10 amazingly simple tips on how to learn to speak beautifully (1 photo)

From his lips flowed such competent, clear speech, such intelligent and deep thoughts that from an old man he turned into a stately, representative speaker. Nobody noticed his thick glasses, bald head and threadbare suit anymore. Isn't it amazing?

Agree: clear, consistent and convincing presentation of your thoughts is a real art. And in order for your words to be listened to in the same way as that professor, you need to give a speech and learn to speak competently. This will be useful to you in any area of ​​life.

Thanks to these skills, you can be the life of the party, easily convince a potential partner to sign a contract with you, speak effectively in front of an audience and achieve any goals you set.

What is competent speech

Competent, beautiful speech helps us establish full communication with our interlocutor. And incorrect delivery of speech with a large number of stylistic errors will negate all efforts, for example, when communicating with a boss or in a conflict situation in the family.

Competent, correct speech is the absence of words - “parasites”. Those with a small vocabulary are faced with the problem of using the following expressions: “kind of”, “well”, “like”, “uh”.

In addition, literacy is incompatible with swear words; even a good-looking person uses open swear words in his speech, but he still will not become a cultural intellectual. Therefore, good speech and verbal abuse and swearing are incompatible.

Moreover, literacy is not only the ability to accurately and clearly express thoughts, but also to speak to the point so that everyone can understand everything.

Trying to make your conversation literate, pay attention not only to your vocabulary, but also to culture. To do this, speak taking into account the rules and norms of punctuation, as well as the style of the Russian language.

Literacy is compliance with the rules of stress placement, the ability to raise or lower the tone at the right moment, maintain intonation, and the ability to withstand pauses.

Books for vocabulary development

Books are always good because they allow a person to learn a lot of new and interesting things. Reading in itself makes speech more developed and rich, but not all books will be useful for these purposes. There are universally recognized writers, authors of real masterpieces that demonstrate the beauty of the great Russian language (and language in general) as much as possible.

Let's start with the Russian classics, which influenced the formation of Russian speech, as well as morality. Books by the following authors will help to significantly expand your vocabulary:

• A. S. Pushkin. It can be called the basis of Russian literature, because its vocabulary was about 25 thousand words. You can be sure that with the help of his works, poems and fairy tales you will seriously expand your vocabulary.
• M. V. Lomonosov. No less “effective” are the translations, letters and poems of this remarkable man, considered the founder of Russian poetic culture.
• F. M. Dostoevsky. By reading the works of this philosopher and novelist (“The Brothers Karamazov”, “The Idiot”, “Crime and Punishment” and others), you will not only plunge into the depths of the Russian language, but also learn a world of new feelings and experiences.
• N. M. Karamzin. We advise you to pay attention to the books “History of the Russian State” and “Poor Liza.” These alone are enough to enrich your speech with many new words, including barbarisms and neologisms.

Foreign classics are no less capable of influencing the development of speech. In addition, by reading such books, you will be able to get acquainted with the behavioral characteristics of people of different nationalities:

• French authors: Honore de Balzac, Emile Zola, Jules Verne, George Sand and others.
• English authors: William Shakespeare, Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Daniel Defoe and others.
• American authors: Margaret Mitchell, Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Jack London and others.
• Spanish authors: Miguel de Cervantes, Camilo Jose Cela, Eduardo Mendoza, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas and others.

Next on our list are more specific literature – dictionaries. Studying them, perhaps, even better helps develop speech and vocabulary. Feel free to take any of the listed dictionaries and start reading it:

• “Russian literary pronunciation and stress”, ed. R. I. Avanesova and S. I. Ozhegova.
• “School phraseological dictionary of the Russian language” by V. P. Zhukov in collaboration with A. V. Zhukov, ed. G. V. Karpyuk.
• "Dictionary of Russian proverbs and sayings." V. P. Zhukova.
• “A unique illustrated explanatory dictionary of aphorisms and catchwords for children” by S. N. Zigunenko and A. F. Istomin.
• “Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language” 3. E. Alexandrova.
• “Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language” by D. N. Ushakova, S. E. Kryuchkova.
• “School etymological dictionary of the Russian language. Origin of words". N. M. Shansky and T. A. Bobrova.
• "Dictionary of antonyms of the Russian language." M. R. Lvova.

