Pronunciation and Public Speaking Skills

Depending on your reasons for learning English and the nature of your job, quite possibly you will at some point have to give a speech in English, perhaps in a large auditorium or in a conference room at the office.  Even in your native language, you would likely find that such a task causes anxiety and requires plenty of preparation, practice, and organization.  On top of that, you now have to give the speech in English, which compounds all the usual difficulties and insecurities associated with public speaking.

SEE ALSO: 5 Mistakes you are Probably Making in English Pronunciation

Start learning English pronunciation online now!

START your Guided Tour of Saundz – curriculum-based American English Pronunciation Software that teaches you how to sound more like a native English speaker.

Case study: Vladimir Putin giving a speech in English

Every once in a while, Vladimir Putin has to give a speech in English.  While his German is supposedly excellent, Putin doesn’t appear to be very strong in English.  Before watching the clip below, which is a short speech at a judo tournament, ask yourself the following questions:

1.

Is he pronouncing everything well enough to be understood by the audience?

2.  Does he appear to be pausing a lot because he can’t find the right words?

Now watch the video:

You might have noticed that a few words and phrases in the speech were difficult or impossible for the audience to understand.  This is entirely a pronunciation issue, and although the audience might overlook a few such words, if there are many of them, this is very likely to distract and frustrate listeners.  Putin didn’t do a terrible job, but his speeches would sound better if he worked on his pronunciation.  For the purpose of accent reduction, the speech sounds of English can be divided into two groups:

a.  Sounds that the learner can pronounce tolerably well, but not perfectly.
These are sounds that have equivalents or near equivalents in your native language.  When you pronounce these sounds, you have a medium to light accent, but people can still understand you.  This might not seem like a problem but, while speaking in public, people commonly speak more rapidly than usual.  If this speed is combined with a normally light accent, the accent could end up sounding a lot heavier.  Listeners might then have to strain to understand your blur of words.  To prevent this from happening, you should practice pronunciation and giving your speech within a certain amount of time.

b.  Sounds that cause particular trouble for speakers of your native language.
These are the sounds that don’t have an equivalent or near equivalent in your native language, and they are generally to blame for really thick accents.  The best way to improve is to understand the mechanics of the parts of the body involved in producing speech sounds (tongue, jaw, lips, teeth, etc.) Learning to produce a new speech sound is like learning a new technique on a musical instrument, which requires that you study the technique and practice it.  Saundz software enables you to practice easily and solve these issues.

Regarding the second question posed above, Putin pauses a number of times when he’s trying to find the right word, and he also appears to be translating.  A lot of this can be eliminated by practicing pronunciation and speaking skills a lot so that the words and phrases you need become second nature.  If you have to pause and translate out of your native language, the audience will see this and possibly conclude that you have come unprepared.  Another option is to read the speech, but then you’ll probably appear robotic.  It is therefore best to practice a lot more than you normally would.

Read more about the importance of correct pronunciation in public speaking in our funny case study: English Pronunciation gone Wrong: Politicians’ Case.