Content:

It is not easy to find a person with good diction today. Few of us have a pleasant voice, the ability to pronounce words clearly and clearly for the people around us, while not raising our voices and not resorting to ways to enhance the impact of our speech. In fact, developing your speech is not difficult. Very rarely, exceptional speech data is given to a person by nature, while the rest can only be advised to spare no effort and time, working on exercises for diction.

What is good diction and why is it needed?

The concept of "diction" means a 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 cause the diction of a person's speech to be of low quality. One of the main reasons for the insufficient development of diction is the lack of mobility of the lower jaw and the inability to open the mouth wide enough during a conversation. At the same time, the words are not pronounced clearly enough, deafly, and the speech seems “crumpled”. They say about such a person that his diction and expressiveness of speech is serious. This shortcoming manifests itself too strongly and requires immediate action to correct the current situation.

If you feel that your diction is far from perfect, then start dealing with this issue without delay. Improving speech is possible: specially designed speech exercises will help you eliminate the pronunciation of sounds. You can find everything you need on the site and start doing it. When thinking about how to improve diction, remember that only work and careful implementation of the proposed exercises will help you correct. And make it truly expressive and pleasant for others.

Careful work on diction will soon make itself felt. You will see that your circle of contacts has noticeably expanded - those who previously avoided talking to you, tired of asking a hundred times and listening to slurred speech, today they are happy to make contact, paying tribute to your eloquence. You will no longer be afraid of public speaking, and speech 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 promotion - a person who has the ability to speak in public is great for high positions and leadership positions.

If you see that your child needs work on diction, do not delay the start of classes, postponing it for a while and thinking that the problems will “outgrow” and disappear on their own. Additional classes to improve diction will help you achieve several goals at once - they will improve speech, raise self-esteem and school performance, make 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, study at a university and build a successful career at the workplace.

Speech exercises may not be the most fun of classes, but you only need to do them for 20 minutes a day, moreover, you can still have time to cook something, wash it or drive to another part of the city by car. Both, and exercises for vowel sounds will pass your waiting time and help you make new acquaintances, it's no secret that people are curious. It is very useful to check how far you have progressed in the development of your diction by entering into a conversation, because high-quality communication is your goal!

Try to communicate as often as possible with people!

Various exercises for its development

1. Breathing and posture

1) We train exhalation

Spread your legs shoulder-width apart, hands should be on the belt. Exhale slowly through a small hole in your tightly compressed lips so that you feel the resistance of the air. 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) We train the breath

Lean forward and inhale (the back should be straight), then, straightening back, slowly exhale the air and draw the sounds “gym-m-m-”. Following this exercise, you need to perform one more thing: with your mouth closed, inhale the air through your nose, expanding your nostrils, and when exhaling, pat them with your index fingers.

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

Take a deep breath in (through your nose). The abdomen should bulge forward, and the chest should expand. After that, make a free (in no case sharp) exhale, returning the stomach and chest “in place”.

4) Stand in a natural, relaxed position, put one hand on your chest to feel the vibration, and bring the other to your mouth to check your breathing. Now try moaning for different vowels: warm exhalation - moan ("UUUU") - warm breath.

If you are doing everything right, you should have 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 extend it and make an emphasis with a slight push of the diaphragm inward, then a warm exhalation.

It should also be remembered that speech breathing largely depends on
from correct posture. Therefore, practice the “book on the head” exercise daily.

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.

Diction exercises: "Book on the head"

2. Articulation

Clear articulation of speech sounds (setting 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, the development of 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. In short, here are some of them:

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

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

3) in a standing position, lean forward, keeping your hands on your chest and draw out the vowels “u” and “o” in an extremely low voice as you exhale

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

5) Stretch your lips into an open-mouthed smile as you move your tongue left and right to the corners of your mouth.
When performing the exercise, the lips and jaw remain stationary, and the tongue does not slide along the lower lip

6) run your tongue along the bottom and top row 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 working out the clarity of the actions of the active organs of speech with the help of articulatory gymnastics, one should proceed to the formation of the correct skills for pronouncing 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”, “mid-lingual”, “back-lingual”) can sound in different positions: some - near the teeth (front position), others - in the dome of a hard the palate (middle position), the third - in the larynx (rear position). In this case, during speech, the so-called "variegation of vowels" occurs.