And several explanatory dictionaries:

• Explanatory dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov.
• Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language by V. Dahl.
• Russian explanatory dictionary by V. V. Lopatin.
• Explanatory dictionary by T. F. Efremova.
• Explanatory dictionary by D. N. Ushakov.
• Explanatory dictionary by A. P. Evgenieva.

And finally, if you want to give yourself a real intensive training in speech development and speech skills, but also have an interesting time, turn to very informative specialized works:

• "A word about words." Lev Uspensky.
• “Do we know Russian?” Maria Aksenova.
• "Alive as life." Korney Chukovsky.
• “The Russian language is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” Maxim Krongauz.
• "Russian with a dictionary." Irina Levontina.
• "From Adam's apple to the apple of discord." Vadim Khrappa.
• "The Word is Living and Dead." Nora Gal.
• "The oddities of our language." Nigel Brown.
• “How to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere.” Larry King.

And in conclusion, a few words about how to quickly memorize new words from books. This is best done in a playful and creative way:

• Solve themed crossword puzzles dedicated to specific works.
• Answer the questions after reading the books. They can be found on the Internet, and answers are best given in writing.
• Write notes of your favorite works, imitating the authors. This way you will develop speech, literacy and memory.
• Keep a diary where you will write down words that interest you and that you like. Don't forget to include their definitions there as well.
• Try yourself in writing. On the weekend, spend a couple of hours writing a short story or essay on a free topic.

Communicate with people, read books, study dictionaries and encyclopedias, write down new words in a diary, notepad or on stickers - all these are components of the development of speech and vocabulary. If you want to expand your child’s vocabulary, read aloud to him, look at and describe wimmel books, play board and active games, make words from cubes and magnets and explain their meaning, support his curiosity and interest in the world around him.

Active and conscious actions are a prerequisite and guarantee of vocabulary development. Human speech can be compared to a muscle that requires constant training to grow and strengthen. Try to always keep it in working order, without skipping or ignoring new words, learning, clarifying and remembering their meanings. And the most important thing, of course, is the use of new words in your everyday speech.

To complete the picture, we suggest you take a break from reading for a while and watch a video with the participation of rhetoric teacher Anna Komlevskaya, in which she shares useful tips on developing vocabulary and speech. We wish you success and thousands of new words!

YOUTUBE How to expand your vocabulary

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• Russian for adults: 10 ways to close literacy gaps
• Development of speech culture
• How to transfer vocabulary from passive vocabulary to active?
• Parasitic words and how to get rid of them
• How to learn better what you read
• Learning a foreign language: old rules about the main thing
• Why you need to improve your vocabulary
• Strategies for enriching your vocabulary
• Tips for Improving Non-Fiction Writing
• How to develop eloquence: some tips

Key words:1Russian

Criteria that determine speech literacy

Speech culture:

• relevance;
• literacy of voiced information;
• accessibility of expression;
• use of epithets, metaphors and phraseological units;
• variety of speech without tautology;
• aesthetics.

The paucity of vocabulary and illiteracy repels the interlocutor and irritates. Even if you allow yourself to be tongue-tied at home, it is unlikely that you will conduct a business conversation correctly and will be able to express yourself competently when talking with your boss. And over time, when you have children, they will pick up illiterate words from you.

Causes of slurred and unclear pronunciation

At the age of 2-5 years, parents often complain about their child’s poor pronunciation. This is due to physiological characteristics when there is insufficient development:

• language;
• soft palate;
• lips;
• lower jaw.

