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Speaking practice when alone?

  Tags: Speaking
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center Post Reply
Tyrion101
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3707 days ago

153 posts - 174 votes 
Speaks: French

 
 Message 1 of 7
29 May 2014 at 7:02am | IP Logged 
I am acutely aware that when speaking you tend to sound very different to others than you do to yourself. I'm looking for a way to practice speaking the languages I know (including English) and be able to work on things like accent pronunciation, and enunciation. The only thing I could come up with was getting a free audio program and just recording my voice and checking the recording for that, but as I am just beginning on some languages I probably won't be as right as I'd like and never know it. Are there any options out there for me? I don't know anyone who speaks my languages. If anyone is curious: French (close to fluent, though not quite) Chinese (kind of conversant) Russian (just started)
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6703 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 2 of 7
29 May 2014 at 10:24am | IP Logged 
Forum member Arekkusu talks about his "self-talk" method here:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=23061&TPN=20&KW=self-talk#325750
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Tyrion101
Senior Member
United States
Joined 3707 days ago

153 posts - 174 votes 
Speaks: French

 
 Message 3 of 7
30 May 2014 at 8:15pm | IP Logged 
That's an interesting idea. Though I'd have a difficult time finding someone who'd want to listen to me speak a language they didn't know, I do already occasionally read aloud what I know how to pronounce. Maybe It's time to start doing more than a word here or two, and going for sentences and eventually the whole thing.
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Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6497 days ago

9078 posts - 16473 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
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 Message 4 of 7
31 May 2014 at 11:31am | IP Logged 
I feel that I'm getting old and demented when I sit in a chair mumbling to myself, but less so if I can comment on some outside source - reading aloud is a doable exercise. Unfortunately I can't do classical shadowing because I can't listen and speak at the same time (for me it is a feat comparable to juggling and reading a newspaper while you stand on your head) so there one potentially beneficial technique went poufff for me. And I don't really like to speak new languages before I can participate fully in a normal conversation - not even on the internet - so in practice I mostly just think in the foreign languages I have to train until I can travel to a suitable country and speak them in their natural setting.

Edited by Iversen on 31 May 2014 at 11:34am

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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6391 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 5 of 7
31 May 2014 at 1:58pm | IP Logged 
Tyrion101 wrote:
That's an interesting idea. Though I'd have a difficult time finding someone who'd want to listen to me speak a language they didn't know, I do already occasionally read aloud what I know how to pronounce. Maybe It's time to start doing more than a word here or two, and going for sentences and eventually the whole thing.
Um, where did you get it that you need someone to listen?
To get your pronunciation (etc) corrected, you can also record yourself reading aloud/speaking and post it on the Internet (for example here on HTLAL :)).
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Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4894 days ago

411 posts - 639 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 6 of 7
31 May 2014 at 2:36pm | IP Logged 
You might check to see if your library gives you free access to Mango Languages. You can
record your voice as you practice a word, phrase, or sentence in your TL. You can compare
your intonation with that of a native speaker so you can tell exactly when your voice to
match theirs. And you can reply both voices at the same time to work on speed and timing.
1 person has voted this message useful



luhmann
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5127 days ago

156 posts - 271 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*
Studies: Mandarin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 7 of 7
14 June 2014 at 2:25pm | IP Logged 
Instead of recording and listening, I would speak on the microphone and listen live on the headphones. This instant feedback allowed me greatly improve my pronunciation back then.

Unfortunately on my current computer there is a noticeable delay on the sound output, which makes this method impossible.


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