Vowel exercises

"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 maximally raised to the palate; when pronouncing the sound [ S] the tongue moves back more than with [ And].

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

Exercise #1

WILLOW, IL, PIR, PICK, KIT, 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 the thumb, the tips of the front upper and lower 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 #2

Say the following words slowly and clearly:
ECHO, THIS, EXTRA, EPOS, ERA, EXTRA
FIR, EL, RACCOON, RIDING, ELENA, EVA

"AND I"

When pronouncing the sound [ BUT] the mouth is open in the vertical direction so that two fingers can be inserted between the teeth, placed one on top of the other. 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 advanced forward, and rests against the lower teeth.
Let's try to do all this without sound.

Exercise #3
Say the following words slowly and clearly:
ACT, ATTACK, STORK, ANNA, MAK, BALL, CANCER, START
PIT, YAR, ANCHOR, BERRY, Manger, YAK, POISON, FURY

"U" - "Yu"

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

Exercise number 4
Say slowly and calmly, without straining your voice, the words:

MORNING, COAL, US, MIND, TIES, TOOTH, BOW, COURT, NARROW, BEETLE
YURA, YULA, SKIRT, SOUTH, YOUTH, YUNGA, YULIA, YURODIVY, HUMOR

"O" - "Yo"

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

Exercise #5
Say the following words:
OSES, AXIS, PERCH, WINDOWS, LAKE, DONKEY, Hoop
FIR-TREE, Hedgehog, CAPACITY, FIDGET, YOKAT

Exercises that train consonants

The training of consonants begins with the installation of the speech apparatus in the correct phonetic position and the development of a 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. Explosive 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 explosive sounds. P" and " b". Squeeze your lips tightly, even slightly pull their edges over your teeth, biting them a little. With the air in the mouth, (without exhaling!) Break through the bow sharply, as if you are shooting a cork clamped with 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! Do not tense up, only the lips are tightly compressed. Don't try to take in more air. It is not the quantity that decides the matter, but the energy of the push (diaphragm strike) and the precise focusing of the exhalation on the tips of the lips. Do not allow aspiration at the end, and even more so a vowel sound, you should not get “ph” or “pppa ...”. If you get a smack instead of an explosion, you've sucked air in instead of pushing it out. Achieving a clear explosion on the sound of " P"(do not be surprised if this does not work out right away, you need daily hard training, including gymnastics of the labial muscles), turn on the sound of the voice along with the exhalation - "bbb". Practice both consonants in a pair, while maintaining a clear differentiation in voicing: "p" - "b", "p" - "b", "p" - "b". Do not allow a vowel sound at the end: “py” - “by”.

1.3. "Table tennis"

Imagine that your right hand is a table tennis racket. Practice hitting an imaginary ball with a racket, beating it with the back of a freely hanging brush - ppa! .. ppe! .. ppo! .. ppu! .. ppy! .. ppi! up. Make sure that the vowels explode on the lips, continuing the explosive consonant, and not falling back. Send sound to different points in the room: up, right, left, down.

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

Combine a voiceless and voiced sound in a pair - pabba! pebbe! pobbo! pubbu! pipba! pibbie! Double the voiced consonant, placing the stress on the first syllable. Throw balls easily, freely, without muscle tension.

2. Whistling and hissing sounds "C" - "Z" and "Sh" - "F"

2.1. "Puncture"

Check by ear, if there is a puncture in the inflated chamber of the volleyball, squeezing it near the ear ... So it is ... A tense, even whistle of the outgoing air is heard: “ssssssss! ..”. Simulate 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 lower front teeth, the body of the tongue is tense, forming a “hill” with slightly raised edges, and the exhaled air “rolls” along it. From time to time, press the "ball" harder, the sound is amplified.

