15 Minute Morning Pronunciation Practice for English Learners
Hey, it's Hadar. Today I'm going to share with you the ideal morning pronunciation practice.
You want to think of it as a physical workout or a yoga practice that you do in the morning
to get energized for the day, but also to build muscle. And this is exactly the same
thing, but in this case, we're talking about the articulation organs.
You want to do that in the morning to set yourself up for pronunciation success, but
also to build the muscles of your articulation organs, like the tongue and the lips and the jaw.
Now, I recommend doing it every single day
so you're more in control of the sounds that don't exist in your native language, but it's
also going to help you sound more clear in your native language as well. You can do it
in the morning, but you can also do it before going into a meeting or before having an important speaking gig.
Okay. Let's get started. But before that,
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Let's begin with massaging your jaw. It's always good to become aware and kinda like
relax all unnecessary tension. We're going to start with that and end with that. There
is a muscle here at the jaw hinge that connects between the upper jaw and the lower jaw, and
usually we hold a lot of tension there. So I want you to massage it and kind of like
try to release all the tension and maybe hum.
We're also warming up the voice so you don't
have the morning voice. And here, the cheeks. And again, the jaw, maybe move it around a
little bit with your hands. Okay, little more.
Now we're going to warm up the tongue. Let's begin by sticking the tongue out. And we're
going to move it to the right and then to the left. To the right.
this 10 times, okay? So, right. Right, left.
Okay. Now we're going to stick the tongue
out and bring it up and down. So, stick it out.
Keep doing it, I'm going to keep speaking.
Again, push it out as if the tongue wants to come out of your mouth. Two more.
Very good. Now, let's stick it out and bring it back
Okay, good. Let's release tension and blow your lips out.
Okay, good. In the next exercise, we are going to clean
the teeth with your tongue. So you want to move your tongue around.
this is a really good exercise, especially before a meeting. So you make sure that you
don't have green stuff or poppy seeds stuck between your teeth. I got you covered.
Keep your lips closed. Good. Relax your lips.
Good. Now, we're going to use the tongue to massage
the inside of the cheek as you're resisting the tongue with your cheek muscles. So, take
your tongue, the tip of the tongue, and push it against the inside of your left cheek while
the cheek is actually resisting it. So you want to push against, you want your tongue
to feel like it's fighting something as you're massaging it.
And get to all the different places inside your mouth.
Good.
And now let's do a trill to relax the tongue. For some of you, this is going to be really
easy if you have the trilled are in your language. If you don't, you can just do another lip
trill. And now we're going to do it while going up and down in pitch.
a bit more. Very, very good. You're starting to feel your mouth, to feel the tongue, which
is good because we need the tongue to articulate the sounds. And to be able to do it clearly,
we need to be in control of the tongue. Now, we're going to warm up the lips. So push
the lips forward as if you're pushing it for a kiss, an exaggerated one, and pull it to
the sides. Forward. Now, try to keep the cheeks out of the way, right, you don't want to go
like this. Okay? You don't want to get used to engaging your cheeks when pulling the lips.
Sometimes we need that to articulate some of the sounds, like the E and the A, and we
want to be able to control these muscles. So, just the lips, the corners of the mouth, and forward.
Make sure you're not holding tension in your
shoulders. If you do, just tell your shoulders to relax, tell your face to relax. Okay, good.
Now we're going to go into a few sounds. Let's start with the tip of the tongue consonants.
Let's begin with a T sound. Make sure it's just the tip of the tongue touching the upper palate.
Tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh. Duh, duh, duh,
duh, duh, duh. Nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh. Luh, luh, luh, luh, luh. Let's do it together.
Tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Make sure it's light.
And now we're going to move the tongue back a bit and switch between S and Z. S-Z, S-Z, S-Z, S-Z.
Now we're going to move on to consonants created
with the lips. We're going to start with a P sound where you bring the lips together
and release air. Puh-Puh-Puh-Puh-Puh. And then the voiced version of it. Buh- Buh-Buh-Buh-Buh.
And then we're gonna go to the nasal version of it. Muh-Muh-Muh.
Let's add vowels to it. And we're going to use the consonant M. 'M-m-mai', 'M-m-mai',
'M-m-mai'. So we're going into an 'ai' diphthong. You want to drop your jaw and then raise the
tongue for an 'i' sound. 'M-m-mai', 'mai', 'mai', 'mai'.
And then we're going to go into 'M-m-mei'. Okay? Now we're going into the 'ei' as in
"day" diphthong, starting with an 'e', shifting into an 'i'. 'M-m-mei'. Then we're going to
do a long 'ow' as in "go". 'M-m-mow', 'M-m-mow', 'M-m-mow'. Good.
The next diphthong is going to be 'M-m-moi', 'oi' as in "toy". 'M-m-moi'. And finally,
we're going to use the 'aw' diphthong. 'M-m-maw'. Just like in "mouse", 'M-m-maw'.
