Speed Matters:
Speaking rate is an important part of speaking effectively. Slowing down your speaking rate helps give you time to pronounce sounds more clearly. If you are doing oral reading, stop and take a breath at the end of a sentence and wherever there is a comma. If you are presenting or having a conversation, stop at the end of a thought group or after 4-5 words and take a new breath before you continue.
If you think you need to rush through what you have to say because you have a great deal of information to share, you are fooling yourself. People will not be able to understand you. When you pair an accent with a rapid rate of speech, the combination, although not deadly, can be detrimental. People frequently will not interrupt a presenter to say they didn’t understand because they are too polite. Studies have shown that listeners will start to tune out a speaker with an accent or be forced to listen very carefully which takes a great deal more effort. After a while they will choose not to listen to you.
A Big Mouth Helps:
Slavic language speakers tend not open and move their mouths when speaking English as much as American English speakers do. Your jaws, lips and teeth are more clenched and tense. Americans move their lips quite a bit when speaking.
In order to be able to open your mouth your lips, tongue and jaws more, you will need to relax them. Here are a few exercises that will definitely improve your speech.
- Yawn – this is a great exercise and so easy and it will relax and stretch your jaws. Open your mouth widely as if you’re yawning. Do this slowly 5 times.
- Lip rolls or as some people call raspberries – brrrrrr. This will relax your lips.5 times.
- Move your head to the right then the left very quickly.
- Now do the lip roll and the head shaking as in #3 together.
- Raise your shoulders up to your ears tensely and drop them -7 times
- Rag doll – bend over towards your toes very very slowly. Then come back up very very slowly.
- Lay down on the floor with a small pillow under your head. Put a book on your belly. Take a breath in through your nose and blow out. If the book doesn’t move, then you are not breathing through your diaphragm. Diaphragmatic breathing is good for relaxation and also for projecting your voice when you are doing a presentation.
- Sit in a chair or stand up. Put your hands on your diaphragm – that is the area where your ribs are. Take a breath through your nose and blow out. Do this diaphragmatic breathing slowly 7 times.
- Breathe in – now instead of just breathing out, say “AH”; Then say a word. Then say a short sentence.
- Read some of your emails to see how it feels.
When your articulators are relaxed your speech sounds clearer viagra belgique prix. When you are relaxed, your voice will sound stronger, the vibrations in your voice change and your message will have more impact.
The above relaxation and breathing techniques are very effective for people with rapid accented speech.
By Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist
