Improving diction: 9 tips on how to become a real speaker

The word is a very powerful tool with which you can convey your point of view to others and even win them over to your side. But for it to work for you and not against you, it is important to be able not only to choose the right words, but also to pronounce them.

How to improve speech and diction at home if you don’t have the time or desire to work with a specialist or attend public speaking courses? Below we give some tips that will help you achieve noticeable results.

Read fiction

I believe that reading cannot teach you to write correctly. I have many friends who say: “I read a lot, but I still write with errors.” That is, reading will not teach you exactly how to work with spellings and punctograms.

But reading teaches you to feel the text better. You probably need not just to write correctly, but in principle to be able to write, to be able to express thoughts and feelings using words, to correctly assemble these words into sentences.

To do this, fiction is exactly what is needed. Moreover, it is not necessary to read some complex and voluminous texts like “Crime and Punishment” or “War and Peace”. You can start with short stories. For example, from these three:

1. Konstantin Paustovsky “Telegram”.
2. Anton Chekhov "Freeloaders".
3. Yuri Kazakov “Quiet Morning”.

Improving voice timbre

1. Stand straight. The chin is fixed in a natural position. We stretch our neck as far forward as possible, and fixate for a few seconds.
2. Open your mouth, push your tongue as far forward/down as possible. The head is bowed to the chest. Raise your tongue to the tip of your nose while lifting your head. While moving, stretch your neck as far as possible.
3. We take a deep breath. While exhaling, pronounce the word “BOMM” loudly, stretching out the last letter as long as possible. You should feel a slight vibration at the tip of your nose and upper lip.
4. Full breath. We release the air from the lungs, pronouncing the syllable “MI-MII”. The first part is short, the second - in a drawn-out singsong voice.
5. Stand straight, hands on your chest. As you inhale, bend forward and chant the letters “U” and “O”. After this, chant the words “MILK”, “FLOUR”, “TIN”.
6. Click your tongue, gradually changing the position of your lips. At first they are gathered into a tube, at the end they are stretched into a full smile.
7. The mouth is open, the nose is pinched with the fingers. We breathe through our mouths and at the same time read any text out loud. The duration of the exercise is 5 minutes.
8. Head down, chin pressed to chest. We exhale, pronouncing the sounds “O” or “U” until the air runs out. We place our hand on the chest and, by patting, increase the vibration of the sound.

These exercises guarantee improvement in speech and voice timbre in a short time.

We attend courses

If you cannot achieve good results on your own, take literacy courses. With the help of specialists, things will go much faster. Such courses are also available online.

There are also assistant services for improving literacy, for example, Tutoronline.ru. Leave a request and study with a Russian language or literature tutor via Skype.

Compliance with Russian language requirements is mandatory by default in any field. So, we remember or learn the rules. In the case where the work is checked by a proofreader before sending, why not ask him to report any violation of language norms? If you learn the rule, you improve your literacy. If you do this all the time, you will be able to compete with the inspector.

But not everyone has a colleague who is a proofreader. Then your salvation is textbooks. Don't be lazy, open them more often, read the rules yourself!

Programs for learning Russian

There are a large number of programs for your phone that allow you to study at any time and anywhere. It is very convenient to use them when you have a free minute at work or you are stuck in a traffic jam - study anywhere.

1. Letters - 4 answer options are given, and only one of them is correct. You can compete with a friend.
2. Spelling – texts with missing places that need to be filled in.
3. Spelling test is carried out in the style of the game “who wants to become a millionaire”.
4. Word of the day - every day the program talks about a rare and little-known word in the Russian language, explaining its meaning.

You can find many more training programs, but these are the most popular and time-tested.

Practice spelling and punctograms

A person absorbs only 20% of the information he reads. And when he reads about the rules of writing words or placing punctuation marks - in general, probably five percent. If not less.

Therefore, in order to remember each rule, you need to practice all your question marks, all spellings and punctograms in writing.

To work out means to answer three questions: “What”, “Where”, “Why”.

For example, here I am practicing the spelling of the word “du(b/p)”. See:

1. What? Letter "b".
2. Where? The root of the word is "oak". I say this and also trace the root with a pencil.
3. Why? Because the test word is “oaks”. I write this word next to it in parentheses, underlining the letter “b” with one stroke, and “s” with two strokes. And again I highlight the root “oak” to show that this is the same “b” and not some other one.

If you've never done this before, here's my article about spelling, where I talk about it in a little more detail. And here is my video, in which I also teach how to give correct explanations of spellings and analyze the word “water” as an example.