So we're going to do all five of them one after the other. 'M-m-mai'. 'M-m-mei'. 'M-m-mow'.
'M-m-moi'. 'M-m-maw'. Let's do it again. 'M-m-mai'. 'M-m-mei'. 'M-m-mow'. 'M-m-moi'. 'M-m-maw'.
Very good. Now we're going to move to the back of the
mouth, pronouncing the K and G. From there, I want you to shift to the high E sound. 'G-g-gee'.
'G-g-gee'. So the tongue pulls back for the G and then forward for the high E. 'G-g-gee'
'G-g-gee'. And then 'K-k-kee' 'K-k-kee' 'K-k-kee'. Good. So let's do it a few times. 'G-g-gee' - 'K-k-kee'.
And then from there, we're going to move on
to the tense 'uw' sound, a back open vowel sound. 'G-g-guw'. 'K-k-kuw'. 'G-g-guw' - 'K-k-kuw'.
Make sure you push the lips forward for the 'uw' sound. Let's do it two more times.
Very good. And now I want you to yawn. Kinda like raise
the soft palate by yawning. Good. And let's find the voice and bring the voice to the chest.
"Hello, hello. Good morning. Hello, hello. Good morning". So you want to
bring your voice to the chest. "Hello, hello. Good morning to you. Hello, hello. Good morning to you".
And then let's bring the voice to the head:
"Hello, hello. Good morning to you. Hello, hello. Good morning to you"; you want to feel
the vibrations here. And maybe a little bit to your nose: "Hello, hello. Good morning
to you. Hello, hello. Good morning to you".
Okay, let's move on to some tongue twisters.
Let's start with my favorite. "Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York".
Let's do it again. "Unique" - high 'uw, high 'ee' - unique New York, unique New York, unique
New York. Let's say it again a little faster. "Unique New York, unique New York, unique
New York, unique New York". Now, as you're moving through the days, if you do it every
single day, you'll see that it's a lot easier for you to say it faster.
The next one is "Good blood bad blood. Good blood bad blood". The "good" has that back
open 'u' as in "book", "cook" and "look". And the "blood" has a 'cup' sound. "Good blood,
good blood", I hope you can hear the difference. "Bad blood", here we have the 'a' as in "cat",
a forward front vowel, "bad blood". "Good blood, bad blood. Good blood, bad blood.
Good blood, bad blood. Good blood, bad blood. Good blood, bad blood. Good blood, bad blood.
Good blood, bad blood. Good blood bad blood".
The next one is "Tragedy strategy". "Tragedy strategy".
"Tragedy strategy, tragedy strategy, tragedy strategy, tragedy strategy, tragedy
strategy, tragedy strategy, tragedy strategy, tragedy strategy".
this one all of the time. Let's do some TH warmups. So, let's start
with just sticking the tongue out and pronouncing a voiced TH versus a voiceless TH. θ - ð, θ - ð, θ - ð.
Now we're going to work on transitions. N to TH: 'n-ð', 'n-ð', 'n-ð'.
L to TH: 'l-ð', 'l-ð', 'l-ð'. You can also use the voiceless TH: 'l-θ', 'l-θ', 'l-θ'.
Very good. And now S-TH: 's-θ', make sure you stick
the tongue out, but the tongue is not too tight against the teeth so the air comes out.
's-θ' 's-θ' 's-θ'. 'z-ð' 'z-ð' 'z-ð'.
Let's do it a few more times: 's-θ' - 'z-ð'.
Very good. Relax your lips, release air.
And massage your jaw again. Good. Very good.
Finally, let's do some chunks. ‘whadaya’ - "what do you". ‘whadaya’, ‘whadaya’, ‘whadaya’.
Next one is "going to go" - 'gonna go', 'gonna go', 'gonna go'.
Next one is "could have". "could have" - 'cuda, cuda, cuda'.
Notice that the D is really, really light, it sounds like a flap T, like
a /ɾ/, like an R in Spanish - 'pero'. 'cuda, cuda, cuda'.
'shuda shuda shuda' - "should have".
'wuda wuda wuda' - "would have". 'wuda wuda wuda'.
Okay, that's it. To wrap it up, I want you
to put your palm on your belly, one on your belly, one in your chest, and try to breathe
into the hand that is on the belly and breathe out.
Close your eyes, breathe into your belly,
not to your chest. And breathe out. And last time.
And as you exhale, you can also release a sound, breathe into your belly.
Okay, that's it. As I said at the beginning,
I recommend doing it every single day. And when you do, you will feel the improvement
and how easier it is for you to articulate sounds in English and in your native language as well.
Now, to make it fun and to hold each other
accountable, every time you complete this exercise, write in the comments "Done", so
we know that you did it again today.