2.2. "Locomotive"

The locomotive slowly spreads steam: shhh ... shhhh ... shhhh ... Here it moved: shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... Exhale the air with vigorous diaphragmatic thrusts. Follow the correct articulatory position of the sound. Remember that the tip of the tongue is raised upward, forming a “dipper” in the dome of the hard palate, into which the exhaled air hits.

2.3. "Mower"

Sharpen the braid with a bar. The bar slides from one side of the blade, then from the other: ss-zzz ... ss-zzz ... ss-zzz ... ss-zzz ... The scythe is sharpened, you can start mowing. A wave of the scythe, and it loudly cuts the grass: zhzhzh ... zhzhzh ... zhzhzh ...

3. Sounds " L" and "R"

3.1. "Telegram"

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

Try to start the engine of a toy car…. With the exhaled air (without the sound of a voice), cause the tip of the tongue raised to the upper teeth to vibrate: trrrr ... trrr ... trrrrrrr ... trrrrrr ... tr ...

4. Combination of explosive consonants

Let's connect together three explosive deaf consonants, taking them in all possible combinations: ptk, pkt, ktp, kpt, tkp, tpk. We will work out 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 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 / x-t / x / -k / x / or p / s-t / s-k / s.

Having worked out each of the combinations, combine them with the main series of vowels, pronouncing in one phrase with the stress on the first syllable:

ptka-ptke-ptko-ptku-ptki-ptki!

Having worked out all the combinations in this way, create options for “phrases”, “dialogues” from them: “Ptka-ptke-ptko?” - "Tpka-tpke-tpko!"

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 a simple doubling. We often hear: military, instead of military, usually, instead of ordinary, etc. It is necessary to ensure that the doubled consonant sounds longer than usual, like a long sound.

Often one of two identical consonants falls out at the junction of words or a word and a preposition pronounced together, changing the meaning of what was said; for example, instead of from the building we hear a publication. The pronunciation of such words can be trained by selecting paired words with one and double sounds: give - give away (pronounced oddat); not that, Comrades - not that, Comrades; DIVIDE - do it again (pronounced divide), etc.

6. Clean tongues

To work out individual sounds of speech and their combinations, specially composed phrases are used. 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 the arsenal with various combinations of incompatible sounds. Here are some of them that we would recommend to you:

The bull is stupid, the bull is stupid, the bull's white lip was stupid.

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

The Turk smokes a pipe, the trigger pecks at the grains. Do not smoke, Turk, pipe, do not peck, trigger, grits.

Prokop came - dill boiled, Prokop left - dill boiled. Just as dill boiled under Prokop, so dill boiled without Prokop.

The radish rarely grew in the bed, the bed was rarely in order.

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

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

Senka is carrying Sanka and Sonya on a sled. Sledge - lope, Sonya from his feet, Sanka - to the side, Senka - on the forehead, everything - into a snowdrift!

The cuckoo cuckoo sewed a hood. The cuckoo put on a hood: how funny he is in a hood.

The heron was wet, the heron was dry, the heron was withering, the heron was dead.

A bristle at a pig, a scale at a pike.

Chitinka flows in Chita.

Not the stupid one who is stingy with words, but the stupid one who is stupid in deed.

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

Here are a coupleadviceovin clear words:

1) It is necessary to work on tongue twisters slowly, carefully checking the installation of each sound, carefully working out its correct sound.

2) Before you start working on tongue twisters, carefully study the rules of pronunciation. 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) and “bed” sound - “reTko”, “bedroom”; “sewed” (sewn a hood) as “ShShyla”, etc.

3) Record exercises with tongue twisters on a voice recorder, this will allow you to hear yourself from the outside, notice and quickly correct speech flaws, and also make adjustments in the process.

