Words spoken with malfunction are like brain teasers, thrown unintentionally at the audience which they’ll try to decipher later; not the hidden meaning of what you said, but the mumble jumble that came out. However, words that flow straight out of the mouth like a fresh spring originating from a hill top will make many stop and take notice. Such is the bewitching power of words that if spoken with clarity and much conviction penetrate deep into the conscience and affect us in the most extra ordinary of ways. Take Barrack Obama for example, and the speech he made on the day he took over as the American President: truly a mark of a great speaker. Unfortunately, not everyone is blessed with such captivating speaking abilities as is Barrack Obama. On the contrary, the unwanted ability to kill the clarity of what was said have killed the confidence and rocked the eardrums of many. But there’s a good bunch of exercises that can improve the art of articulation that will make others listen intently and understand better. Below are mentioned some articulation exercises for you to practice with. Read on!
Strengthening the Muscles
Experts believe that most of the times articulation problems stem from weak mouth and tongue muscles. However, this is mostly the case with children because they somehow tend to avoid chewier food items and if it is so with your child, simple exercises like chewing gums or eating food that requires extra chewing can help strengthen these muscles, allowing for better articulation.
Tongue Exercise
It’s the tongue that lets out the words the way they are meant to be, and if the tongue itself is not in check, the words you speak will make no semse; sorry, sense. The way it works is, the distance of the tongue and the front of the mouth needs to be shortened for you to emit every sound clearly. To help this cause, you can engage in an exercise will help you better your articulation, plus it’ll be fun. What you need is utter the alphabet “A” in a larger than life manner, which will make you notice that your tongue is minimally touching your teeth on both sides, allowing “A” to flow clearly. Utter other alphabets in the same way to attain fluency.
Tongue Twisters
Tongue twisters are a good way to work up each and every muscle that gets involved while speaking. Practicing with these tongue twisters and mastering them will remove any discrepancies that occur while normal public speaking. Write the following tongue twisters down and practice either in front of mirror or with somebody to make it more fun.
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Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter bitter, so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better crisply.
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The big black bug bit the big black bear, and the big black bear bled blue blood.
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Seven shy soldiers salting salmon shoulder to shoulder.
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Some shun sunshine. Do you shun sunshine?
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Sheep shouldn't sleep in a shack; sheep should sleep in a shed.
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Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked?
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He sawed six sleek, slim, slender saplings in twain.
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I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.
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Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
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If Stu chews shoes, should Stu choose the shoes he chews?
Speak in Front of Mirror
Standing in front of the mirror and talking to yourself out loud, seeing how your mouth moves and what sounds are emitted by it is one way of going about it. If the person has problem understanding the movement of his/her own mouth, a speech therapist can be called in to observe and help by articulating each sound correctly and what the movement of the mouth should be, to the speaker.
Record & Listen
Another good way to work upon lucid speaking is by recording the sound of your own voice during the practice session in front of the mirror and listening to it later; looking for any impediments or out of focus sounds that you may have made. Listen to that piece of recording and work on your speech. Keep this first recording to compare it to the last recording you’ll make, to see how much you’ve improved.
Recorded Speeches
Download or buy famous audio and video speeches from the famous orators to minutely study how they enunciate certain words, emit phrases and terms, and allow their language to flow effortlessly. Observe and practice repeating after them after you’re done with the above exercises.
Breathe & Meditate
For those with whom speech impediment only shows itself during the nervous times like an important meeting or a presentation, simple & quick breathing and meditation exercises can help in calming the nerves, allowing you to speak fluently without fretting yourself over nothing.
Also, reading backwards, from right to left and bottom to up can increase your ability to differentiate between words, thereby improving your articulation. What’s more is that these articulation exercises don’t have to be a boring affair but can be quite fun if practiced with somebody or with little enthusiasm, and are good to go for everybody: from those looking to improve to those looking to perfect the art of speaking.
