How to develop good diction

Diction is a clear, distinct pronunciation; this is the degree of accuracy, the distinctness of the pronunciation of phonemes and morphemes, words and phrases that determine the intelligibility of speech and, consequently, its understanding by other people. Good diction is free from lisping, nasality and stuttering.

Good diction is necessary for everyone and always, when applying for a job and communicating with friends, but good diction means especially a lot for a speaker, lecturer, singer and actor. What needs to be done, what to work on, so that our diction meets the necessary requirements?

At the University of Practical Psychology, several mandatory exercises are devoted to this, which students work out during the year, as well as two full training days.

For starters, a warm-up.

Take a pencil in your teeth and say a phrase, 10-15 words, tightly squeezing the pencil with your teeth. Then take out the pencil and say the same phrase.

Feel the difference! Jaw, tongue, lips, having seized upon freedom, begin to work, not play-play, as usual, but very accurately and accurately!

Then work with a new phrase. In order not to think about the text, you can take any poem for the exercise.

Two or three minutes of such a warm-up is enough to set yourself up for clear articulation. After warming up, let’s move on to the main part!

Exercise 1. Practice tongue twisters

On Thursday the fourth day, at four and a quarter, the Ligurian traffic controller regulated in Liguria, but thirty-three ships tacked, tacked, but did not catch it, and then the protocol about the protocol was recorded by the protocol, as the interviewed Ligurian traffic controller eloquently, but not clearly reported , yes, he reported so much about the wet weather that, so that the incident would not become a contender for a judicial precedent, the Ligurian traffic controller acclimatized in unconstitutional Constantinople, where crested laughter laughed and shouted to the Turk, who was blackly stoned that e.

“Don’t smoke, Turk, tu.eu, better buy a bale of peaks, better buy a bale of pips, otherwise a bombardier from Brandeburg will come — he will bombard him with bombs because some black-nosed half of his yard has dug up, dug and dug up with his snout!

But in fact, the Turk was not in business, and Klara-Kralya was sneaking to the chest at that time, while Karl was stealing corals from Clara, for which Klara stole the clarinet from Karl, and then in the yard of the tarry widow Varvara, these two thieves stole firewood. But, sin is not laughter, not put in a nut. About Klara and Karl in the darkness, all the crayfish were noisy in the fight, so the thieves had no time for the scorer, but not for the tarry widow, and not for the tarry children.

But the angry widow removed the firewood into the barn: one firewood, two firewood, three firewood — all the firewood did not fit, and two woodcutters, two woodcutters-wood.e. for Varvara, who had become sympathetic, they drove the firewood across the yard back to the woodyard, where the heron withered, the heron withered, the heron died.

The heron’s chick clung tenaciously to the chain; well done against the sheep, and against the young man the sheep itself, which carries Senya hay in a sleigh, then carries Senka Sonya and Sanka on a sled: the sled is a lope, Senka is to the side, Sonya is on the forehead, everything is in a snowdrift, and from there only a cone cap knocked down, then Sasha went along the highway, Sasha found a sachet on the highway.

Sonya, Sashka’s girlfriend, was walking along the highway and sucking dry food, and besides, Sonya the turntable also had three cheesecakes in her mouth — exactly like a honey cake, but she had no time for honey cake — Sonya, even with cheesecakes in her mouth, reprimanded the sexton, reperformed: buzzing like a ground beetle , buzzes, and spins: she was at Frol’s — Frol lied to Lavra, she will go to Lavr on Frol, Lavra will lie that — a watchman with a watchman, a captain with a captain, at a snake — a hedgehog, at a hedgehog — a hedgehog, and his high-ranking guest took away his cane , and soon five children again ate five and a quarter quarters of a quarter of lentils without a wormhole, and one thousand six hundred and sixty-six pies with whey curd from curdled milk — about everything about that, the bells were ringing bells, so much so that even Konstantin was from Salzburg unpromising from under the armored personnel carrier stated:

— Just as all the bells cannot be re-belled, not re-belled, so all tongue twisters cannot be re-speak, not re-speak; but trying is not torture.

Such pronunciation of tongue twisters should be strived for. Start by pronouncing tongue twisters at a normal pace, and it’s better with simple ones. Clearly pronouncing all combinations of sounds. Next, the pace must be increased. When you can easily pronounce them, move on to more complex structures. You can complicate this exercise as follows: remember how the heroine of the film “Carnival” developed diction? That’s right, I read tongue twisters with nuts in my mouth. This is a classic exercise for developing correct diction.

Exercise 2. Listen to yourself

​​​​​​​Almost every person, having heard their voice recorded and reproduced on an audio recording, wants to improve it. Use a voice recorder to control and practice the sound of your voice. Select passages from books and read aloud while making an audio recording. Then listen. You will most likely not like the way you read the passage at first, so read and write until your pronunciation seems perfect to you.

Exercise 3. Train your diaphragm

Sometimes, during a long conversation, some do not have enough breath to complete a sentence. This gives speech abruptness and lubricates the impression. To ensure that you have enough breath for even the longest sentence, train your diaphragm. To do this, inhale and as you exhale, simply pull any vowel until the breath runs out. Repeat this exercise several times a day. When holding a vowel for 25 seconds will not be difficult for you, try changing the pitch of your voice. Another way is to blow up balloons.

Exercises from Tatyana Strunina

A set of exercises for good diction and articulation. I myself usually do these exercises when I take a morning shower.

All exercises must be done with pleasure, without haste, slightly exaggerating pronunciation.

1. Bi-bi-bi-b, be-be-be-b, ba-ba-ba-b, bo-bo-bo-b, bu-bu-bu-b, by-by-by-b.

D-d-d-d, de-d-d-d, d-d-d, d-d-d, d-d-d-d, d-d-d-d.

And other consonants in combination with vowels and, e, a, o, u, s.

2. Bgi-pki, bge-pke, bga-pka, bgo-pko, bgu-pku, bgy-pky.

Pki-bgi, pke-bge, pka-bga, pko-bgo, pku-bgu, pki-bgy.

Vzdri-fstry, vzdre-fstry, vzdry-fstry, vzdro-fstry, vzdry-fstry, vzdry-fstry.

Fstry-vzdre, fstry-svzdre, fstry-svzdre, fstry-svzdry, fstry-svzdry, fstry-svzdry.

3. Serum from yogurt. — 10 times, well strengthens the muscles necessary for a smile.

4. The bull is stupid, stupid bull. The bull’s lip was blunt. — also 10 times, strengthens the muscles of the lips.

5. Cook Peter and cook Pavel. Pavel baked, and Peter soared.

Peter soared, Pavel baked. Cook Pavel, cook Peter.

6. On the shallows we lazily caught burbot, on the shallows we caught tench.

Didn’t you sweetly pray for love and beckoned me into the mists of the estuary. — Pronounce on one tone, and then increase by 1-2 tones or lower by 1-2 tones.

Practice every day and all the “vechi effects” will be eliminated.

All the best!

We recommend Dmitry Ustinov’s trainings:

• THE ART OF SPEECH: rhetoric and public speaking
• WINNERS: The Psychology of Influence and Charisma
• BATTLE RHETORIC: The Word as a Weapon
• Storytelling in Russian. How to create and tell stories

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