4. Intonation

Intonation is responsible for a lot of things: the melody, the rate of speech, the power of pronunciation, the timbre of the 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” intonation. Since the most effective exercise for working on it is reading by roles.

And fantasy will be of great help here. After all, if you are working on intonational pronunciation alone with yourself, then you should draw in the imagination of different interlocutors and tell “them” some text, adjusting precisely to “them” and changing intonation. You can read more about it in the article.

5. Tongue twisters

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

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 firewood yard will not fit. Drive the yard back to the wood-burning yard.

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

A bear with raspberries ran past little Marina.

The ram-buyan climbed into the weeds.

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

Tall Vavila merrily tossed his pitchfork.

The jackal walked, the jackal galloped.

Feofan Mitrofanich has three sons Feofanich.

A captain with a captain, a captain with a captain.

The net caught on a knot.

From body to body there was an overload of watermelons. In a thunderstorm, in the mud from a load of watermelons, the body collapsed.

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

In a hut, a yellow dervish from Algeria rustles with silks and, juggling with knives, eats a thing of figs.

The gypsy went on tiptoe to the chicken and chuckled, “chick!”

Koshcheya is not treated with cabbage soup.

6. Acting methods

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

Pronounce the words slowly, highlighting each letter and concentrating on each word.

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

Working on diction using acting methods

According to experts, up to 30% of people suffer from diction disorders. And, apparently, most of them get a job at airports to announce flight delays on the radio. Even if you don't intend to join their ranks, it won't hurt you to learn how to legibly order dishes with difficult names in a restaurant or to surprise others with a lightning-fast Estonian tongue twister.

Gee, Slavs!

“The easiest pronunciation defect is gekanye,” says Alexander Kabin, stage director and teacher of stage speech at the Interlude theater association. This fricative "g" can be picked up in adulthood. The owner of a good phonemic hearing after a two-week trip to Eastern Ukraine or to the south of Russia, having talked to the locals to the full, imperceptibly begins to talk, like Nastya Zavorotnyuk in the guise of a beautiful nanny. However, after returning home, the accent will fade away in a couple of weeks and will not appear until the next business trip. If your “ghe” is innate, to acquire a non-explosive sound of the fourth letter of the alphabet, practice pronouncing phrases with an abundance of “g”. Speak them slowly, and at the sound of "g" at first pause for emphasis.

Read with expression

• The tycoon Yegor was sunbathing on the mountain, a magnet fell on the tycoon Yegor.
• The ingenious heterosexual Goga passionately loves the geisha Galya.
• Where is Gena the guest worker? This bastard dries the herbarium!

grass bullet

In addition to the surname Zinbelshucher, there are many other, more respectful, reasons not to pronounce the sound “r”. This sound is the most difficult to articulate. There are 30 variants of its distortions. The most common ones are the absence of “p” (“koobka of pesevatives”) and the throat pronunciation of the sound, called burr. “Sometimes the cause of the defect is a shortened hyoid ligament that limits the elevation of the tongue. This requires a little intervention from the surgeon,” notes Alexander. But more often it’s all about the habit that has been entrenched since childhood and the weakness of the muscles of the tongue.

To develop a tongue, first flatten it on the lower lip, while it is useful to say "five-five-five." (Sounds silly, but what to do?) When the tongue gets used to lying relaxed, teach it to cover the upper lip. The front edge of the tongue should cover the entire upper lip from corner to corner of the mouth. (If the muscles are especially weak, at first help the tongue to be held at the top with a teaspoon.) Making sure that the tongue remains as wide as it is, push it behind the upper teeth. Now practice saying "d-d-d" by hitting the front edge of your raised tongue against the inner surface of your upper front teeth. After a few hours of these exercises, interspersed with tongue twisters, the sound “r” will begin to break through in you.

