Do you want to feel confident about not just
what you say, but also how you say it? In this article,
speech and language expert Heather Hansen gives
us some tips on how you can do just that! If you want
to meet Heather and improve your language and
pronunciation, why not attend Heather's October
workshop with ST Training Solutions? Visit
www.shirleytaylor.com/workshops and sign up
early!
Of course you speak English - who doesn't? But how
well do you speak this international language? Are
you clear, concise and grammatically correct? Do
people talk about you and the things you say? And are
they talking for the right reasons?
It used to be that just speaking English (at any level)
was enough to open the doors of opportunity, but
times are quickly changing. Most recent estimates
place speakers of English as a fluent second
language or additional foreign language at over one
billion.
It is no longer an advantage to speak English, but a
requirement! Just speaking English isn't so
impressive anymore - unless you speak it really well.
Many talented and competent professionals who are
doing their best to speak good English are left behind.
Many don't even realise why. How many times have
you heard a colleague make the same mistake over
and over again and never corrected him or her?
Perfecting the way you speak is challenging, but by
applying these tips and tricks, you will ease
communication, speed up your work flow and become
a more effective business leader.
Speak Clearly
Since English is being used as a lingua franca by
more and more non-native speakers, clarity should
always be your first priority (whether English happens
to be your native language or not). There are a number
of things you can do to improve the clarity of your
speech.
1) Slow down
We all speak too fast. It's a terrible habit! And the
faster we speak, the more mumbled our speech
becomes. Slowing down the pace of your speech is
vital in situations where visual communication is
lacking, for example an international conference call.
However, it is just as important, while running a
meeting or delivering a presentation.
Make sure everyone can follow what you are saying at
all times. Otherwise, what's the point of saying it?
2) Enunciate
Colloquial speech is littered with signs of laziness.
We drop word endings, run our words together and
create sentences that never seem to end. Sometimes
it is too easy to take this style of speech
into the boardroom.
Be sure to enunciate your words. Put a special focus
on word endings such as 'ed' and 's' that act as
grammatical markers.
If you leave the 'ed' off of a past tense verb ("Our
profits increase last year" instead of "increased") it
sounds as though you are making a very basic
mistake in English. Your education, aptitude and
credibility could be questioned.
3) Practice vowels and consonants
An additional challenge in English is that we have so
many words that are identical except for the vowel.
Take this string of words for example: mat, met,
mitt, mutt, mate, might and moot. Do they all
sound different when you say them? They should!
Read the words in random order and have someone
write down what they hear. Did they hear what you
said? Create other lists of words like this to identify
your problem sounds and practice, practice, practice!
Consonant sounds can be just as tricky. Be sure you
differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds, for
example, 'd' and 't.' The words 'bed' and 'bet' should
sound different. You should be using your voice to
make the 'd' sound, whereas the 't' sound only uses
air.
You can create word pairs similar to the vowels above
to practice these sounds and others like 'v' and 'f,' 'z'
and 's,' 'b' and 'p' and 'g' and 'k.'
If you want to read the rest of this article from
Heather on how you can improve your speech,
language and pronunciation skills, just click here.
Heather is also offering you her free report 'Speak
Clearly! The Top 7 Tricks to INSTANTLY Improve the
Clarity of Your Speech'. To receive this interesting free
report, visit her website today at
www.hansenslt.com.
