics;
• read poetry or prose aloud, pronouncing each sound clearly;
• speak tongue twisters.

While saying tongue twisters, place nuts or candy behind your cheeks. It will most likely be very difficult to understand what you are trying to say at first. But gradually you will overcome the resistance, and the pronunciation will become clearer. This exercise is regularly performed by announcers and actors.

Practicing speech techniques

To make your speech sound beautiful, in addition to diction, you still need to work on its elements.

1. Intonation . With its help, speech becomes “alive,” emotionally charged and expressive. Reading aloud with expression is a great way to practice. Read plays as if you were performing on stage, trying to express the emotions of the characters as believably as possible.
2. Rate of speech . The speed of pronunciation greatly influences how your interlocutors perceive what you say. Speech that is too slow puts people to sleep and people lose the thread of the conversation. And the too fast pace forces you to listen intensely to the conversation in order to catch the main idea. As a result, the listener has to ask again.
3. Volume and strength of voice . It is very important to learn to control the strength and volume of your voice so that during a conversation you do not whisper or scream. It is usually advised to speak 30% louder than usual, as if you want to be heard by the person standing behind the interlocutor. By the way, most people involuntarily begin to speak louder, especially when they meet friends or acquaintances on the street.
4. Volume of voice . Volumetric is called a “chest” voice, which sounds as if from the chest. It is deeper, more sonorous, stronger and more pleasant. The following exercise will help you achieve a voluminous voice: place your hand on your chest and pronounce the vowels “a”, “u”, “s”, “o”, “e”. As you speak, you will feel a vibration in your chest with your hand. Try to strengthen it. To achieve the effect, perform this exercise daily for 5-10 minutes.
5. Breathing . During a conversation, try to breathe calmly and measuredly. Then the voice will sound confident, the timbre will become softer, and the speech itself will be calmer. If you breathe too quickly and intermittently, your voice will sound weak and unsteady. Proper breathing can be learned through special practices.

Let's take a closer look at one of the most common mistakes related to pronunciation - too fast a speech rate. When a person jabbers, it is very difficult to perceive him by ear. In addition, in a hurry to tell everything as quickly as possible, he begins to swallow individual words, and in general he may blurt out too much.

To stop chattering and swallowing words, you need to learn to control the pace of the conversation. Proper breathing will help a lot here. Before you say anything, try to take a moderately deep breath, calm down and think that you have absolutely no hurry. To practice speaking speed, you can say out loud at a slow pace, for example, a sequence of numbers from 1 to 100. The more often you practice, the faster you will get used to speaking slowly.

Inability to use body language

Many people know the difference between closed and open body language, but continue to use closed gestures when they should, on the contrary, open up.

Movements and facial expressions are characterized as open if they express a friendly attitude and readiness to interact: when the palms are not hidden, the gaze is directed into the eyes of the interlocutor, the feet are turned in his direction, and the like. Closed gestures include crossed arms or legs, glances to the side or at the phone, clenched fists - anything that shows tension or even aggression.

We all have natural tendencies to behave in one way or another depending on the situation. If you disagree with someone, your body automatically reacts: you constrict your pupils, turn your head away, cross your arms. Conversely, when you are understood, listened to and supported, you unconsciously open up.

However, it is not always worth giving non-verbal signals to your interlocutor; often the situation requires the opposite. Try to control your body movements and facial expressions when speaking. Pay attention to the position of your hands and which facial muscles are tense. With practice, you can manage this.

Speech development

More and more people cannot formulate sentences correctly, do not know the meanings of many words, and abuse filler words and profanity. I think this is mainly due to the fact that most people prefer to watch TV or go to the movies instead of reading an interesting book. But you and I are not like that. At a minimum, you are already reading this article, and I am writing it for you. Therefore, we continue to develop speech.

Correct sentence construction

It is very difficult to understand a person who, during a conversation, jumps from topic to topic, tries for a painfully long time to find the right words and cannot form sentences correctly, depriving his story of logic.

But the order of words is of great importance. This is taught at school during Russian language lessons. Due to incorrect word order, the meaning of the sentence is distorted and may even cause laughter. Let me give you a few examples of semantic errors.

1. Residents of the house demanded troubleshooting and repairs (What did the residents demand? Make repairs or eliminate them?).
2. The owner kicked the dog, which immediately took offense and ran away (The leg got offended and ran away?).
3. A few years later he met her again. This was, unfortunately, a 39-year-old married lady (Is it a pity that she is already 39 years old? Or that she is married?).

To avoid such mistakes in a conversation, I advise you to do the following:

• improve literacy with the help of Russian language textbooks and reference books;
• Read at least 30 minutes every day - preference is best given to fiction, journalism, and special books on development.
• retell what you read - just be sure to check how consistently and logically you repeat the text.

Increasing vocabulary

A meager vocabulary does not allow one to fully express thoughts, forcing a person to constantly stumble in search of the right word. Such speech sounds choppy and monotonous, because the same words are used, and overall produces a repulsive impression.

Regular replenishment of vocabulary will be ensured by the following actions.