Read with expression

• Tell me about phrases. About what tongue twisters? About tongue twisters, about tongue twisters, about my tongue twisters!
• Our Tanya is crying loudly, she dropped a ball into the river. He put the Greek hand into the river, the ball for the Greek hand - tsap!
• Grass in the yard, firewood on the grass. Don't cut wood, but drink wood.

What is "oshun?"

Check if your bite is correct, if all your teeth are in place and if there are any piercings on your tongue. If everything is in order, your lisping speech is the fault of a weak tongue.

“Sometimes, to develop a language and restore the correct pronunciation of consonants, it is enough to read aloud more often,” says Alexander. In between readings, do two simple exercises.

one . Stretch the corners of your mouth in a forced smile so that the teeth are visible, and blow on the tip of the tongue to produce a whistling noise typical of the “s” sound.

2. Practice pronouncing the "sa" syllable. At the same time, the sound “s” must be filtered through the teeth, and the sound “a” should be opened. If you fail to master the correct pronunciation, go to Poland. There you will not feel flawed: the Polish language is replete with sibilants.

Read with expression

• Masha was walking along the highway and got hit by a bus.
• Tell me about sausages! About what about sausages? Maybe about shopping? Ah, yes, about shopping.
• Soviet specialists are rushing to the aid of specialists from the socialist countries.

Obvious but indistinct

Put a spoonful of porridge in your mouth and say: "Get away from me, monsters." Now say the same thing without porridge. No difference? All clear. You pronounce sounds casually, especially consonants. But the significance of consonants is higher than vowels, because they carry more information, performing a meaningful function.

If you're used to saying "check" instead of "human", "nomad" instead of "short story" and "DNA" instead of "deoxyribonucleic acid", don't be offended by experts who call such speech unintelligible, unaesthetic and inexpressive*.

Of course, it's hard to deny yourself the pleasure of telling jokes while chewing the barbecue at the same time, but the rest of the time, try to speak more clearly. To develop this skill, Alexander advises you to chant poetry, beating a clear rhythm with your hand on the table or with a hammer on the battery.

Start collecting words with a “bouquet” of consonants (WAKE, AGENCY, POSTSCRIPTUM, PARTVZNOs), as well as phrases from monosyllabic words, the pronunciation of which requires muscular tension (“Where the table was food, there is a coffin”). When there are enough words and phrases, make a short story out of them and send them to us. Poel?

Read with expression

• An over-anxious center forward is much to snore.
• The transplantation of the hose was amateurish.
• Everyone loved Prov, but fell into a trance.
• And you Brute?

You can't ignore your speech. In the vast majority of cases, people starting to deal with this issue are horrified by the way she talks.

I mean specifically the pronunciation. After all, we all grow up in a certain language group, where a specific local dialect or frank surzhik prevails.

For this reason, we have prepared a small material on the topic diction development. We were inspired to do this by 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 education and development of a person.

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

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

Let's take one last step. You must have heard the saying: “They meet by clothes, but see off by mind”. This is largely a fair observation. The same goes for diction.

When you first meet a stranger, he first of all pays attention to your appearance and manner of speaking.

If your words are chaotic, and their sound resembles a tape chewed in a tape recorder, then it is unlikely that a person will be imbued with sympathy or trust after the first communication.

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

How to improve diction

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

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

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

Perhaps for some this is the only way to work on yourself. However, we are sure that with a little effort of will, you can even fix pronunciation problems 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 get started now.

Diction exercises

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

I must say that this was the time when oratory, rhetoric and eloquence were valued almost as the highest values ​​of the individual.

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

Then he ran up the steep slope of the mountain, and when his breath was not enough, he again read poetry, making incredible efforts on himself.

His last exercise was to shout over the surf. As the waves hit the shore, he spoke with all his might to an imaginary audience, continuing to recite poems to them.

These amusing and seemingly silly pursuits led to Demosthenes becoming one of the most prominent and famous orators in the world. To date, not a single book on the art of eloquence is complete without mentioning it.

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

Now let's move on to the exercises themselves.

