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Diction and speech training exercises at home. How to develop good diction: exercises and advice from a speech therapist

Good diction, clear pronunciation of sounds and pleasantness are the keys to success in many areas of modern life. Unique speech data is very rarely given to a person by nature. However, this art can be learned at any age if you regularly perform exercises to improve diction. When you eliminate speech impediments, you will stop worrying about things and will communicate more freely in informal settings. Perhaps after this your career will take off. Remember that in any place and in any profession there are people who know how to express their thoughts in a beautiful and concise form. In this article we will provide simple but effective exercises that will help improve your speech diction.

Articulation gymnastics

We often hear about the benefits of exercise for human health. However, few people think that the articulatory apparatus also needs constant training. By doing the exercise to improve your diction for just 10-15 minutes a day, you can achieve very good results. Start your day with this gymnastics - and very soon you will notice how the muscular system of your tongue, lips and cheeks has strengthened. The articulatory apparatus will become more mobile, and speech will become clearer.

  • “Fence” - clench your teeth and smile broadly. Hold this position for ten seconds and return to the starting position. Make sure that the upper and lower rows of teeth are clearly visible. Repeat the exercise several times.
  • “Tube” - without opening your teeth, stretch your lips forward. At the same time, you can drag out the sound “oo-oo-oo-oo” for ten seconds. Repeat the exercise.
  • “Needle” - open your mouth and extend your sharp tongue as far as possible. Hold this position for five seconds and relax your muscles. Repeat several times.
  • “Damn” - show your tongue to your reflection by placing it on your lower lip and making it as wide as possible. Repeat.
  • “Lick your lips” - relax your lower jaw and try to keep it in one position. Lick your upper lip, extending your tongue as far as possible. Repeat the same action with your lower lip.
  • “Swing” - touch your tongue alternately to the upper and lower lips. Perform the exercise at a slow pace and try not to move your chin.
  • “Hamster” - close your lips and press the inside of your tongue onto your cheek for five seconds. Repeat the manipulation with the other cheek.

Correct breathing

Few people pay attention to their posture, the frequency of inhalation and exhalation while communicating with other people. It's a pity! It is these factors that play an important role in establishing a beautiful voice and clear pronunciation of words. Do the following exercise daily to improve your diction.

Exercises for inhalation and exhalation

  • Starting position: stand straight, place your hands on your waist and your feet shoulder-width apart. Open your lips slightly and exhale slowly, as if overcoming resistance. When you start to succeed, complicate the task. For example, while exhaling, read any quatrain. Then try this exercise in combination with walking or squats.
  • Return to the starting position, take a calm breath, slowly leaning forward. At the same time, pay attention to your back, which should be straight. As you exhale, begin to rise and make the “mm-mm” sound.

10 exercises to improve diction and voice tone

  1. Lower your chin to your chest and start moving left and right. The exercise is performed slowly and without sudden movements.
  2. Starting position: back straight, head also down. Slowly move your jaw forward and back as far as possible.
  3. Cross your arms across your chest and slowly lean forward, making the sound “oo-oo-oo” in a low voice.
  4. Stretch your lips into a wide smile and open your teeth. Start moving your tongue from right to left, relaxing your facial muscles.
  5. Extend your tongue and run it along the outside of your upper and lower teeth. Repeat several times.
  6. Extend your tongue forward so that it resembles a bowl. Repeat.
  7. Don’t forget about the role of beautiful posture in speech delivery. Always pay attention to the position of your back. So that you understand how difficult it is, put several books on your head and walk around the room with them. Try reading a text or poem while in this position.
  8. Read texts with a pen or pencil held in your teeth. Try to pronounce words and individual sounds as clearly as possible. Repeat this exercise every day for 15 minutes.
  9. Read at a fast and slow pace, in a loud and quiet voice.
  10. Make the previous exercise more difficult. Read poetry when or while walking. Make sure you don’t lose your breath and maintain intonation pauses.

Pure talk

You can practice the pronunciation of individual sounds using special rhyming phrases or phrases. They contain the same consonant several times, and you can easily learn the sounds. Do these diction exercises daily.

