My top 5 tools to improve your accent in any foreign language
Pronouncing words, phrases, and sentences in a foreign language fluently and confidently is hard. But a clear pronunciation is important so that you can be understood.
How do you know if your pronunciation is right, or even understandable? If you are unsure about how to pronounce a new word, how can you sound confident?
Learning the pronunciation of another language is hard. That’s why training your accent is an important part of the language learning process.
Especially for lesser known, less represented languages, such as Gaelic, it is vital that you learn to pronounce words and phrases by listening and repeating.
There are a lot of sounds in other languages that might not exist in your native language. You have to practice forming all those unfamiliar sounds with your lips, mouth and tongue.
But don’t give up yet! Practice makes perfect, they say.
Lucky for you, there are some fun, free tools you can use online to train your accent by yourself anytime and anywhere. Here are 5 fun tools you can use to improve your pronunciation:
1) Forvo
Forvo is an amazing tool with big ambitions. The website has a huge and growing database of words and phrases pronounced by humans in many languages. It helps you learn the most useful words and phrases in the language and their human pronunciation.
I like the concept of Forvo, because it features many, many languages and because it’s based on sharing. As a learner, you can add words and phrases you want to learn to pronounce, and native speakers will show you the pronunciation. You can also contribute by pronouncing words for them and help fellow language learners.
Check out their awesome collection of pronunciation guides for various topics and minority languages, as well.
2) Rhinospike
Rhinospike is similar to Forvo. It is also based on an exchange of real human pronunciation by native speakers. You can ask native speakers to record real pronunciations and, in return, submit an audio for learners of your own language. The website currently features pronunciations in a total of 76 languages.
However, Rhinospike is focused on longer texts, articles, and sentences, as opposed to words. Ask native speakers to pronounce a text for you and listen to and download the audio to improve your own pronunciation. This way, you will improve both your accent and your listening skills.
3) HowToPronounce.com
Howtopronounce.com is a multilingual pronunciation dictionary. It provides your with both the audio pronunciation and the definition of words, so you can learn how to pronounce difficult words in a foreign language. As a great feature of the website you can make your own lists of pronunciations. This is useful to collect words and review difficult pronunciations.
Currently, you can find pronunciations in “only” about 36 languages on the website, but you are encouraged to contribute to the expansion of the website and to share your own pronunciations, so that other people can learn to say difficult words correctly, too.
4) HelloTalk App
HelloTalk is a language exchange app. It’s easy to chat with fellow learners from all over the world, so you can practice the language.
A really useful feature of HelloTalk is that you can send your pronunciation to native speakers and get feedback from them directly. Is your pronunciation clear? How does your accent sound? Can they understand the words you are saying?
This way, you communicate with real people who motivate you to practice and improve your pronunciation.
5) Aksent App
Last but not least, the Aksent App is such a fun tool for the pronunciation of words in any language. This app will help you improve your accent. You can even choose regional dialects.
It is important to note that this is not human pronunciation, as are the previous 4 tools. However, it is great because the app scores your own pronunciation by comparing your voice to the computer’s voice. This way, you can practice and improve and get immediate feedback.
Using this app is almost addicting because it motivates you to get better and better at pronouncing the word. Try it out!
Have fun practicing!