Training of the articulatory apparatus

• "Fence" - close your teeth and smile broadly. Hold this position for ten seconds and return to the starting position. Make sure that the upper and lower row of teeth are clearly visible. Repeat the exercise several times.
• "Tubule" - without opening your teeth, pull your lips forward. At the same time, you can pull the sound “oooo” for ten seconds. Repeat the exercise.
• "Needle" - open your mouth and stretch your sharp tongue as far as possible. Hold this position for five seconds. Then relax your muscles. Repeat several times.
• “Damn” - show your reflection your tongue by placing it on your lower lip and making it as wide as possible. Repeat.
• "Licking lips" - relax the lower jaw and try to keep it in one position. Lick your upper lip, stretching out your tongue as much as possible. Repeat the same action with the lower lip.
• "Swing" - touch the tongue alternately with the upper and lower lips. Do the exercise at a slow pace and try not to move your chin.
• "Hamster" - close your lips and press the inside of your tongue on 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: while inhaling, imagine that the air enters 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 while walking so that your breathing does not interfere with you. The body itself will prompt the necessary rhythm.
• This exercise can be done in any position of the body. Take a deep breath, and then, slowly exhaling the air, draw the sound "mmmm". 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-s-s-s", "m-m-m-i-i-i".

It is important to understand here that when doing exercises for diction, breathing plays not some kind of mystical role, but quite a physiological one. Therefore, the most important thing is that your realize the importance of breathing exercises.

Watching your breath for at least a few minutes a day, you will be surprised at the results.

Patter for the development of diction

The tongue twisters that are used to develop diction are very different. You can find a lot of them on the Internet. In principle, it does not play a big role which tongue twisters you use.

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

Below we give 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 may like the popular tongue twister about the Japanese:. Be sure to read it!

And for true connoisseurs, we have prepared in Russian.

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

And if you do not like tongue twisters, then for the development of diction it will be enough to read this verse regularly.

Storm from the shore

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If you swallow most of the words while speaking, or if others cannot understand what you are saying, then you can try to improve the clarity of your speech. Below are a few ways you can use to speak more clearly, whether you need to give a speech, or your profession requires public speaking, or maybe you just want to improve your communication skills.

Steps

Don't rush while talking

Control your breathing. Listen and watch the singer on stage and you will see how much attention he pays to his breathing. If Mick Jagger didn't know how to breathe properly, he wouldn't be able to run around the stage singing his song "You Can't Always Get What You Want". The same thing happens during a conversation, so proper breathing can greatly improve the clarity of your speech.

Take your time when talking. Speak slowly, but don't be so slow as to appear robotic.

• Public speaking often makes people nervous. If you find yourself feeling nervous and in a hurry, try to remind yourself that everything is fine and you need to slow down. If you breathe correctly, it will help you stay calm and analyze your words.
• Also remember that people want to hear what you have to say. Your words matter, so give them a chance to be heard and understood.
• The human ear is able to pick up words very quickly, but on the condition that you fully pronounce each of your words before you begin to pronounce the next, because in this way you leave enough pauses between words so that everyone can correctly understand you.

1. Swallow excess saliva in your mouth. Saliva left in the mouth can cause words to be swallowed and the pronunciation of consonants such as "S" and "K" to be distorted.

   • The moment you swallow saliva can not only allow you to clear your mouth, but also give you the opportunity to pause and inhale again.
   • Choose the moment to swallow saliva when you have already finished a sentence or thought, but not in the middle of a sentence. This will also give you time to prepare for your next sentence.

2. Speak up. If you need to speak publicly or give some sort of presentation, then perhaps you can at least write the content in general terms. Practice her pronunciation as you walk.

   • Some actors use this technique to memorize their roles, as lifting and moving will help you remember what you have to say. Practice your speech and say one word at each step.
   • It may seem difficult and slow, but by saying one word at a time, you will learn to slow down your speech. You don't need to speak as slowly in your speech or in normal conversation, but feeling comfortable using a slower pace will improve your clarity and allow you to take your time later on.

