Pronunciation is a key factor in learning a language and there are many ways that you can improve to help make yourself more clearly understood.

Here are just a few tips that you may want to try:

1. Find out what you are doing wrong

If you don’t know what you are doing wrong then you can’t improve your pronunciation. Ask your teacher or native English speaking friends to listen to you and correct you when necessary. Ask them if they can understand what you are saying. It may be a little embarrassing and time consuming, but it is an ideal way to learn.

2. Slow down and breathe

People can get very nervous when using a new language and try to speak very quickly to give an impression that they are fluent. However, speed does not equal fluency and in fact, speeding up instead of slowing down can make it even more difficult for people to understand what you are saying. Remember that not everyone who is fluent speaks quickly. Think about the way you approach your own language. Do you speak very quickly all the time? I am sure that you don’t.

3. Make use of your face-to-face time with your teacher

Having a native speaker face-to-face with you on a regular basis has to one of the best ways to improve your pronunciation. Observe how your teacher speaks, how he/she positions their mouth and what their face looks like when they speak. Is their face strained or relaxed? Do they speak in a monotone or do they sound interesting? Listen to the way they make sounds and try to mimic them. Ask them to correct you and tell you what you are doing wrong.