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Enhancing Speaking Unconsciously

Submitted by Hamed Nastaran, Bushehr, Iran

Here is a way to enhance accent & fluency; unconscious accuracy through subliminal content and repetition.

First you need to find an audio and its text. It can be a song and its lyrics, a movie with subtitle, or a book’s readings along with the audio track ( The kind of reading with the target accent). Now depending on your English level; you may start from your desired step. (You may repeat each step several times.)

  1. Listen to the audio while seeing the text, try to follow the text as the audio is being played. Falling behind is OK, just keep calm and do your best.
  1. Try to hum with the audio. You don’t need to read with it or even pronounce it. Just hum with the rhythm and follow the intonation.
  1. Now is the time to whisper along with it. Keep humming, but try to pronounce the words whenever it’s possible.
  1. Read with it. At first, put your focus on synchronizing your pace; then do your best to match the intonations.
  1. Elicit you favorite parts (Phrases, expressions, catch phrases, etc.) and use them in your daily routine.

Notes:

  1. Put your headphones on; do the exercise and record yourself. Next step is doing it with one of your ears free.
  2. Singing along can be really useful since you may repeat the context without getting bored. Concerts can be good sources since they contain miscellaneous pronunciations of words in various circumstances with different difficulties.