3. Repeat those words that are difficult to pronounce. When certain words are difficult to pronounce, we often rush and stumble over those words, resulting in slurred speech. Practice pronouncing these words by saying them out loud over and over until you have the muscle memory to pronounce them correctly.

   Improving your diction

   1. Practice on tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are a great way to improve the clarity of your speech, and mastering them will allow you to learn how to keep your speech clear and confident. Many actors and speakers practice tongue twisters before going on stage to warm up their voices.

      Read aloud. If you're reading a book, or even just the morning paper, practice reading it out loud. This will help you become more familiar with how your voice sounds. Very often, when we talk to others, we hear ourselves in a very different way than our real voice sounds. By reading aloud in the comfort of your own home, it will be easier for you to listen to yourself and pay attention to those moments when your speech becomes slurred.

      • You can also record your voice and listen to it, along the way, noting where you mumble or speak unclearly.

   2. Practice talking with a cork in your mouth. Many artists and voice actors do this exercise to improve their clarity and diction, especially when reading something like Shakespeare's. When you put a cork under your tongue and start speaking, you will make your mouth work very hard to fully pronounce each syllable, and the cork will also prevent your tongue from tripping over certain words.

      • This exercise can tire your jaw muscles, which will help you learn how to relax them, but you don't need to practice this way for too long, otherwise your jaw will hurt.
      • You can also use a napkin if you produce a lot of saliva during such exercises.

   3. Pay attention to intonation. Tone of voice also plays a big role in speech clarity and diction, as it can affect how you pronounce certain words.

      • Are you giving a speech that should move people? It may be difficult for them to understand you if you say it in a monotonous or inexpressive voice.
      • Your intonation, whether you're excited, instructive or casual, will make people pay attention to your speech and can also improve clarity.
      • The intonation when speaking depends entirely on the pitch of your voice. Pay attention to how high or low your voice sounds.

   4. Do not use rising intonations in conversation. This nasty habit of speaking in a rising tone makes you sound like you're asking a question.

   Training your muscles

   Exercise your jaw muscles to improve the clarity of your speech. To make your speech much clearer, relax your jaw with a few exercises.

   • Make wide chewing movements while at the same time humming something under your breath.
   • Stretch every muscle in your jaw and face. Open your mouth as wide as possible (as if you are about to yawn) while at the same time making a circle with your lower jaw and moving it from side to side.
   • Open your mouth wide, as in the previous exercise, and close it. Repeat this 5 times.
   • With lips closed together, try to make a buzzing sound, but just don't clench your jaw.

   1. Watch your posture. Like breathing, your posture plays an important role in the clarity of your speech, and this is exactly what we often forget and do not take into account.

   2. • Even if you don't sing, you can sing a few notes or just purr to yourself. Also try singing your tongue twisters.
      • Say "Uuuuu ..." several times, raising and lowering intonation. Imagine that your voice is like a Ferris wheel going up and down in a circle.
      • Make a buzzing sound and pat your chest. This will help remove any phlegm that may have collected in your throat.
   3. • Say "EE" - pull the corners of your lips back and say "Eeeeeee ...".
      • When talking with the interlocutor, maintain confidence and stay relaxed. This will help you speak more clearly and distinctly.
      • You may feel strange or even a little embarrassed doing some of the exercises mentioned, but the more you practice, the easier and more effective the result will come.
      • Say "A" - (as in the word "Arkansas" - drop your jaw down).
      • Pronounce the following sounds, emphasizing them strongly:
        Aa her oo ei oh
        Kaa kee koo kay ko
        Saa shi soo sei so
        Taa chii tsu tei to
        Naa nee noo nay but
        Haa hee hoo hey ho
        Maa mi moo mei mo
        Yaa eeee yooo yaey yo
        raa rii roo ray ro
        Waa wee woo wei wow.
      • Another exercise is to write several sentences on a piece of paper, then underline the last letter of each word. As you read the sheet, exaggerate the sound of the last letters, then pause for a few seconds. You can also put commas between more words to slow down at this point.
      • Demosthenes, a Greek thinker, practiced by putting pebbles in his mouth to wean himself from stuttering. It's worth trying this with something clean, safe, and edible, like cookies or ice cubes. Just be careful and don't choke.
      • Practice pronouncing vowel sounds and adding consonants to them, for example, "paa pow po poo pei pii pai, sow so suu sei sii sai..."
      • Put all thoughts out of your head and think about what you are going to say in order to forget about disturbing thoughts. It helps with public speaking.

