A clear accent - and a good speaking voice in any language -

requires you to open your mouth in order to form the words

properly.

It sounds obvious, yet how many times have you heard someone

mumbling nervously through an interview, or speaking to quickly

in a corporate presentation?

Speakers with, for example some Indian accents and some regional

British accents (Glasgow and Liverpool in particular) don't tend

to open their mouths very wide when they speak.

For non-native speakers of English, what this means is that when

you DO speak English, you are literally not opening your mouth

wide enough to make the sounds and speak the language properly!

Some of the long English vowel sounds such as the 'aw' in 'prawn'

and the 'oh' in 'phone' , both of which need an open mouth for

correct pronunciation, are shortened to an 'o' sound....which is

not correct for a clear, neutral British accent.

So, what can you do?

The main thing is to practice opening your mouth wider than you

would normally when you are speaking English, Yes, it will feel a

little strange, but you will find that by moving your mouth more,

your are able to pronounce English words clearly and with a

better accent.

The is a particularly important for the correct pronunciation of

English vowel sounds, which non native speakers, as I have

mentioned, often pronounce incorrectly by not keeping their

mouths open enough, or by putting their mouths in the wrong

position.

How much does this matter? Well how well do you want to speak

English?! The important point is that a strong accent can be

difficult to understand, and if you are difficult to understand,

people will just stop listening.

One of the most useful things you can do is practice vocal

exercises to improve your pronunciation. The following exercise

encourages you to practice English vowel and consonant sounds

without forming them into words, and it's one that I often use in

accent reduction and public speaking classes:

The sounds are:

Oo as in shoe

Oh as in phone

Or as in port

Ah as in cart

Ay as in pay

Ee as in sheet

As you can see, these are all long English vowel sounds, so

stretch them out to make sure that you aren't shortening them.

Of course, it's difficult, if not impossible to imagine the

sounds of English from the written word, so listen for these

sounds as spoken by native speakers, and copy them.

Improving your English is often about changing mother tongue

habits, and opening your mouth a little wider when speaking

English is one of them.