How to Improve Your Pronunciation In a Foreign Language

Luca Lampariello and David Mansaray talk about how to improve one's pronunciation and intonation in foreign language

[michaelpadilla]

Notes:
- Intonation (focused on sentences) != Pronunciation (focused on words)
- Develop the ability to distinguish small details
- Start working on this from the beginning; avoid bad habits from the beginning
- Develop a solid mental map between the target language's script and sounds
- First prioritize sentences (intonation) first, single words (pronunciation) next, ie. top-down approach
- Sounds and meaning are interrelated
- Use materials that help you develop the sound mapping
- Record yourself speaking when reading, not only speaking. Native speaker feedback is also key.
- The Pareto Principle applies: front loading your language journey may be intense at first but the payoff long-term will be great.

[davidmansaray]

Luca often imitates my accent when we're together. He's really good ^^

[SergioSanchez-ogms]

I completely agree with Luca, there some teachers or people who dare to say that nobody can get an almost perfect acent within the adulthood. and therefore I utterly disagree with this statement.

[LuizLucena]

David is an excellent interviewer and Luca is an amazing languages learner. Congrats to the both of you guys!

[saraf]

This is awesome advice. I have a recommendation for one of Luca's points. There is an app called "HiNative" where you can record yourself and send the audio file to native speakers. They'll provide feedback, almost instantaneously. It's free too :)

[philtrem]

Learning the proper pronunciation from the beginning is the best thing you can do, it makes your further learning easier and helps you assimilate the language better. I always try to get the pronunciation, writing, and grammar right from the get go.

[ingrossa]

My experience is that intonation is much more important than actual pronunciation of individual words. What I would do to train this is just take a random Spanish text and read it aloud to my ex boyfriend (who is a Spanish native) and then sentence by sentence he would try to correct me and make me read it like a native. This really trains your speed, rhythm and intonation.

[AnthonyLauder]

Inspired by Luca, I have spent some time over the past couple of months working on pronunciation and intonation issues. I have bought a couple of books, and found them useful. However, at the start I found them a bit theoretical and overwhelming. So, I turned to courses that actors use for mimicking accents. For example, the "Acting with an Accent" series. These gave me a first step into grasping an accent, which was really helpful in then moving on to something deeper.

[lorenzovonmatta]

Day 69: I love that. "If you work hard on something from the beginning, then everything is going to be easier later". I will use this as 🔥 in my language learning journey :)

[jairojesusromancanales]

Patterns in order to improve pronunciation Lofty tip!!

[thegalamaysight]

The pronunciation is the manner to articulate the mouth and the tongue in order to produce some certain sounds; in some varieties of a language (also in English) a word can have more of one pronunciation. 

The accent is a particular aspect of the pronunciation; for instance, in some italian accents (neapolitan), the wowel o is pronounced more closed than in others (lumbard) in wich is pronounced more open. 

[CristhianBacusoy]

Ty Luca, you gave me an amount of advice to learn english and improve my pronunciation, I use an app to ask to native speaker about the pronunciation of sentences I made and then practice with the feedback I get, I record my reading and the native speaker made theirs and that have worked for me.

[OliNorwell]

Nice video guys. I think recording yourself speaking is initially so hard to do (even in private!), but more and more I'm realising how useful it is. Having a native speaker listen it to as well and point out one or two key points is priceless.

[faridaqoshayeva]

thanks for the video, it motivated me to work on my pronounciation hard, from today I will start to follow Luca's tips

[nellygrandin]

Hi Luca and David! I do love your interviews! They are great and motive me a lot. I would like to say I like the idea to do the interview outside but sometimes it is a bit hard to understand because of the noise around (this video is much better then to the one "How to read in a foreign language", the noise around was more important). I am French so English is not my first language so I think it is also for that it probably more annoying for me. 

[MusTaFa-wgnl]

Absolutely loved the last words of yours where you talk about the plesure of learning the pronunciation etc.:D

[АлисаБард]

Wow. I was so concentrated on what Luca was saying that I felt hypnotised by the end of the video.
I really didn't want to miss a thing from your amazing perspective. Thank you! I think I will rewatch this video tomorrow, to make sure I got everything:)

[rosebarbaro]

I never thank you enough for Undersand me. it is Thank you.

[AlexG-wknh]

really helpful tips here, Im hoping to use this to learn French pronunciation

[davidmansaray]

I clarified this at 02:53 - "developing a connection between the two" referring to written language and its spoken equivalent.