1. Record yourself speaking English.
2. Read aloud, especially dialogue.
3. Sing along to English songs while you’re driving or in the shower.
4. Watch short video clips and pause and repeat what you hear.
5. Learn vowel and consonant sounds in English.
6. Learn and identify schwa.
7. Learn about weak and strong forms of common words.
8. Learn about word stress.
9. Learn about sentence stress.
10. Identify fixed and semi-fixed phrases and practise them.
11. Learn about collocations.
12. Replace regular verbs with phrasal verbs.
13. Learn short automatic responses.
14. Practise telling stories and using narrative tenses.
15. Learn when to pause for effect.
16. Learn about chunking.
17. Learn about typical pronunciation problems in your first language.
Find out about the problems people who speak your first language have when speaking English and you will know what you need to focus on.
18. Choose an accent you like and imitate it.
19. Find an actor/actress you like and identify what makes them powerful speakers.
20. Use a mirror and / or a sheet of paper for identifying aspirated and non-aspirated sounds.
21. Practise tongue twisters.
Tongue twisters are phrases designed to improve your pronunciation of particular sounds.
22. Practise spelling names, numbers and dates aloud.
23. Learn about common intonation patterns.
24. Learn about places of articulation.
The articulators are the parts of the mouth we use to turn sound into speech.
25. After looking at places of articulation, practise making the movements that native speakers use when they speak.
26. Learn why English is a stress-timed language.
The rhythm of the language is based on stressed syllables so we shorten the unstressed syllables to fit the rhythm
27. Learn how to interrupt and interject politely and successfully.
28. Learn about ellipsis, assimilation and linking sounds.
29. Speak lower not higher. Studies show that you command attention and demonstrate authority with a deeper vocal tone, especially men.
30. Listen and read along to poetry (or rap songs) to practise the rhythm of English.
31. Learn exclamation words and fillers.
32. Learn how to paraphrase.
33. Use contractions more.
Contractions make your speech more efficient because they save time and energy.
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