      Warnings

      • When working with the jaw and mouth, do not overdo it, otherwise you will get injured. If you feel pain, you need to relax your facial muscles a little.

For people who hold leadership positions or who speak a lot to the public by profession, it is important to have the correct diction. You can correct the clarity of pronunciation by performing special exercises.

Ways to develop diction

First of all, you should identify the range of problems with which you have to deal.

If this is a specific speech defect (burr, lisp, stuttering), then specialist help is needed.

Burr or lisp pronunciation is corrected by the following methods:

• the person is explained the correct setting of the tongue and lips, which are responsible for the correct
  sound reproduction;
• then you should train the speech apparatus, for which it is necessary to repeat tongue twisters;
• you need to constantly monitor your speech so that the defect does not return.

Such training will help you learn how to pronounce sounds and pronounce words correctly. But you should be prepared that such work will require a lot of effort.

As for stuttering, then the work will be more difficult. The main problem lies in the psyche.

Very often it turns out that in everyday life a person has a good staging of speech, and when it comes to public speaking, the speaker begins to stutter.

If the problem is in swallowing endings or in a fuzzy pronunciation of sounds when speaking quickly, you can deal with it yourself.

Speech is corrected as follows:

1. First of all, it is necessary to identify specific defects. To do this, you need to record your voice on a voice recorder. It is best to record a conversation with someone, because if you specifically read the text, then the person will not arbitrarily try to correct his mistakes in speech.
2. Assessing your voice, pay attention to whether you can pronounce the phrase in one breath, as well as the strength of the sound. If they are not enough, you need to work on breathing. To do this, there is a simple exercise: you should take a vertical straight position, one hand rests on the stomach, and the other on the chest. The legs are placed shoulder-width apart. Inhalation goes through the nose, so that the lower part of the chest is filled with oxygen. Exhalation goes through the mouth. This exercise helps develop the diaphragm.
3. Need to work on
   pronunciation of individual letters. Stand in front of a mirror and slowly pronounce the vowels. The pronunciation should take place on the exhale. The sound should be loud and as long as possible. You can try humming the vowels.
4. Tongue twisters also help develop good diction and clarity of pronunciation. But before you take them, you should stretch your face. The most effective way is antics. All facial muscles, as well as lips and tongue, should be involved in this process. This procedure should last at least 10-15 minutes. This warm-up is essential before every public performance.
5. The emotional richness of speech is also important. To do this, in your speech, you need to think through all the intonations and pauses.
6. Psychological comfort plays an important role for clear pronunciation. Often a person has good diction and owns his speech, but being in front of a hostile audience, he begins to get lost and mumble. Here, tongue twisters alone will not help. You need to develop self-confidence.

Speech Exercises

As for clear articulation, it can be developed with the help of other exercises:

• knead and develop facial muscles with the help of antics;
• move the lower jaw up and down and left and right;
• All teeth are counted in the language, but they must first be firmly compressed;
• stretch your mouth into a full smile, fully engaging your lips, and then collecting them into a tube;
• the body body leans forward, the arms are folded on the chest and the sounds are pronounced "u", "o", "a".

All these exercises will help develop diction, intelligibility of speech and correct articulation. If you can’t cope with the problem on your own, you can always seek help from a speech therapist.