{"id":491,"date":"2014-07-15T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=491"},"modified":"2017-03-06T11:46:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T19:46:40","slug":"improving-your-english-pronunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/improving-your-english-pronunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Your English Pronunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of people worry that their accents will affect their scores on the TOEFL, but these fears are usually unfounded. As long as it\u2019s not hard to understand you, you don\u2019t have much to worry about. It can be hard to know whether your accent does interfere with understanding, especially because any native English-speakers that you talk to regularly probably have gotten accustomed to your accent and don\u2019t notice it anymore. Here are some tips to help you improve your pronunciation, whether you need help with reducing your accent in general or just with correcting a few errors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Learn about common errors<\/h2>\n<p>The pronunciation mistakes you make are probably typical of speakers of your language. That is, many German-speakers have trouble pronouncing \u201cth\u201d correctly, Russians have trouble with the vowel sound in \u201cmutt\u201d or \u201cbutter\u201d, and Spanish speakers have trouble with words beginning with \u201cst\u201d and \u201csp.\u201d If your English teacher speaks the same native language that you do, you may be making typical mistakes without you or your teacher even realizing it. Learn about the errors that speakers of your native language frequently make, and start working on your pronunciation by eliminating those errors from your speech.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Interactive IPA<\/h2>\n<p>The IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet, is a great tool for breaking down words into individual sounds. Although learning the whole IPA would take way more time than it\u2019s worth, you may find it useful to at least get familiar with the <a href=\"http:\/\/soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu\/english\/english.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sounds of American English<\/a>. Even if you never write or read using the IPA, it\u2019s definitely a good idea to get a handle on how many different sounds there are in English and how they are produced.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Shadow TV\/radio<\/h2>\n<p>Next time you\u2019re listening to a TOEFL practice dialogue, pick out a sentence or two that you can understand easily, and listen to it several times. Now say the sentence yourself, copying the speaker\u2019s pronunciation as closely as possible. Notice how your natural pronunciation is different from that of the speaker\u2019s. Now go through word by word, trying to say each exactly like the speaker does. Paying such close attention and imitating native speakers is difficult and tedious if you\u2019re doing it properly, but it\u2019s also pretty much the only way for an adult English learner to get better at pronunciation. Once you\u2019ve gotten the hang of it using TOEFL resources (which are slower, use standard pronunciation, and lack background noise), you can extend this practice to TV shows, the radio, and songs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Get feedback from natives<\/h2>\n<p>Most people have trouble hearing language exactly as it is\u2014our brains learn to pay attention to some sounds and to ignore others, which is part of why it\u2019s so hard to get rid of an accent. So any time you can, ask a native speaker to critique your accent. You\u2019ll need to ask for more information that s\/he wants to give at first\u2014rather than \u201cYou have a good accent\u201d or \u201cI understand everything you say,\u201d you need them to say things like \u201cYour \u2018th\u2019 sounds a little funny.\u201d A lot of people won\u2019t know exactly how to explain what\u2019s strange to them about your accent, but at least then you\u2019ll know what sounds to look out for.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of people worry that their accents will affect their scores on the TOEFL, but these fears are usually unfounded. As long as it\u2019s not hard to understand you, you don\u2019t have much to worry about. It can be hard to know whether your accent does interfere with understanding, especially because any native English-speakers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13618],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13632],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Improving Your English Pronunciation - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/improving-your-english-pronunciation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improving Your English Pronunciation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A lot of people worry that their accents will affect their scores on the TOEFL, but these fears are usually unfounded. As long as it\u2019s not hard to understand you, you don\u2019t have much to worry about. 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