1. Read quality literature daily. Be sure to get yourself a notebook where you will write down your favorite phrases and clever expressions. At the right moment, the right quote will come to mind and embellish your speech.
2. Working with an explanatory dictionary. As soon as you come across a new word, be sure to check its meaning in a dictionary. You can write down the word and try to remember it, but only in context, in order to avoid incorrect use of the term in the future.
3. Solving crosswords, scanwords and other games that require an extensive vocabulary.
4. Selection of synonyms. This is great practice for completing a thesaurus and will help you avoid tautology when speaking. Now there are various applications for smartphones that help you select synonyms.

Getting rid of parasitic words

Parasitic words include words and phrases devoid of any semantic meaning:

• Well;
• Briefly speaking;
• exactly this;
• type;
• Here;
• as if, etc.

Most often, a person pronounces them unconsciously to fill the pause that has arisen. The insidiousness of parasite words is that their use becomes a bad habit. It can be eradicated only by making conscious efforts. Here are some tips.

1. Record any conversation you have with friends or relatives on a voice recorder.
2. Listen to the recording and identify the filler words.
3. Train yourself to speak a little slower than you are used to, so that you have time to realize the moment when you want to utter a harmful word. It's better to take a short break.
4. Ask relatives, friends and acquaintances to make comments to you as soon as they hear the parasitic word. And so that the motivation of your interlocutors is even stronger and they listen more greedily to your speech, pay them 50 rubles for each “parasite” that slips through. This way you will have better control over yourself, otherwise you will go broke.

It will be difficult at first. After all, eradicating a bad habit requires enormous effort, powerful self-discipline and control. It will take 2 to 3 weeks of hard work to clear your speech of “slag.”

Habit of arguing

Expressing disagreement in itself is not a bad thing. As they say, truth is born in dispute. This is how creative ideas appear, an incentive to learn and improve something. All this can be useful and necessary for social interaction, even if you are against many people.

Disagreement can be considered a mistake only when nothing depends or changes on the agreement or disagreement of the interlocutors. That is, if it is an empty dispute that does not bring any results other than irritating opponents. The point of such discussions is not to learn anything new. When you argue that someone is wrong, you are engaging them in a verbal battle for status. And that is why most debaters remain unconvinced - to maintain dignity.

The next time you hear a point of view that is ridiculous or incorrect in your opinion, first find out why the person thinks so, rather than rushing to refute him.

If, even after listening to the arguments, you do not agree with someone’s opinion, do not engage in a useless argument. Instead, move the conversation to another topic where you can come to an understanding. Is there no such area? Then just avoid communicating with this person.

Speech training

The best exercise for speaking is quality speaking practice. Someone who just talks a lot doesn't always talk really well. Strive to ensure that during any conversation your speech is coherent, thoughtful, and reasoned. Dialogues are good for building a logical train of thought. Discuss with friends the books you read, the movies you watched, and various events.

Here are a few recommendations that will help you with your speech.

1. Read and retell . I have already written that reading helps to enrich vocabulary, develops memory and thinking. By retelling what you read, you will better understand and remember the material, learn new words and phrases, and various figures of speech.
2. Write . If you need to speak in front of an audience, be sure to write down your speech on paper. Re-read it, see what else you can add or remove, whether the logic is broken, whether there are any semantic errors. Remember that the best improvisation is a well-rehearsed one.
3. Watch performances by famous speakers . But not with the goal of motivating yourself, but to analyze the performance. Notice all the important details: how the speech is structured, how the speaker moves, what are his gestures, facial expressions, timbre of voice and pace of speech. If a speech particularly resonates with you, try writing it down on paper from memory. Then imagine yourself speaking in front of a large audience and read your speech out loud. Record your performance on camera. Review it, noting mistakes and points that need to be worked on.

As you can see, there are no special secrets in delivering a beautiful speech. To achieve a good result you need to work on yourself and constant practice.

Finally, I recommend watching a video in which a radio host and speech technique teacher shares the secrets of good diction.

Read more

An effective way to develop your speech is reading. But not everything should be read.

• Fiction, ideally classical. Modern times are not rich in beautiful speech patterns.
• Romance novels, love lyrics.
• Professional literature in the field of speech improvement. Real announcers learn from D.E.'s books. Rosenthal and I.B. Golub "Secrets of good speech."
• Literature for a wide range of people, improving vocabulary. The ideal version would be the book by Vadim Khrapp “From Adam’s Apple to the Apple of Discord” and Nora Gal “The Living and the Dead Word.”

Read better literature written in Russian, or very high-quality translations.

Lack of topics to talk about

In an unfamiliar company or in a conversation with people new to you, words can very quickly dry up due to the difficulties in choosing a common topic. Probably, each of us at least once in our lives had to pull out some phrases from ourselves, trying to fill awkward pauses. In order not to find yourself in uncomfortable situations, you can come up with a list of routine topics in advance and use them on occasion.

Imagine the circumstances when you want to start a conversation with an unfamiliar or unfamiliar interlocutor: near the cooler at work, when meeting in a cafe, at a bus stop.

Prepare 10 topics that are suitable for conversation with any person in any situation.

It's easier than it seems. For example, you can always ask about life or work (of course, unobtrusively and delicately), discuss the latest news (but it is advisable to avoid politics), and ask for advice on some issue. A win-win, although not very interesting, option is talking about the weather.