Normally, age-related abnormal sounds disappear by the age of 5 years. If before this age there is no clarity and intelligibility in speech, efforts should be made to form the correct pronunciation. This process requires the help of a specialist and special exercises.

How to improve your speech

First of all, you need to read more, and better classics and popular science literature. Thus, the book will help improve your literacy.

• Try to retell books you’ve read or movies you’ve watched more often. When telling a story, convey your feelings to your interlocutor and watch the reaction. Record the story and then listen to it to draw conclusions based on what you hear. This way you will understand your speech mistakes, pay attention to where you placed the stress incorrectly, and identify filler words.
• Expand your vocabulary. To do this, after hearing or reading a new word, find out its exact meaning and origin. There is no need to use fashionable foreign words inappropriately or inappropriately, because this is unacceptable for literate speech.
• When reading literature, memorize interesting phrases and figures of speech and look into a spelling dictionary from time to time. However, be careful with unknown or little-used words.
• Try to place stress correctly when speaking, because incorrect stress is a sign of illiteracy. If you don’t know where to put the emphasis in a word, then it’s better not to use this word or look it up in the dictionary and learn it by heart.

During the conversation, maintain a friendly tone and change your intonation depending on the situation. To make your tone and intonation richer, learn to read with expression.

Working on speech technique

Form and content are the main aspects that characterize speech. The form represents the technical side of the issue. These include: diction, voice volume, speech rate. Content means semantic content, i.e. correctly formed thoughts, well-structured speech, ability to lead a discussion, rich vocabulary. For a speech to sound beautiful, it must be thoughtful.

Working on speech skills is a fairly lengthy process. It includes the following areas:

• diction training;
• practicing speech techniques;
• speech development (increasing vocabulary, clearing parasitic words).

Diction training

Diction is the correct and clear pronunciation of sounds. If you have problems in this area, you can identify them in one of the following two ways:

• independently, using a voice recorder of the conversation;
• with the help of a pronunciation specialist - speech therapist.

In the first case, you need to read aloud an excerpt from the text (it is better if it is the text of an audiobook spoken by a professional actor) and record it on a voice recorder. Then listen to the recording, compare it with the actor’s and highlight the shortcomings. To be safe, let someone else close to you listen to this recording. Let them share their opinions too. This will help you identify diction flaws that you will have to work on in the future.

In the second case, I advise you to contact a speech therapist - a specialist who diagnoses and corrects speech defects in people of different ages. Basically, parents whose children have difficulty pronouncing words most often turn to a speech therapist. It is at preschool age that it is easiest to get the correct pronunciation. However, you should not be embarrassed by a speech therapist if you have not been a child for a long time, and problems with diction have not gone away.

The most common diction disorders:

• burr;
• lisp;
• stuttering;
• fuzzy whistling sounds;
• “swallowing” individual sounds, etc.

Regular classes with a speech therapist will help you quickly establish correct pronunciation and consolidate it.

Systematic training of the speech apparatus is also important. Be sure to do the following exercises at least once a day:

• perform articulatory gymnastics;
• read poetry or prose aloud, pronouncing each sound clearly;
• speak tongue twisters.

While saying tongue twisters, place nuts or candy behind your cheeks. It will most likely be very difficult to understand what you are trying to say at first. But gradually you will overcome the resistance, and the pronunciation will become clearer. This exercise is regularly performed by announcers and actors.

Practicing speech techniques

To make your speech sound beautiful, in addition to diction, you still need to work on its elements.

