What means to have good diction and how to improve it

What is meant by the term diction? What does diction teach and why is it important to have good diction?

Before answering these questions, let’s start with an important premise: the key to any form of communication is the integral reception of the message you want to send.

Just as good calligraphy serves to make a handwritten message easier to read, good articulation and pronunciation serve to make an oral message fluid and more understandable.

It should be understood early on that diction in the strict sense is only an embellishment, an element that facilitates communication, and not a substantial part of it.

What it means to take a diction class

It is really easy to misunderstand the meaning of the word diction and find yourself wasting time on classes and exercises that do not improve communication at all on the practical side, in fact most of the time these make communication more difficult and uncomfortable.

The word “diction” takes on multiple meanings depending on the context in which it is used. Most people stop at the first meaning given by the dictionary, which is “Manner of pronouncing words.” This leads to focusing more on what is the correct way to pronounce certain words than on the shared meaning of those words.

Few people understand that there is no single correct pronunciation and that every language is something alive, changing over time and places.

In fact, among other meanings of the word “diction” we find more interesting ones: for example, “choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness.“

As you can see, pronunciation is of no importance in this case.

The Inborn Voice method for improving the “delivery” of ideas

Here at Inborn Voice we prioritize what really matters: the correct reception of the message, complete with all its nuances. The authentic intention of how a sentence is spoken is more important than “diction,” especially for freelancers and those who want to advance their careers.

When you speak, whether you want to or not, you are always transferring part of your identity to others. So it is appropriate to understand how to let the truth of who you are shine through deep down and not learn how to recite a script and use catch phrases.

Sometimes a slang phrase, a foreign accent, or a particular pronunciation flaw can help your message come through loud and clear to your interlocutor, nothing else is needed.

So the idea of pursuing “correct” pronunciation at all costs should be of interest only to those who want to declaim a poem or act. In oratory, in interpersonal communication, it is more important to choose words guided by one’s Inborn Voice, letting the emotion of the moment carry you and resonating with the interlocutor.

Don’t be fooled by the lures of “diction courses” that were very fashionable in the early millennium and are now just a laundering of surely outdated information.

If no one listens to you, if no one notices you, it is not because you mispronounce words, because you do not know how to make correct pauses, or because you do not use catchphrases capable of impressing. The problem lies elsewhere, at the root, which is in your Inborn Voice and your expressiveness that is somehow blocked and fails to resonate with other people’ s.

What to do to improve diction

Certainly it is possible to intervene and correct any kind of speech defects, even stuttering, remove local or foreign accents. Evidence of this can also be found in testimonials you see on the website, some even on video.

Here at Inborn Voice we help people from all over the world every day to feel accepted by the communities they live in by solving their own “pronunciation” and “foreign accent” problems.

The important thing is to understand that first you need to be able to express yourself correctly and make your identity stand out, including through the articulation of different words. Only once you are able to do this, if you still wish to do so, can you correct and clean up your pronunciation and diction.

The most practical way to improve diction articulation is to use tongue twisters. Surely you have seen some of them before, perhaps for fun. The goal is to train your mouth muscles and slow down your thinking so that the two go hand in hand.

Diction exercises: 7 tongue twisters to improve quickly

Each chant or tongue twister has its own reason for existence and aims to solve some of the critical articulatory issues of the jaw, lips and tongue in a fun way. In all, there are over 50 muscles to coordinate with each other!

Always keep in mind that this is not meant to be a race to pronounce faster, but to pronounce more clearly. If you want, you can record yourself and listen to yourself again, so you can check the actual intelligibility of individual words. Should the recorded voice seem foreign to you, not your own, then it is because you do not recognize the identity shining through the infrasound of your message.

7 tongue-twister exercises to improve diction

1. She sells seashells by the seashore.
   
2. Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?
   
3. I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen.
   
4. Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks.
   
5. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?
   
6. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.
   
7. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you.

What diction classes are and exactly how they work

I hope reading this post has made you realize the pointlessness of taking a standardized diction class when you possess communication and expressive difficulties. Kind of like wanting to take a watercolor painting class when you are not even able to do a pencil drawing.

Like everything in life you need to take things one step at a time, giving priority to the basics. Inborn Voice Diction Classes will give you a solid foundation to unlock your expressiveness and your way of communicating. During the course you’ll understand why will not need perfection or to respond to rules, but will just have to flow. It is not to be ruled out that if your voice leads you to success you will be the one to initiate new fashions and neologisms, forever changing everyone else’s “diction.” You will transform yourself from a performer, from playing a part in an always identical and inexpressive way, to becoming the creators of your own life.

If you would like to have Mylena Vocal Coach evaluate your expressive skills and diction, you can book a voice assessment session using the form below.