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If you speak with a Nigerian accent how can you make your meaning clearer?
Most words in English emphasize the first syllable. So the word working is WERE (king). No were KING. If you emphasize the second syllable the listener doesn't hear working but were king. This is con, fuse, ing. (See what I mean? Should be confusing. The listener struggles to put together the syllables. By the time he or she has grasped the meaning of the last sentence, he or she has missed the meaning of the next one.)
Tips
1 Use a dictionary which gives you the pronunciation of words. Often you use one word frequently. Use it wrongly, and you have a hundred misunderstood sentences, 100 strains on the attention of the audience. Get that one word right and you have made 100 improvements and transformed your entire speech, won a competition or got a job.
2 Ask two people with different but good, clear English accents to read you your speech and listen to how they pronounce words. Then you read it aloud, asking them after each sentence for any changes they suggest. Underline or highlight the changes.
Labels: accent, English, intonation, language, Nigeria