1. Intonation . With its help, speech becomes “alive,” emotionally charged and expressive. Reading aloud with expression is a great way to practice. Read plays as if you were performing on stage, trying to express the emotions of the characters as believably as possible.
2. Rate of speech . The speed of pronunciation greatly influences how your interlocutors perceive what you say. Speech that is too slow puts people to sleep and people lose the thread of the conversation. And the too fast pace forces you to listen intensely to the conversation in order to catch the main idea. As a result, the listener has to ask again.
3. Volume and strength of voice . It is very important to learn to control the strength and volume of your voice so that during a conversation you do not whisper or scream. It is usually advised to speak 30% louder than usual, as if you want to be heard by the person standing behind the interlocutor. By the way, most people involuntarily begin to speak louder, especially when they meet friends or acquaintances on the street.
4. Volume of voice . Volumetric is called a “chest” voice, which sounds as if from the chest. It is deeper, more sonorous, stronger and more pleasant. The following exercise will help you achieve a voluminous voice: place your hand on your chest and pronounce the vowels “a”, “u”, “s”, “o”, “e”. As you speak, you will feel a vibration in your chest with your hand. Try to strengthen it. To achieve the effect, perform this exercise daily for 5-10 minutes.
5. Breathing . During a conversation, try to breathe calmly and measuredly. Then the voice will sound confident, the timbre will become softer, and the speech itself will be calmer. If you breathe too quickly and intermittently, your voice will sound weak and unsteady. Proper breathing can be learned through special practices.

Let's take a closer look at one of the most common mistakes related to pronunciation - too fast a speech rate. When a person jabbers, it is very difficult to perceive him by ear. In addition, in a hurry to tell everything as quickly as possible, he begins to swallow individual words, and in general he may blurt out too much.

To stop chattering and swallowing words, you need to learn to control the pace of the conversation. Proper breathing will help a lot here. Before you say anything, try to take a moderately deep breath, calm down and think that you have absolutely no hurry. To practice speaking speed, you can say out loud at a slow pace, for example, a sequence of numbers from 1 to 100. The more often you practice, the faster you will get used to speaking slowly.

How to develop speech correctly

A crossword puzzle will help you develop your speech. With its help you will remember new words. Play with friends or with your children using a spelling dictionary to guess words. The point of this game is that the presenter reads out the description, and the rest can only guess the word from the description.

• You must be able to change your speech and adapt to your interlocutor depending on the situation, for example, you should not call your boss “Vitek”.
• There is no need to constantly apologize; the habit of speaking in an apologetic tone has a bad effect on the interlocutor.
• Don't forget to monitor your interlocutor's reaction. So, if the conversation caused rejection in the interlocutor, then think about what this is connected with. Please note that maybe he didn’t like your speech, tone, or you constructed the phrase incorrectly. Analyze your performance.
• Get rid of unnecessary words, because they clog up your speech. It is best to express the main idea briefly, because literacy is the ability to speak briefly and to the point. However, if detailed clarification is needed, it is better to spend time on clarification than to be misunderstood. We must try to avoid tautology; repetition irritates people.
• Get rid of parasitic words. Because these are empty words that do not carry any meaning and clog up speech. You should not use words you are unfamiliar with, otherwise it is easy to put yourself in an awkward position. Jargon is incompatible with literate speech, so you need to get rid of harmful expressions.

Where does beautiful speech come from?

A child’s beautiful speech is the merit of his parents. It is advisable to develop conversational skills from childhood. This is facilitated by visiting a theater studio or poetry club, as well as constantly reading and learning poetry.

The childhood of the modern generation is inextricably linked with computers, which is why there is practically no time left for books. This is a very important shortcoming of many parents, because in the question of how to learn to speak beautifully, reading is indispensable.

Language and literature lessons at school make a significant contribution to the development of children's speech. If school teachers do not produce the desired results, parents must take matters into their own hands.

It is worth considering individual lessons with your child, or enrolling him in private lessons with another teacher who will help him develop the art of speaking freely on any topic.

But what if your parents missed out on the development of beautiful speech as a child? Don't get upset and think that you have no chance of learning to speak clearly. You can still catch up, it’s never too late to improve!

Games-exercises for the formation of intelligible, clear speech of preschoolers

You can play with babies from the age of one year, when the time comes for imitation. Different methods are used for training, the most common of which are presented below.

