How to Speak Like a Native Speaker?
If you are learning English as a second language, chances are that you might have an accent influenced by your native language when speaking English.
A number of people might be insecure about their accent and would like to acquire a more native-sounding accent. It requires a lot of effort but we got your back. Here are 5 tips on how you can improve your accent.
- Listen to the accent you want to imitate:
There are a variety of accents in spoken English. Find the accent you would like to acquire and go after it, whether it’s a North American accent or British accent. Next, get exposed to the spoken English whenever you have the chance to. You may watch youtube videos or tv series; listen to audiobooks or the radio… Let your brain comprehend the rhythms and intonations of the language and you will gradually improve your speaking capabilities. Even if you are not fully concentrated in listening to it, it’s helpful to just play it as “background music”. By constantly listening to the accent, you can train your ears to understand the sounds of how the language is spoken.
- Record yourself speaking:
Select a passage of your choice, read it out loud and record your voice using your phone. For some people, the thought of listening to their voice may make them cringe, however you will get more comfortable with it as you go along. Raising self-awareness of your own pronunciation is good to improving your spoken language. Notice the mistakes you make and identify your problematic areas. Work on your pitfalls and make the correct pronunciation. If you find it difficult self-checking, you should ask someone, preferably a native-speaker, to help you with checking your speech. Alternatively, you can simply ask them to read the passage aloud for you so you can compare their sounds with your own recording. If you read the same material every day, you would be able to observe your tremendous learning progress.
- Pay attention to how native speakers produce the sounds:
On to something more technical, focusing on the pronunciation of a native speaker, you should pay attention to the way native speakers’ tone for each word. Observe the mouth movements of native speakers, their intonation of language and how they stress vowels and consonants. You can do so by watching a video, and following the mouth movement along with the video. As an even more preferable alternative, you can ask your native-speaker friends for help. The demonstration would be a lot clearer as you can revise their pace of producing the sounds at your will.
- Compare similar word pronunciation:
One of the keys of a native-sounding accent is pronunciation accuracy. English might have some sounds that your native language doesn’t. It certainly requires some time and effort to learn how to make those new sounds. This can be done by getting yourself familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Study the phones, phonemes and the intonation of words. Make sure you are pronouncing the vowels and consonants accurately. There are some tricky sounds that a lot of English learners tend to mispronounce. Identifying difference in similar sounding words would be a good option for improving your pronunciation. Search for minimal pairs, which are pairs of words that differ in only one phonological element (e.g. Ship and Sheep), to distinguish similar sounds. Try to pronounce the two words to see if you can differentiate the pronunciation. By repetitive practice, you will be able to correct your own pronunciation and improve your spoken English.
- Speak, speak and speak:
Learning requires both input and output. Now that you’ve picked up new skills and kept them in your brain, it’s time to use what you’ve learnt. Develop a habit of speaking regularly with native speakers. If you don’t have many native speaker friends to talk to, you might want to find professional teachers to help improve your language. FluentUp provides live online language course where you can learn English from a native-speaking teacher. The teacher gives you assistance on how to improve your accents and provide you with professional advice which is best for your learning. Remember, keep speaking and practicing.