Helpful tips on how to improve your diction and clarity of speech are given below. Start by pronouncing pure phrases at a slow pace. Pronounce each sound, pay attention to difficult combinations and check the clarity of your pronunciation. To avoid mistakes, listen to audio recordings of speakers. At the end of each workout, record yourself on a voice recorder, mark mistakes and achievements.

Tongue Twisters

An exercise familiar to everyone from childhood to improve diction is a very effective tool for achieving your goal. By pronouncing difficult sounds and their combinations, you learn clear and precise pronunciation. Read the tongue twister very slowly, try to figuratively imagine the picture that the poem tells about. After this, try to increase the pace a little. Be sure to speak out loud, but if you start to get confused, then immediately return to speaking slowly. After some time, you will notice how naughty sounds will begin to be pronounced easily and naturally.

Intonation

You are making a big mistake if you think that people only perceive the information that is contained in your speech. In fact, the listener's attention is captured by the intonation with which the speaker speaks. Learn to pronounce phrases expressively by raising and lowering your voice. Only when you make emphasis and pause will the interlocutor fully appreciate your statements.

  • Start with the simplest exercises and gradually make them more difficult.
  • Use every minute of your free time to exercise. Only in this case will you be able to quickly achieve your goals.
  • Exercise regularly without long breaks.
  • Record short performances with a voice recorder or camera. Watch the videos, note the positive changes and take into account the points that you will have to work on in the future.
  • Read literature on how to improve your diction. Exercises should be varied, otherwise you will quickly lose interest and give up classes.
  • Do not neglect the help of specialists and teachers who can offer you useful exercises to improve your diction and eliminate mistakes typical for beginners.
  • If you have the opportunity to enroll in acting classes, do so immediately. Classes will help you liberate your speech, movements and gestures. You will also learn expressive recitation and stop being afraid of public speaking.

Voice, diction and speech are important components for any successful public speaking. Many people have slurred speech, a low voice, and poor diction. The reasons for this are countless. Below we will look at the most basic causes of such “diseases”, as well as consider ways that will help you develop your voice, develop diction and speech on your own. If you are interested in this topic, please read this article carefully and complete all the exercises outlined in it.

I know only a few reasons for a quiet voice, poor diction and slurred speech - self-doubt, low self-esteem and complexes. There are also genetic reasons, but we will not touch on them. Why do I think that the main reasons for all this are self-doubt, shyness and complexes? Do you think confident people with high self-esteem have a quiet voice? Do they speak quietly? Do they have slurred speech? In most cases, such people do not have speech problems. Look at politicians, actors, singers. They are all confident people who constantly speak in front of the public. Therefore, their speech is developed, their voice is loud and there are no problems with diction.

Now let's take a shy person. During communication, this shy person experiences self-doubt, he believes that there is something wrong with him (complexes), he is overcome by a feeling of fear and, as a result, his voice is quiet, his speech is unintelligible, and it is simply impossible to listen to him. Therefore, if you want to develop your voice, if you want to develop diction, if you want to develop speech, you need to do a lot of work on yourself. Without effort, your voice will not become loud. Now we will move on to exercises that will help you achieve what you want. Let's start in order.

So, as we have already found out, voice development is an important task for people whose profession involves public speaking. Voice production is important not only for public people. A developed and loud voice will make your communication easier in everyday life, and you won’t be constantly asked: “Ahh?”, “What?”, “What?” and other annoying questions. By performing a series of exercises to develop your voice, you will eliminate many defects and shortcomings. So let's get started.

1) To make your voice sonorous, it is very important to breathe correctly. If you have just begun to develop your voice, then breathing exercises are the first thing you should do. Stand up, straighten your spine, place your feet shoulder-width apart, place one hand on your chest, the other on your stomach. As you inhale through your nose, push your belly forward (expanding your lower chest). Exhale air freely and naturally through your mouth, returning your stomach and chest to their original position. This is how you develop the diaphragm.

2) The second breathing exercise involves holding air. Inhale quickly through your nose and then hold your breath for three seconds. Then exhale through your mouth. Do this exercise for 5-10 minutes.

