Become an effective communicator through better vocal diction.
Diction is one of the most important aspects of speech communication. A person with proper vocal diction is able to get his point across in a clear way, with strong enunciation and word articulation. Learn convey messages, concepts and ideas efficiently through working on your vocal diction.
Instructions
1. Use tongue twisters. If you want to practice getting better at standard speech, tongue twisters can easily do the trick. Work on pronouncing your plosive consonants sounds (the letters B, P, T and D) through reciting word exercises that repeat a lot of the same letters. Plosives are a common issue with diction as the sounds tend to disappear when they come in the middle of a word (due to sudden air flow halting).
2. Speak slowly. When you speak, remember that there is no prize for whomever rushes out the words the fastest. Take your time when you talk. If you speak rapidly, you risk your listeners not being able to understand everything you're expressing. Also, before you communicate something, ponder exactly what you want to say first. The more prepared you are for what you are going to say, the easier it may be to keep control of your diction.
3. Open up wide. Avoid mumbling and speaking incoherently by making sure that your mouth actually moves when you communicate. To ensure that you are doing this, observe yourself speaking in the mirror. Observe the motions of your jaw, lips and tongue.
4. Pay attention to intonation, which is the way your voice goes up and down as you talk. Put the emphasis on the appropriate syllables when you speak. Apart from accentuating the right syllables in words, make note of the fact that intonation can make a world of difference. For instance, "You're going to the store" flatly sounds like a command, while "You're going to the store?" with a subtle rise at the end, instead, comes across like a question.
5. Keep your Gs in. One pitfall that many people experience in vocal diction is neglecting to pronounce the G sound at the end of words such as "dancing," "eating" and "visiting." Make a point always to clearly and sharply pronounce the G at the ends of words. Apart from making your speech easier to understand, it will give off the impression that you care and put time into how you speak.