Learning to write without errors

Tips for elementary school students and their parents

The right motivation

The child must understand why he needs competent writing. A person who writes and speaks competently always commands respect from others. Moreover, these skills will definitely come in handy in business life. And a regular SMS message is more pleasant to read when it does not contain grammatical errors.

Game-based learning

As we have already said, it is easier for a preschooler, as well as a primary school student, to remember material if it is presented in a playful way. The following games will be useful:

1. Find and label

The child is offered a text in which, for example, the letter “l” must be circled and the letter “a” crossed out.

2. Echo

An adult reads the word. The child’s task is to reproduce the ending of this word. Then write it in your notebook and highlight the ending with a special sign.

3. Find the word

The child is presented with a text in which he needs to find a word based on certain characteristics. For example, all words starting with the letter “s” or all words ending with the letter “a”.

4. Make up a word

Mom or dad lay out cards with letters in front of the child. The child’s task is to make a word out of them. It’s better to start with simple words: “house”, “garden”, then move on to more complex ones: “hello”, “desk”, “chest of drawers”, etc. If a child finds it difficult to complete a task, he is given only the letters that make up the required word. word.

You can complicate the game: make up the name of your favorite fruit or sweet from letters. In this case, the child chooses the word himself.

These and other games will help schoolchildren learn to write even the most complex words carefully and without errors.

Don't forget about physiology

There is no need to force your child to sit at the table for hours and achieve even calligraphic handwriting. Otherwise, classes will turn into torture for him. 20-30 minutes a day devoted to the development of competent writing is quite enough for a primary school student.

Also find out what to do if your child does not want to study and do his homework.

How to help a middle school child?

If a child has not developed the skill of writing correctly after elementary school, then it is necessary to continue this work in the middle grades.

The following exercises will help students:

Find the mistake

The parent composes a text with errors in those words whose spelling the child cannot remember. The child’s task is to find the misspelled word and remember the rule that should be followed when writing this word.

Dictionary of difficult words

It is necessary for recording vocabulary words and words in which the child constantly makes mistakes. An adult dictates words from it first, and then sentences with these words, checking the correct spelling.

Life hack: find the right motivation for your student’s learning. Together, come up with a desired goal for which the child will save by completing certain tasks from the parent. The “Where are my children” application and the new “Children’s Tasks” feature help you do this!

Make a proposal

The child is offered cards with words, from which he must make a sentence and write it down in a notebook. An adult checks the correct spelling of words and the literacy of the text.

Missing words

The child selects words that are missing in meaning. For example: “In the spring it melts…., they run…., they fly in from the south….”

Make up a word

The same exercise as for younger grades, but using more complex words. For example, terms from any field (recycling, abbreviation, dissimilation and others).

Get rid of excess mucus in your mouth first thing in the morning

In the morning, everyone has this mucus and saliva in their mouth, which needs to be gotten rid of. They don't allow your voice to open up.

Due to mucus in the mouth, people often speak through their nose, as if they were dubbing pirated films. All voice and speech exercises are performed much easier and more productive if there is no excess mucus in the oral cavity.

To get rid of mucus in your mouth, as soon as you wake up in the morning, clean your tongue with toothpaste and a brush.

!

That is, when you go to brush your teeth, you also brush your tongue.

Thus, all excess mucus comes out of the mouth. Cough up. You will know when enough is enough.

The procedure is not so pleasant, but very useful. Takes approximately 3 - 4 minutes.

Everyday style of speech

There is nothing complicated about how to express yourself and speak correctly in everyday life.

The most important obstacles in constructing a beautiful speech:

• Parasite words. These include: “well”, “this”, “uh”, “like” and others. They do not decorate speech at all and have no meaning.
• Curse words. It is a deep misconception that swearing brings people together in a company. In fact, a person with literate speech without using swear words will make a positive impression in any circle of people.

The company always pays attention to a person with competent speech

• Slang. Currently, it seems that slang helps to keep up with the times. However, not everyone is familiar with new buzzwords and may simply not understand their opponent. If there is no desire to make communication more difficult, then slang should be avoided.

Additional Information. You should always pay attention to how the conversation is structured. Some people just open their mouth and say the first word, and the interlocutor begins to involuntarily wince. The issue may concern not so much speech as voice timbre. Therefore, you should also work on the sound of your voice.

What is dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a written language disorder characterized by persistent and repeated errors. Dysgraphia is associated with underdevelopment of certain areas of the brain. Therefore, the child does not have the skills to analyze and synthesize speech.

According to 2022 data, about 37% of Russian schoolchildren suffer from dysgraphia.