3) Inhale as much air as possible through your mouth, then slowly begin to exhale it, pronouncing the vowels (a, o, u, i, e, s). Try to make the sound of the vowel sound as loud as possible and for as long as possible. You can also, when exhaling, smoothly jump from one vowel to another -aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy.

4) With your mouth closed while exhaling, begin to “moo” - saying mmm. Try to hum so that your lips tickle. In addition, be sure to change the volume of the sound - from quiet to loud and vice versa. This exercise will help develop the articulatory apparatus, which will give strength to the voice.

5) Now start growling, saying rrrrr. This exercise also develops the articulatory apparatus. Change the volume of the sound, as well as intonation from subtle to rough.

How to develop diction?

Diction is the quality of pronunciation of words (distinction), the manner of pronouncing words. Diction is very important for actors, singers, politicians, and teachers.

Tongue twisters are suitable for developing diction. You can easily find them on the Internet. Here's a video for you as an example!

In order to begin to develop diction, you first need to stretch your tongue, lips, facial muscles and articulatory apparatus.

1) Let's start with the language. Stick your tongue forward as far as possible, then stick it back (just don't swallow it). Start forcing your tongue forward and then back. The duration of the exercise is 5-7 minutes.

2) Pricking the cheeks with the tongue. Start pricking your cheeks one by one with your tongue. First prick the left cheek, then the right. Take 7-12 minutes to complete. This is a great exercise for training your tongue.

3) A good tongue exercise is “Brushing your teeth.” You begin to rotate your tongue in a circle. The mouth must be closed. Make 20-30 rotations clockwise and counterclockwise.

4) Then, stick out your tongue and start twisting it in a circle. Make 10-15 circles clockwise, then counterclockwise. After this, wipe yourself off (wipe off the drool from your lips).

5) It’s almost the same with lips. The exercise is called “Tube - smile”. First, you stretch your lips forward, after 3 seconds you begin to smile as wide as possible. First the lips forward, then back. Do this exercise for at least 7 minutes.

6) Next, stretch your lips into a tube and begin to lift your heels, first up, then down. Then start doing the same thing, only left, right. Then start turning the patch in a circle, clockwise and counterclockwise.

7) The next exercise is “Bubble”. You puff up your cheeks and start spinning this bubble in a circle.

8) Start biting your upper lip with your teeth. Do it carefully, don't bite yourself. Then start biting your lower lip. After this, start wiping your upper teeth with your upper lip. Try to wipe so that the lower lip does not move. It's difficult, but possible. Do this exercise in front of a mirror to control yourself. Then start wiping your lower teeth with your lower lip, the upper lip should not move either.

9) After completing this warm-up, stand near the window and say the following phrase: “The weather is good outside, and I have beautiful, clear, intelligible speech.” Say this phrase loudly, clearly and clearly. They should hear you on the street.

10) To warm up your facial muscles, start kneading your face at random. Make faces, bulge your eyes. It doesn’t look pretty from the outside, but it’s funny and very effective.

11) In order for the pronunciation of words to be clear, it is necessary to pronounce the endings. Many people swallow endings, especially "th". Start saying the following row:

PTKA - PTKO - PTKU - PTKE - PTKI - PTKY

TPKA - TPKO - TPKU - TPKE - TPKI - TPKY

KPTA - KPTO - KPTU - KPTE - KPTI - KPTY

BI - PI - BE - PE - BA - PA - BO - PO - BU - PU - BU - PY

PI - BI - PE - BE - PA - BA - PO - BO - PU - BU - PU - WOULD

MVSTI - MVSTE - MVSTA - MVSTO - MVSTU - MVSTY

ZDRI - ZDRE - ZDRA - ZDRO - ZDRU - ZDRY

ZhDR - ZHDR - ZHDR - ZHDR - ZHDR - ZHDR

This series develops your diction. Don't forget about tongue twisters.

How to develop speech?

To develop speech you will need discipline, conscious control and consistency. Good speech is becoming less and less common these days. You can listen to one person for hours, but you want to run away from another. Your professional and personal life depends on the quality of your speech. Half of success depends on the ability to communicate, and to be able to communicate, you need not only erudition, but also developed speech.

