Stop wasting time on "mouth gym" exercises! 🛑 If you want a clearer English accent, you don't need "stronger" muscles—you need better coordination and motor patterns.
In this video, I explain why oral motor exercises fail ESL learners and show you the most effective way to train your brain and mouth: Drills and Shadowing.
🚀 MASTER YOUR ACCENT WITH MY COURSES If you find today's shadowing exercise helpful, my full courses provide hours of guided practice to help you speak English more clearly and confidently.
📽️ WHAT WE COVER TODAY The Muscle Myth: Why "strength" isn't the problem for typically developing adults.
Placement Drills: How to find the correct "home base" for English sounds.
Word Practice: Transitioning from isolated sounds to real words.
Shadowing Practice: A real-time, follow-along session to improve your rhythm and intonation.
Why Shadowing? Shadowing is the "secret sauce" to bridging the gap between learning a sound and using it automatically in conversation.
Timestamps: 0:00 The Truth About Mouth Exercises 1:45 Strength vs. Motor Patterns 3:20 Placement Drills 5:10 Word Drills 7:00 Shadowing Practice (Follow Me!) 9:30 How to use my courses for faster results
Connect with me: Instagram: @tarlespeech Website: tarlespeech.com
Welcome back everyone. This is Jennifer Tarle with Tarle Speech English and I am here today
to talk to you about exercises versus drill practice for sounds in words and just while you
are speaking. I get so many requests for me to make a video on how to complete exercises for
your mouth so that you can be a clearer speaker. I'm here to tell you you don't need any special
exercises besides shadowing practice to practice words and just completing some drill which means
repetitions to learn and to sort of solidify the motor pattern that you need to say words.
The reason that you really do not need an exercise program for your mouth is because
most of my students do not have a disability and I would say in my 20 years of coaching people on
better communication, I've seen hundreds of people. I've had two people who have truly
had a speech or a hearing or some type of true communication disability. They
needed a little extra help. Most people who seek my help here on YouTube and on my podcast,
you just need to know what you were doing differently, what you need to do to be clearer
and more effective in your communication, and then you need a little practice. I compare this
to driving or learning how to play the guitar or even learning how to golf or maybe play
pickleball. Yes, you can do some exercises to maybe increase your strength, but the big thing
that you need is practice. You need repetition of the skill that you are learning and in
communication that is no different. So if you are looking to finally make sure that you use
the correct ending on a word, you need to practice word endings. If you always say a school
and you need to maybe stop using that initial vowel, then you just need to practice as ones
together and just kind of keep doing repetitions. Once you get really good at that, you need to
start using all of these new skills and these new sounds while you are maybe reading and then
while you are talking to someone. It is about using the sounds in words, not necessarily
building strength with your mouth. You already have strength with your mouth.
You already have the ability to move your mouth because you speak another language and you are
using your mouth to speak perfectly in that language. So again, I recommend and I find
in my 20 years of experience, the best outcomes when people want to change their way of speaking
is to number one, identify what the issue is. Number two, to practice what you need to do to
change that issue in a very easy way. If we are talking about changing your pronunciation,
that can be practicing words. Then make it a little harder. Again, if we are talking about
pronunciation, then practice those words and sentences while reading and then while having
a conversation. Drills alone won't guarantee that you're able to do something. It's about
sort of upping that ante and transferring your skills to real world situations that are going
to make the difference. Communication doesn't happen in isolation. So get out there,
practice what you need to do while you are having a conversation and your brain will generalize
those skills more quickly. One trick that I tell all of my students that really, really works
is to find words that are really difficult for you to say that you use all of the time at work.
Practice those words and then kind of keep a little list of those next to your computer at work
and make sure that you are doing your best to pronounce those words perfectly during the work
day. All of those little micro practices will add up to a lot of practice by the end of the day
and you will more easily generalize those words, those things that you say all of the time and you
will have faster improvement to be as clear and as confident as you want to be. So if you want
increased participation in meetings at work, reduce effort to communicate with even maybe
the person who is the checkout lady at the grocery store. If you want greater flexibility to
communicate with everyone, not just people who really know you well and if you want more confidence
and changes that last, then embrace practice of words. Don't worry about practicing exercises
with your mouth. Just do the work, practice the skills and use that pronunciation throughout the
day and you will get there. Good luck everyone and I will see you again soon.
