I’m trying to improve my pronunciation and conversation skills.
I watch movies and TV shows in English. I read a lot. Unfortunatelly, it doesn’t contribute to my pronunciation. I’ve got a hursh Russian accent and I’d like to fix it as much as possible :)
I’d love to speak to people from US, UK, Canada or Australia. I use Skype, my userid is nikita-vs.
Consider looking at the IPA ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet</a> ;). If you spend a couple of hours with it, you can see how your mouth has been trained to make sounds in Russian that are not the same as the sounds in English. Of course, this is only the technical part. There's the fun part, the practice part, and the listening (to others and yourself) part.
What you really need is to have a written article, and then an MP3 of a native speaker reading that article.
A good source is Voice of America's Special English News Service: <a href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/">http://learningenglish.voanews.com/</a>;
I don't have enough room here for instructions, but I did a big 3-part post on my blog about pronunciation, so check it out if you'd like:
<a href="http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/01/lucubration-1-singing-birds-and-perfect.html">http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/01/lucubration-1-singing-birds-and-perfect.html</a>;
<a href="http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/02/pronunciation-pitfalls-and-procurement.html">http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/02/pronunciation-pitfalls-and-procurement.html</a>;
<a href="http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/02/lucubration-3-techniques-of.html">http://robmylanguage.blogspot.com/2012/02/lucubration-3-techniques-of.html</a>;
I find that a good way to work on pronunciation is to listen to a native speaker prnounce the word, and then record yourself pronouncing it.
Listen to the recording, and correct your pronounciation until it is as close to theirs as you can make it.
(But this is from someone with a heinous accent in Russian, so it may not be too useful.)
Keep listening and also you have to speak. I'd recommend listening a lot of radio. Here is an exemple of oen of the stations with a good and clear diction:
I do always agree with waht they are saying so I am responcible for the context :)
Also http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ is a good source of the English audio if you preffer British English.
Again, talk too. Just listening is not enough. Try to repeat their phrases and listen to your pronounciation.
Also you can listen to the pronounciation of words on the sites like these:
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Good luck.
