Surely you met people who do not want to interrupt, although they seem to be nothing interesting and do not tell. The bewitching timbre of the voice and the correct diction of speech are able to attract the listeners' attention no less than entertaining facts. Needless to say, the success of an orator largely depends on a good diction. And, if your listeners often ask you or are distracted during a conversation, it's time to think about how to improve the diction of speech.
Proper breathing
Work on improving diction begins with exercises for proper breathing:
- open your mouth and take a deep breath through your nose. Then slowly exhale through the mouth without closing it. Repeat 7-10 times;
- Close your mouth and make a short breath with your nose, expanding the wings of your nose. When exhaling, tap your nostrils with your fingers;
- repeat the previous exercise, only on the exhalation of pulling the sound of "nnn" or "mmm", and pat the nostrils in order of succession;
- stand straight, put your hands on your waist. Feet shoulder width apart, take a slow breath. Open your mouth a little, so that on exhalation, resistance to the lips could be felt. Exhale slowly, mentally uttering a quatrain. In the future, perform this exercise in different poses, even when walking or running;
- stretch out a few vowel sounds on exhalation;
- do a light circular massage of the intercostal area and abdomen, improving blood circulation and elasticity of muscles.
Practicing the language
To improve the diction it is useful to perform exercises that train the language:
- stick out the tongue and make them circular movements first clockwise, and then counter-clockwise;
- not thrusting the tongue, try to give it a different form: roll into a tube, sharpen or, on the contrary, dull its tip. Do a broad or narrow tongue, but you can - put it on edge;
- open your mouth in a half-smile, stick out your tongue and move them one by one and then into another corner of your mouth. It is important that the tongue does not slip over the lower lip;
- "Brush" the tongue, both from the inside and from the outside.
- close your mouth, tighten your tongue and alternately rest against them on one cheek and then on the other. Then open your mouth and repeat the exercise.
Developing the muscles of the lips
If your lips are not sufficiently mobile or lethargic, this can also affect the clarity of speech. Therefore, it is important to include in exercises for good diction those that are aimed at developing the muscles of the lips:
- the upper lip is well trained by the pronunciation of "vn", "hl", "tn", and the lower one - "pays", "ks", "bz", "rz";
- Putting a relaxed tongue on the lower lip, stretch "ee" and "Iii";
- carrying the tip of the tongue across the sky, stretch out "o", "y";
- pull your lips into a tube, and then smile. Repeat several times;
- having closed lips, picture how a camel chews a thorn. Take care that your mouth does not open;
- say the words to "b" and "n," each time tightly compressing their lips before these sounds, so that they sound loud;
- stretch your lips in a smile and stretch "z", and then "c";
- pull out your lips, put them in an oval and pull "shhsh", "zhzh";
Tips for Speech Therapists
Those who are wondering how to train a correct and clear diction, speech therapists are often advised to use tongue twisters.
In addition to tongue twisters, it is useful to simply read the words with the confluence of several consonant sounds, as well as separate syllables with voiceless consonants in different combinations.
Performing these exercises for diction, watch that they turn out easily and freely. Practice before moving on to more complex options. And do not be lazy: it is important to give training at least 10-15 minutes a day!