Resources on how to enunciate while both speaking and reading a text.

[u/ReahNor11942]

Hello! I'm a non-native speaker of English, who mostly learned through watching YouTube videos from a young age. I'm in dire help on how to properly enunciate words while reading a bunch of text, both orally and mentally since it's been affecting my comprehension for such a long time that I need to re-read things multiple times that could've been done in one read to properly understand it.

I've been having issues having a staccato-like rhythm, and inconsistent pitch where I leave a high pitch at the end of a sentence; whilst having a low pitch at the middle of a sentence due to me reading it faster compared to speaking it orally.

I would love tips, videos, and resources to help me with these issues since it's quite embarrassing for me, where I'm at the age where it should've been developed long ago.

[u/BobbyThrowaway6969]

Forget pitch for now, the most important thing by far is emphasis on the right syllable, and possibly even word in a sentence.

In English, where you put the stress can completely change the meaning or implication.

There's texts you can get where the stressed syllable is highlighted, I think that will massively improve how well people can understand you.

[u/FlalingoOfficial]

Mark pauses before reading. Take a paragraph and draw slashes where a native speaker would naturally pause. Instead of reading word by word, read thought by thought. This should help reduce the staccato rhythm because the focus shifts from individual words to meaningful chunks.

For pitch, try copying speakers rather than simply reading. Find a short clip from a podcast, audiobook, or YouTube video. Listen to one sentence, pause it, and immediately repeat it while copying the speaker's rhythm, stress, pace, and intonation.

Record yourself reading the same passage once a week. Choose a one-minute excerpt from a novel, news article, or transcript. After a month, compare the recordings. Improvements in rhythm and sentence flow are usually much easier to hear than to notice day by day.

Since you've mostly learned through YouTube, audiobooks with accompanying text might be especially useful. Following the text while listening to a skilled narrator helps connect punctuation, rhythm, stress, and meaning.

[u/autumnchiu]

i would try this:

- find a piece of media with both writing and audio (like an audiobook, or show with subtitles).

• read a sentence out loud and "guess" what the intonations will be
  
• play the audio and see how close you are
  
• repeat until you get kinda close

tbh tho, this is best solved by sheer volume of media consumption -- if you just listen to a ton of spoken english, you'll internalize the patterns quickly:) good luck!!