Exercises for early childhood

From one to two years of age, the study of sounds in speech begins:

• “ssssss” - let’s repeat over some water how she sings;
• “zh-zh-zhzh” - the beetle is buzzing, let’s buzz along with it;
• “sh-sh-shsh” - say how the wind makes noise;
• “r-r-rr” - that’s how dad’s machine talks, talk like it.

Here you can repeat the sounds of animals, nature, musical instruments and objects that make noise.

Gymnastics for articulation

Kids cannot yet perform complex tasks, so for gymnastics they use the easiest movements:

• Spatula. The baby opens his mouth, the tongue rests on the lower lip, hold for up to 10 s.
• Watch. The child opens his mouth in a smile, with his tongue you need to touch one corner, then the second.
• Elephant. Imitation of an elephant trunk: you need to close the sponges into a tube and stretch them out, keep them stretched out for up to 10 seconds.
• Mustache. You need to fix the stick (straw, pencil) between the nose and the upper lip. Hold for up to 10 s.

After the exercises, you should pay attention to how the child pronounces basic sounds.

Diction training in older preschool age

This period is characterized by the fact that the preschooler quickly learns new material, actively expands his vocabulary, stops lisping and begins to pronounce sounds correctly. To avoid “mess in your mouth,” you need to constantly talk to your child and train diction.

Impaired diction occurs due to the need to quickly change the position of the tongue. And if his muscles are weak, this will be expressed as “porridge in his mouth” during a conversation.

• Warm up lips. With your mouth wide open, pronounce the sound “A”, with your lips extended, “U”. With your lips stretched as far as possible, say “O.”
• Warm up the tongue. Click: reach the tongue to the upper palate, sharply lower the tongue. With your mouth closed, place your tongue on your cheeks one at a time. Reach the tongue to the upper palate, the frenulum should be taut.
• Timbre training. You need to take a deep breath, and as you exhale, slowly say “bom”, “bim”, “bon”. Syllables stretch to the last consonant.
• Facial muscle training. Playing pantomime with parents: the child must show different emotions using facial expressions in a playful way.

Do vocal exercises

For greater effectiveness, such exercises should be done in front of a mirror.
You can start such exercises by yawning, this helps to relax the vocal cords. Then move your jaw left and right. Don’t forget to massage your throat with your fingers while humming a sound. After the exercises, you need to take a deep breath and exhale slowly, combining this with pronouncing the letters of the alphabet, until you feel the tension in your abdominal muscles. Next, hold your breath for 10-15 seconds and try to stretch out any sound until the volume of your voice completely decreases.

Read aloud more

At first glance, such an exercise may seem banal and ineffective, but it is not so.
Reading aloud lets you control your pronunciation, volume, and pitch. The technique is one of the most effective for intelligibility and clarity of speech. Choose a good book or text. Watch your posture, don't slouch, straighten your shoulders and control your posture while reading. Each of these components is important. Control your voice tone, reading speed and volume. If you do this exercise regularly, you will be able to speak confidently, clearly and slowly.

Exercises to develop diction

So, we've sorted out the tips. I hope you will not neglect them and introduce at least a couple into your daily life. Now let's move on to specific practical exercises. They are suitable for adults and children from 7–8 years old. You can perform them at home.

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are great for training the pronunciation of sounds and clarity of speech. As a rule, each tongue twister is aimed at practicing a specific sound or combination of sounds. Therefore, I recommend that you first work with those sounds that have problems in pronunciation, and then train all the others.

Here are a few short tongue twisters:

1. The crab made a rake for the crab and gave the rake to the crab. Rake the gravel, crab.
2. Grass in the yard, firewood on the grass. Don't cut wood on the grass in your yard.
3. Advertising for grips has seams with coverage, but potholders without coverage have been snatched up.
4. The Queen gave the gentleman a caravel.

Conversation with obstacles

Squeeze the pencil tightly with your teeth and say 10-15 phrases. Try to speak as clearly as possible.