1) To develop speech, the first thing I advise you to do is read newspapers, magazines, and books. And you need to read it out loud. While reading, try to force your intonations and avoid monotony. Also, change the reading speed and volume. Pronounce all endings and follow punctuation marks. Reading aloud is the main exercise for speech development.

3) Thirdly, as when reading aloud, watch the pace of speech. Enrich it with intonations. Use pauses to highlight important points in the conversation. The pause should be appropriate and not prolonged.

4) Fourth, expand your vocabulary. This can be done by watching films, trainings, and reading books. If you heard the president or another politician speak on TV, why don’t you try to say the same thing at home. Imagine that you are speaking in front of the public as the president. Tell your imaginary people about the political and economic situation in our country. This is a very exciting activity for developing speech and replenishing vocabulary.

I train my voice, diction and speech using the above method. In three months, your speech will be transformed beyond recognition. Therefore, do not be surprised if your friends begin to tell you that something has changed in you. And the voice, diction and speech have changed. Practice every day and your efforts will be rewarded.

Few people seriously think about how powerful a communication tool the voice is.

And it’s not just a matter of “we tell them.” Timbre and diction have a tremendous impact on how the listener perceives you. It has been proven that people perceive information presented in a low-pitched voice better than in a high-pitched voice. A voice with a timbre that is too high is not only harder to listen to, but also less pleasant than a low one.

Good diction is even more important than timbre. If you are not an honored doctor of science or a professor, you have to make sure that your listeners understand you without extra effort.

It’s always a real pain for me to give speeches in the first half of the day. I'm a night owl and it's hard for me to think straight before lunch. By the way, scientists say that until 12:00 the human body is still in a half-asleep state, including the facial muscles and vocal cords.

To avoid inarticulate mooing during a performance, it is recommended to do a five-minute warm-up exercise consisting of 10 exercises.

1. Lower your lower jaw down. Slowly move it left and right.

2. Lower your lower jaw. Move it back and forth. Do this very slowly, smoothly and carefully.

3. Starting position – standing, hands on chest. Leaning forward, as you exhale, pronounce the vowels “u” and “o” long and drawn out, in as low a voice as you can.

4. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile, move the tongue to the corners of the mouth left and right. Make sure that the jaw and lips are motionless, and the tongue does not slide along the lower lip.

5. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Lick the upper lip with the tip of the tongue from one corner of the mouth to the other. Make sure that the tongue reaches the corners of the mouth, the movement is smooth, without jumps, the jaw does not move. Also lick your lower lip. Then lick your lips in a circle.

6. Mouth closed. Lick the teeth under the lower lip, then under the upper lip. Make sure that your jaw and lips do not move.

7. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Smoothly run your tongue over your upper teeth, touching each tooth and counting them. Make sure that the jaw does not move. The same movement applies to the lower teeth.

8. Mouth closed. The tense tip of the tongue rests on one or the other cheek. The same, but the mouth is open.

9. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Raise your wide tongue to your nose and lower it to your chin. Make sure that the lips do not stretch over the teeth, the jaw does not move, and the tongue does not narrow.

10. The mouth is open, the lips are in a smile. Place the wide tip of the tongue on the alveoli behind the lower teeth from the inside, then lift it onto the tubercles behind the upper teeth, also from the inside. Make sure that only the tongue works, and the lower jaw and lips remain motionless.

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To improve diction and speech at home, without acting courses and individual work with a teacher, I recommend using a “dictaphone” and then two techniques. One for 10 minutes a day, the other from 10 to 45 minutes a day.

To complete the “Dictaphone” task, which will help you see yourself from the outside, be surprised at yourself, and really want to start actively working with your speech, we need a voice recorder itself. This could be a separate device or just a mobile phone that can perform a recording function.

So, we arm ourselves with a voice recorder and record our conversations with other people. After that, we listen to them and in the evening report we put our conclusions into the dialogue.

After recording yourself on a voice recorder, you will want to improve your speech. There are two techniques to help you.

