5 Useful Tips How to Improve Speech

There are simply no trifles when you speak about oratorical skills – every detail is extremely important.

When you master rhetoric, try to remember that your speech must also be distinct and you should improve your diction as well.

If during conversations you swallow most part of the words or the people around cannot understand what you are saying, you must try to improve the clarity of your speech.

In the article below you are going to find several methods with the help of which you’ll learn how to improve speech.

You’ll be able to speak more distinctly regardless of whether you just need to communicate, your profession requires public speeches or you simply want to improve your manner of speaking.

How to improve speech: do not hurry during the conversation

1. Control your breathing.

   Listen and observe a singer on the stage and you’ll see how much attention he devotes to his breathing.

   The same happens during the conversation, that’s why proper breathing may significantly improve clarity of your speech.

   • One of the ways how you can secure correct breathing method is to place one of your hands on the stomach and the other one on the chest while you are breathing.

     You need to breathe so that your hand on the stomach moved and the hand on the chest stayed motionless.

     Breathing with your stomach (diaphragm) is sure to provide you with a full real inhale and allow you speaking with rich voice.

   • Speak when you are on top of your breathing.

     As soon as you made the right inhale, you should start speaking and think about the words.

     Besides, don’t forget to exhale slowly and gradually at that time.

     It’ll give the opportunity for your breathing to support your speech and is likely to let you be natural and not to be in a hurry.

2. Do not hurry when you are communicating.

   
   Your speech must be unhurried, though not too slow, lest you seemed a robot to other people.

   Clarity of speech is defined not only by the correct phrase formulation, but by the most distinct expression of your message or point of view.

   It often means understanding of what you are going to say, lest you had to deny your words.

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3. Presenting public speeches is another way how you can improve your oratory skills.

   If you need to make a public speech or present some kind of presentation, you’d probably better write the content, at least in general.

   Practice telling it during the walk.

   Some actors use this method in order to learn their parts, because rising and moves are likely to help you remember what you are going to say.

   Practice your speech and say one word on each step.

   At first, it may seem slow and difficult, but saying one word on each step you are sure to learn how to make your speech slower.

   You do not need to speak so slowly in your speech or during usual conversations, but feeling of comfort from using a slower speech tempo will improve the clarity of your speech and allow you not to hurry in the future.

4. Repeat those words, which you find difficult to pronounce.

   When we face some hardships pronouncing definite words, we often start to hurry and we stumble at these words, which in its turn leads to the tangled speech.

   Practice saying these words, pronouncing them aloud again and again till you create a muscle memory of their proper pronunciation.

   For example, the words “Squirrel”, “Brewery”, “Phenomenon” and “February” are considered to be a few of the most difficult to pronounce, because their spelling differs a lot from how they sound.

   In order to help yourself to pronounce difficult words, try to pronounce them from the point of view of phonetics.

How to improve speech: exercises for diction

• You should tap your mouth cavity all over with your tongue.

  Do some rotatory movements with your tongue.

  Run it over the teeth, as if you were cleaning them and try to reach the palate with your tongue.

• Tap your lips, cheeks, nose and skin on the chin with your fingers.

  Blow up your cheeks, as if your skin was a tight drum.

  Knock at all these places with your finger-cushions like with sticks.

• Pronounce tongue twisters in order to improve speech and articulate every day, at least for 5 – 10 minutes.

  Start from the slow tempo and gradually increase the speed until you say them in a usual speech tempo.

  When you pronounce them, excessively underline the words, making your tongue, jaws and lips work really hard.

  As soon as you learned how to pronounce them, start speaking with rich voice of an actor and stress the words even more.

  It is likely to improve your skill and develop those muscles in the mouth, which are responsible for the speech function.

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• Tongue twisters exercise may be made even more complicated.

  For example, before you pronounce tongue twisters, you can put few small pebbles or nuts in the mouth.

  Surely, in this case you’ll have to take great pains to pronounce this phrase distinctly and clearly.

  This way you train the mouth muscles and improve your speech.

• Another popular exercise in speech practice is speaking with closed mouth.

  
  Just because the lips are closed, you’ll find it more difficult to pronounce sounds.

  That’s why you should show additional skills and will-power to say at least few clear words.

  Your diction and articulation in the usual speech will be improved a lot after such training.

• Train the jaws’ muscles in order to improve the clarity of your speech.

  So that your speech became more distinct, you should relax your jaws using a couple of exercises.

  Do the wide excursive movements and simultaneously sing something to yourself.

  Stretch every muscle of your jaw and face.

  Open the mouth as wide as you can (as if you were going to yawn) and, at the same time, draw a circle with your lower jaw and move it from side to
  side.

  Open your mouth wide, just like in the previous exercise, and close it.

  Repeat such moves 5 times.

  With the help of closed lips try to produce buzz sound, but do not close your jaws.

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• Warm up the vocal cords.

  If you warm them up, you’ll be relaxed and ready to speak clearly and effectively.

  Even if you do not usually sing, you can sing a few notes or simply murmur to yourself.

  You may as well sing the tongue twisters.

  Pronounce several times “Uuuuu…” changing the intonation from high to low and vice verse.

  Imagine that your voice is like a Ferris wheel, which goes up and down making a circle.

  Produce buzz sound and clap on the chest.

  This will help you to get rid of all phlegm, which might be in your throat.

5 Useful tips on how to improve speech

1. Firstly, you should read more in order to improve speech and vocabulary.

   Newspapers, magazines, fiction of high quality.

   Read and reread the classics!

   Moreover, do it aloud, taking your time.

   Such reading is sure to bring tremendous effect.

   It will teach you how to build words and sentences and increase your vocabulary.

2. Secondly, try, if there is such possibility, to stay calm, do not swing your arms and do not reflect strong emotions in your speech.

   This will only increase the level of trust to you and add authoritativeness.

   Your speech must consist of simple phrases and you should not be in a hurry.

3. Thirdly, watch your speech tempo.

   It should not be monotonous.

   You may separate the key moments of the conversation by a pause.

   It must be appropriate and not too long.

4. Fourthly, use in your everyday speech and conversations different comparisons, metaphors, figurative expressions, sayings, etc.

   
   This is sure to make your speech more lively and interesting.

   Surely, the safest option is humor.

   Appropriate self-irony and jokes may add luster to your speech.

   Words are only the medium of information transfer and how you combine those words and pronounce them will either sink into the mind or not.

5. Finally, speak and train your speech as often as possible.

   It’s rather easy to do it, if you have lots of friends.

   If not, TV or radio might help you.

   Chose a TV host, which you like most of all, and try to imitate him.

   Repeat aloud (!) everything he says and try to reproduce the same speech intonations.

   This is not an easy thing to do, but later you are sure to see how much you improved your speech.

   Besides, you will not only improve the speech melody, but also increase your vocabulary.

So, use these pieces of advice on how to improve speech, and try to speak distinctly, clearly and understandable.

Then, people will think of you as of a goal-seeking person and will treat you with respect.

Besides, due to the ability to speak properly, you’ll always be a good and pleasant interlocutor.