You can also use unshelled walnuts or champagne corks instead of a pencil. Place one nut on each cheek and try to make a small speech. You can recite your favorite poem or read an excerpt from a book.

After this exercise you will immediately feel the effect. Speaking with a free mouth will become much easier.

Voice acting

Actors who voice characters in films and cartoons have excellent diction. Try yourself in this interesting role. Take a short clip of the film and learn the characters' lines. Then play this passage on silent and voice it. Be sure to record the voiceover on a voice recorder.

It is unlikely that you will be able to voice it properly the first time. Try until you achieve perfect pronunciation and expression.

Pronouncing difficult words

By difficult words I mean words with a combination of letters that is difficult to pronounce. When you encounter them for the first time, it will be very difficult for you to read them without errors right away. But once you have thoroughly practiced the pronunciation, you will no longer have problems with these words. Say them slowly at first, and then as quickly as possible.

Here is a list of words for example:

• who took advantage
• P.S,
• illustrated
• phantasmagoric,
• disheveled,
• reverb,
• over-anxious,
• counter-breakthrough

Start with this list. When you can pronounce all the words clearly and beautifully without a single hesitation, make a new list.

Practicing the sounds Ж and Ш

Say the following pairs of words as clearly as possible: “fat - wide”, “heat - ball”, “frog - hat”, “live - sew”, “creepy - joke”. Then read the tongue twister: “The crane Zhura lived on the roof of Shura. The crane Zhura lived on the roof of Shura.”

Practicing sounds K and G

Repeat the following pairs of words until you can pronounce them quickly and clearly: “year - cat”, “Gesha - Kesha”, “goal - stake”, “guest - bone”, “bend - whip”, “goal - stake”. Then read the tongue twister: “Klusha Glasha prepared porridge with pear. And Glasha treated Klusha to yogurt.”

Practicing sounds Z and S

Read the following words: “gaze - rubbish”, “tooth - soup”, “zev - sow”, “green - salty”, “Zoyka - jay”. Then say the tongue twister: “The snake snaked, the snake laughed, the snake laughed, the snake laughed.”

Practicing sounds B and P

Read the following pairs of words: “bar - steam”, “ball - fell”, “pain - field”, “bravo - right”, “board - port”, “white - sang”. Read the tongue twister: “The bull is blunt-lipped, the bull is blunt-lipped, the bull has a white lip and is blunt.”

Practicing the sound C

Repeat the pairs of words: “heron - saber”, “street - fox”, “color - light”, “clack - juice”, “circus - cheese”, “target - mudflow”. Read the tongue twister: “The prices of valuables are priceless for valuables from antiquity.”

Prepositions

Combining prepositions that end with a consonant with words that begin with a consonant is a weak point for many. You need to learn to pronounce them clearly and articulately.

Read the following phrases out loud until your pronunciation is perfect:

• to Boris, to Makar, to Gordey, to Katya, to Galina, to Trofim, to Glasha;
• from the road, from the sidewalk, from Broadway, from the platform, from the tree, from the bird market;
• over the village, over the firewood, over the grass, over the steep, over the brother, over the test tube, over the door;
• under the block, under Tver, under Torzhok, under the sleepers, under the helmet, under the drill, under the building;
• in a crow's nest, in a lantern, in troubled times, on sale, in adulthood, in a vase, in physics.

Endings

Another common problem among Russian speakers is swallowing endings. Learn to pronounce endings as clearly as the rest of the word. When reading aloud, make a special emphasis on them. You can even raise your voice slightly, since most often we pronounce endings more quietly than necessary.

How to develop a behavior strategy against manipulators

Such people are needed in order to better understand themselves, learn about their vulnerabilities, and become stronger. Taking advantage of their “hint”, we will try to build a defense, develop a different line of behavior so that they cannot be taken by surprise.