What errors indicate dysgraphia:

• omissions of letters and whole syllables in words;
• adding extra letters to words;
• replacing letters with similar spellings;
• mirror image of letters;
• continuous spelling of words;
• incorrect word agreement;
• illegible handwriting.

The correction of this disorder is carried out by a speech therapist and a neurologist. In difficult cases, drug therapy is also used.

Place question marks

What does it mean to “write correctly”? This means being able to explain every letter and every punctuation mark in a written text.

Pick up a simple pencil and start checking each letter in the written text. Ask yourself: “Why did I write this particular letter? Why did I put this particular sign?”

If you cannot give an answer, put a question mark.

To answer the question “why” means to say something like this:

1. In the word “pol...gat” I wrote “a” because after the root “lag” there is a suffix “a”.
2. I wrote the word “blood” with an “o” because it is a dictionary word.
3. At the root of the word “b...fly” I wrote “e”, because the test is “white”.
4. In the adjective “green (field)” I wrote “o” because the adjective answers the question “which?”: the field (which?) is green.
5. I wrote the prefix in the word “pr...open” with “and”, because the word means “incomplete action” - the window is open, but not completely, OPEN.
6. In the sentence “Cars drive and flies fly,” I put a comma before “and” because the sentence is complex; simple sentences do not have any common part within it.
7. In the sentence “The sun, covered by clouds, hid behind the house,” I put two commas because they highlighted the participial phrase that comes after the word being defined.

If you can’t give answers like this based on some letter or some sign, it means you don’t know the rules and are writing at random. If you're lucky, you'll write correctly; if not, you'll make a mistake.

Diction

How to develop imagination in adults and children - recommendations

Diction refers to the clear pronunciation of words and all letters. If diction is good, then this has a favorable effect on the perception of a person by the people around him. To gain an understanding of how to competently conduct a dialogue and talk with people, you should study the issue of correct diction.

As a rule, it is not clear by nature. It can be improved both in childhood and in adulthood. Actors, for example, need to have excellent diction, since career success will depend on it.

All actors must have good diction

10 exercises to develop diction:

• With nuts and sweets in your mouth. The tongue should not come into contact with the object; only the teeth hold it. Pronounce consonants first, then syllables with vowels, then words.
• Tongue Twisters. Focus on “problematic” sound combinations.
• Articulation of sounds “sh-zh”, “k-g”.
• Practicing the sound “ts”. For example, a heron is a saber.
• First, slowly, then quickly pronounce combinations of letters: tlz, jr, vrzh, mkrtch, kpt, kft, ksht, kst, ktsch.
• First, slowly, then quickly pronounce the words: stay awake, philosophize, postscript, cheer up, transplant, supersonic, disheveled.
• Train the pronunciation of consonants in the combinations “k-k” (to Clara), “v-v” (top - up).
• Work through sounds in the form of a sound game, for example, “hammering nails,” while pronouncing the lines: gbdu, gbdy, gbde.
• Practice sounds in certain designs, for example, jasper in suede.
• First, slowly, then quickly, but clearly pronounce the words, follow the “difficult” junctions of sounds: the one who took advantage, the reverberator, territorial integrity.

Use the correct key

There are 3 types of tones in total

:

1. seeking/needing;
2. normal;
3. torn.

Seeking or needing tonality (1)

Also on the street, beggars approach people on the street and ask for money. It's a seeker trying to please

rapport.

For example:

• Can you tell me the time?
• Would you like to eat some delicious pizza with me?
• My computer is broken, please fix it.

This is unattractive and disgusting.

Normal key (2)

When you talk to a person completely neutrally, without any special emotions.

For example:

• We're doing well today.
• I had a good time in the park.
• Dad bought a new car.

Torn Rapport (3)

From the outside, in terms of presentation, this tone looks as if you don’t want anything from this person and as if you don’t really want to talk to him.

With this tone, you don’t try to impress your interlocutor, you try less and stress less.

This tone will be useful for men to lead with women.

Examples of 3 keys:

• In general, we had a great time the day before yesterday.
• Great T-shirt you have.
• We are now going to our favorite place by the river.

To be centered and to be in a permanent state when communicating, you need to speak with most people in a torn to normal tone. If most of the time your voice is between ragged and normal tonality, and you also diversify it with sometimes searching rapport, then your voice will be impudent and funny at the same time

. It will be fun and varied at the same time.

Therefore, use all three types of tonality skillfully, and then you will know everything about how to deliver speech and voice. You will have a charming and unique tonality.

Remember that confidence plays a key role in communication. self confidence for girls

you can read the link on our website.