KOPT55:
Op, you have a valid concern and I will give you five steps that will help you.

The first tip is that you have to choose which accent you want to gain proficiency in. This could be American English accent, British accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), or even our Polished Nigerian accent.

If you choose our polished Nigerian accent, then the next step will be to expose yourself to hours upon hours of media and speech practice in the in that accent.

If there a an actor or newscaster that you like their enunciation, download one of their videos to your phone and first watch over and over again till you are fairly familiar with the content.

Next step will be to attempt to speak like that person speaks. If you have a laptop, or watching the video on Youtube, set the speed to 1.25, that is slightly slow playback speed. When the author says something, repeat after them. Own the lines, let the actor live inside your head momentarily. Ensure you pronounce and speak the way the actor is speaking. Genuflect, laugh, dance, smoke weed or drink alchohol. You need to be free and mentally unfiltered in order to allow your mirror neurons pick up and imprint the nuances of the accent inside your head. Another option will be to find somebody from your state who speaks well and use them as a model.


Do this as many times as you can. Expect SIGNIFICANT CHANGES in your enunciation after the first six weeks. Continue till the third month and you would have made significant progress.


VOWELS

A.E.I.O.U as you may know are called vowels. These sounds wherever they occur is the one that most often mispronounced by non-native speaker.

Do you know the difference between these homonyms?

1- beach vs bitch
2-sheet vs shit
3-lip vs leap
4-engine vs ingenuous?

Learn proper pronunciation! Mind vowels wherever they occur in your speech. Nigerian' especially get most English vowels wrong.

Next, please learn some grammar. You might think you don't need it but it is the foundation to good speech as well. Understanding what the rules are help one gain insights in ways they would not have in absence of.

Read a whole lot, have a dictionary that pronounces words, immerse yourself in language rich environments such as debates, plays, seminars etc.

For anyone who is wondering -- I went to a voice training school and now do voice-over work sometimes. I was once like OP.

ultimateballer:
Jay Z, Diddy and Dr. Dre arenow the richest musicians in the world

nifemi7259:

Donald3d:
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