1. When a manipulator wants to lead you into a conflict situation, do not fall into the trap. Look at what is happening as if from the outside. This will give you the opportunity to think about whether it’s worth getting into trouble.
2. You must clearly understand that you are dealing with a provocation. If, after communicating with a person, every time you feel confused, offended, wounded, and want to run away from him, you have a real manipulator in front of you.
3. The manipulator respects only his own opinion and tries to impose it. Is it necessary to enter into conflict with him? No need, because that’s all he wants. Mentally protect yourself and show detachment, especially if the provocateur begins to piss you off.
4. It is more difficult to deal with work colleagues, because they most often act behind your back. Such a strategist may spread gossip in order to advance in his career. He has many goals. It is better to stay away from such a person, but not to lose sight of him. This way you can avoid his snares.
5. There are also “power seekers” who, through “good” intentions, want to maintain power over you. Their ability to find vulnerable spots is very great. But they have a great sense of who can be controlled and who cannot. They will not touch people with a strong psyche, and they will try to keep the weak in submission. Don't let them get too close to you, keep your distance from them.

Behavior strategy

When faced with a manipulator, know that his goal is to throw you off balance. In order not to become an object of manipulators, you need to develop a behavior strategy:

• Ask him directly: “Do I understand correctly that you are provoking me to…”;
• Calmly, without nerves, say: “I don’t like that you discuss my mistakes in front of everyone”;
• Often they do not understand any arguments, so remain calm in any situation. A recommendation will be very helpful here: count to 10 or take 5-6 deep breaths. This is difficult to do when everything is boiling inside, but it is necessary. This will calm our thoughts, which means we will be able to deceive the expectations of the provocateur. And this is what is required. Perhaps he will fall behind and switch to others!

The medical side of the issue

Speech defects such as burr or lisp may be associated with congenital diseases. And these shortcomings are the first thing that needs to be eliminated in order to develop speech. Therefore, before you become interested in how to develop beautiful speech, you need to visit a speech therapist to eliminate possible defects. On our website you can find out answers to questions - how to stop lisp and how to stop burr in more detail.

Sometimes the patient is prescribed a surgical operation, after which the person will be able to use his speech with maximum efficiency. After eliminating all physical obstacles, you can already think about how to improve your speech and make it varied and exciting.

How to do the exercises?

Each exercise has its own nuances and characteristics, but the basic rules are always the same. Exercises to develop articulation should be performed in front of a mirror, with a straight back, in order to maximize control over the process. A full-length mirror would be ideal, as every part of the body is important. The biggest articulation mistake is transferring movement that is intended for the speech organs to other parts of the body. To prevent this from happening, you need to relax and not move. Excessive gesticulation is a sign of tension, so if you notice such a sin, it’s better to stop, relax, and start doing the exercises again.

How to learn to express your thoughts clearly. What will help you learn to formulate thoughts

• Reading will help you learn to formulate thoughts. The benefits of reading are obvious. Read good, varied literature. Read and re-read Russian classics - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Turgenev, Bulgakov, Chekhov, Pasternak, etc. You need to read thoughtfully, analyzing what you read, so that it doesn’t work out as Alexander Sergeevich wrote: “I set up a shelf with a bunch of books, read and read, and that’s it.” uselessly".
• A rich vocabulary, a good assistant in the ability to formulate your thoughts beautifully (read - “How to increase your vocabulary”), replenish it.
• It’s one thing when, trying to express your thoughts, you are looking for the right word and your meager vocabulary does not allow you to find it, it’s another thing when you simply cannot quickly remember to find the right word. Pay attention to the development of memory and reaction.

