One of the other major areas of improvement was the accent and diction of participants. We have people from different backgrounds and geographical places. They have their north Indian / south Indian / Gujarati / Marathi accent. Many a times the pronunciation of a word is wrong and a lot of times the other person would not be able to comprehend what was spoken.
A few techniques that we used to achieve noticeable improvements:
- Speak aloud, speak in English. Your buddy will help you correct your pronunciation.
- Watch news on TV. Pick up the accent and diction from there.
- Watch news on TV. Repeat each word immediately after the newsreader speaks! This is really an exciting experiment. It not only improves the accent, it also improves confidence and concentration.
- Read an article from newspaper aloud in your team. If you make any mistake, read it again from the start.
- Focus on the problem pronunciations. Some people face difficulty speaking the last “d†in a word, especially the past tense. E.g. “droppedâ€. Some would pronounce it with an emphasis on “p†rather than the “dâ€. We worked with them on reducing this habit.
- Read more. Increase the vocabulary.
- Drop your “conjunction noiseâ€. Many people use “umâ€, “aaâ€, “basicallyâ€, “actuallyâ€, “I mean†as conjunctions between words or sentences. We asked them to be conscious to this and drop their usage once and for all. For some, there was even a penalty of giving a chocolate to others every time they used their favorite “conjunction noiseâ€.
The results in accent training were amazing in some cases and not too strong in some other. Accent and diction comes because of years of practice, so it would take a little while to improve on that. But what we saw, was certainly great improvement in the short time.