First technique.

Tongue twisters 5 minutes a day with nuts in your mouth. Just five minutes, and the result will be stunning. Do everything in the order I’m going to tell you now so you can immediately see the result.

1. Take a voice recorder and record yourself on it. We say anything within a minute. About how the day went or what is happening outside the window. Doesn't matter.

2. Listen to what they said.

3. Put the nuts in your mouth. Walnuts, hazelnuts... any. We speak tongue twisters for 5 minutes.

The ship ran aground. The sailors ate caramel while aground for two weeks.

Greek rode across the river. He sees a Greek: there is a cancer in the river. He stuck the Greek’s hand into the river, and the crayfish grabbed the Greek’s hand—hey!

Cuckoo bought a hood. Put on the cuckoo's hood. How funny he is in the hood.

Karl stole corals from Clara, and Clara stole a clarinet from Karl.

There is grass in the yard, there is firewood on the grass, Do not cut wood on the grass in the yard.

Eagle on the mountain, feather on the eagle, Mountain under the eagle, eagle under the feather.

4. We take the recorder again and say anything again there. After that, we listen to the recording and are amazed at the purity of the pronunciation of words and sounds...

Second technique.

We read the book aloud. Every day from 10 to 30 minutes. As much as you can, if you can do 45 minutes, it will be even better. Naturally, we do this with 200% diligence!

Everyone will want to change something in their speech.

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Some people think that they have no problems with diction and this is true. However, when they come, for example, to get a job on television or as a radio presenter, they can immediately be told that for this they need to improve their diction. What methods can easily and quickly improve your diction level? There are several ways to help solve this problem in a short time.

You will need:

First Steps to Persuasive Speech

To speak confidently, beautifully and euphoniously, you need to perform a number of exercises. The first step is to learn how to pronounce plosive sounds well and clearly. Of course, if voiceless consonants are inaudible, then the level of diction will drop significantly. Due to the fact that the voiceless sounds themselves, in their structure, are quite quiet and incomprehensible, they must be pronounced much better than other vowels.

For example: p', t', k'.

Speak dull sounds without a voice, but with very great activity, as if exploding these sounds. After completing the exercise, pronounce the same sounds, but with your voice. This can be done by using consonants that follow the unvoiced ones.

For example, by, then, to, etc.

After completing the exercises, add voiced vowels and sibilants.

Books and reading aloud are a great help in improving diction

The second and very serious mistake of many is the incorrect pronunciation of the letter “G”.

Cuckoo cuckoo bought a hood

Lisping speech is an unforgivable mistake. Of course, if a person has an incorrectly developed bite or has a piercing in the tongue, then this is forgivable. However, it often happens that neither one nor the other is observed, so the culprit is a weak language.

To solve this problem, it is necessary to do exercises not only for hissing sounds. For example, you need to learn to pronounce the sound “C” accurately and clearly.

You also need to learn to relax the muscles of your mouth and tense your tongue. You can do it like this:

  1. smile so that your teeth are visible;
  2. pull out your tongue a little;
  3. Use your mouth to blow a little air onto the tip of your tongue to hear a small whistle (this whistle is similar to the pronunciation of the letter “C”).

You need to see your mistakes directly

A good exercise is to read and talk in front of a mirror.

This is necessary so that you yourself can see your mistakes and see for yourself how your mouth muscles work. If you pronounce sounds and words, phrases in front of a mirror with diligent force, that is, make movements more flexible and strong, open your mouth more, etc., then over time you will hear that the level of your diction has increased significantly. And after such exercises it will be much easier for you to pronounce certain sounds.

Use third party items

Do exercises with foreign objects.

  • For example, you can put small nuts in your mouth and speak tongue twisters with the nuts in your mouth, while pronouncing each sound well.
  • You can also use, for example, a pen. Hold the pen between your lips or teeth, and then start reading the tongue twisters yourself.

It is worth considering that it is unlikely to succeed the first time, but there is no need to give up ahead of time. With long-term training everything will work out. Besides, you shouldn’t rush too much the first time.

It is better to pronounce each word at a slow pace, but clearly and clearly.