Are you looking to improve your pronunciation? Here’s a free method: record yourself!
How it works
- Find a short audio with a script: news clips, podcast, or a story. Keep it under two minutes – shorter is better!
- Listen once: pay attention to the speaker’s rhythm and pronunciation.
- Record yourself: read the script aloud and record it.
- Compare: listen to your version and the original audio. Where are the differences?
- Repeat: practice sounds until you hear improvement.
The story behind this tip
A student I was teaching had pronunciation problems. His previous teachers had never paid attention to his sounds, and though his fluency was good, it was very hard to understand him.
Nobody had ever told him this and I had to break the bad news. He did not believe me so I recorded him reading a text. When I played it back he saw it was true. He left class in a bad mood.
One week later he came back and told me he wanted to read the text again. I predicted the same mistakes. However, I was wrong. His sounds were not perfect but had improved a lot.
I asked how he had done it. He had looked up the most difficult words online and recorded himself several times until he got them right.
It turned out to be an excellent method and something I would recommend to all my students. In fact, it’s one of the few ways you can improve your pronunciation without resorting to AI correction or paying a teacher!
Have a look at Andrew’s book on how to improve your business English: www.andymiles.com