• Keeping a diary or blog will help you learn to express your thoughts. Write eloquently, vividly, about what is happening in your life, about what worries you, about your mood, your emotions.
• Take part in discussions on various forums and speak out. Learn to debate and develop the ability to defend your point of view.
• The 19th century English philosopher John Mill wrote: “Logic is the great persecutor of dark and confused thinking; it clears away the fog that hides our ignorance from us and makes us think we understand a subject when we do not. I am convinced that in modern education nothing is more useful for developing precise thinkers who remain true to the meaning of words and sentences and are constantly on guard against vague and ambiguous terms, like logic.” Study logic, it will teach you to look at what is happening more deeply and understand it, and this will be useful in the ability to express thoughts.
• An important fact in the ability to formulate one’s thoughts is a person’s environment, his social circle. It is clear that those who cannot connect two words with each other will not teach you anything in this regard, and if such people are the majority in your environment, this will only aggravate the situation. Looking at how people around you correctly express their thoughts, take your cues.
• It is always easier for a sociable person to find words to express his thoughts. If you do not consider yourself one of these, develop your communication skills.

A few more little lifehacks for speech

• Drink more water. The human vocal cords are like a machine that needs lubrication. Before starting speech lessons, rinse your mouth with warm boiled water, adding a small pinch of salt to it. This will help the ligaments become more flexible and relieve tension in the throat.
• Swallow any saliva that has accumulated in your mouth in a timely manner. Due to excess accumulated saliva, the pronunciation of the letters “k” and “s” is distorted, and words or parts of them are swallowed. Swallowing your saliva cleanses your mouth and also gives you time to pause and breathe again. Do not do this in the middle of a word or sentence; it is better to swallow your saliva after you have finished expressing your thought.
• Don't speak with clenched teeth. When you clench your jaw tightly, you are very tense, which can cause stress. At this time, you will not be able to open your mouth wide to pronounce words clearly and distinctly. If you notice that your teeth are already clenched, slowly take a deep breath, puffing out your cheeks, as if air is deflating from a balloon.
• Don't avoid difficult words; on the contrary, say them as often as possible. If you have difficult-to-pronounce words in your vocabulary, you are constantly in a hurry, trying to pronounce them faster, such attempts usually end in unclear and slurred pronunciation. Practice saying these words often until you develop muscle memory of how to sound them correctly.

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are one of the simple and effective ways to improve speech clarity. Start by saying simple tongue twisters, such as:

• Merchandisers lied - samovar sampling was disrupted!;
• De-ideologized, de-ideologized, and pre-ideologized;
• He reported, but didn’t finish his report; I completed my report, and I did.

Then move on to more complex tongue twisters. For example:

The fast talker quickly said quickly, That you can’t quickly talk all the tongue twisters, but you can’t over-speak all the tongue twisters, But, having quickly spoken, he quickly said, That you can’t talk all the tongue twisters, but you can’t over-speak.

Once upon a time there lived three Chinese: Yak, Yak-tsedrak, Yak-tsedrak-tsedrak-tsedroni. Once upon a time there were three Chinese women: Tsypa, Tsypa-drypa, Tsypa-drypa-drympamponi. They all got married: Yak to Tsypa, Yak-tsedrak to Tsypa-drypa, Yak-tsedrac-tsedrac-tsedroni to Tsypa-drypa-drympamponi. And they had children. For Yak and Tsypa - Shah, for Yak-tsedrak with Tsypa-drypa ​​- Shah-sharah, for Yak-tsedrak-tsedrak-tsedroni with Tsypa-drypa-drympamponi - Shah-sharah-sharah-shironi.

Your goal is to learn how to pronounce all sounds correctly and as clearly as possible, and not just scribble tongue twisters at a frantic pace. First, speak the tongue twister slowly, assessing the sound pronunciation, then gradually increase the tempo each time. When you achieve perfection in this technique, you can complicate the task. Before pronouncing the next tongue twister, put a few walnuts in your mouth.

Do you have to please everyone?

No, don't. It's better to be yourself than to try to please everyone. If a person wants to please everyone, he begins to say flattering words. Because of this desire, a not very pleasant impression may be formed about you.

Faina Ranevskaya once said: “It is better to be a good person who swears than a quiet, well-mannered creature.”

Be simpler, more natural, this will quickly inspire trust and freely express your thoughts. Your speech should not repel, but hold the attention of your interlocutor.