Better Speaking Podcast 🗨️🗣️ How to improve your accent

So, when everybody really, really liked Debut,

I was like. But that's not - I can do much better

than that, you know? So, when I did Post, for me,

it's the sort of same concept.

Only I did it much better. Icelandic singer,

Bjork using English to talk about her albums.

I'll be talking to trainer Richard Hallows and looking at what makes

Bjork such a good speaker of English as an international language.

There's a very interesting theory

where if you choose one person that you want to sound like, and you basically

copy that person, you copy the way that they,

they speak - the sounds they make, the rhythm of their language that your,

your, your pronunciation will change to be more like that person.

If you find it difficult to speak English,

and would like some help to become more fluent and maybe one day

speak English as well as Bjork, then Better

Speaking is for you.

Bjork was born in Iceland and has become

a highly successful international music star.

She talks about her first two albums,

Debut and Post.

People really liked Debut

but she knew she could do even better. So, in her second album, Post,

She used the same idea:

a week in the life of an ordinary person and all the good things

and bad things that happen.

But as she says, she feels in this album

she did the songs better. When I did Debut

finally, after thinking about it for about ten years,

the most difficult bit was to know that

it wasn't going to be perfect because I wasn't capable

of doing all the things I wanted to do, but I just had to do with anyway -

and just take the consequences, you know, and make it be a lesson.

So, when everybody really liked Debut,

I was like - but that's not,

I can do much better than that, you know?

So, when I did Post, for me,

it's the sort of same concept,

only I did it much better.

So, the aggressive songs are more aggressive.

The happy songs a lot,

lot more happier, and the delicate songs are more delicate.

I've always thought of Debut and Post as twins -

And that's why I call them Debut, which is before, and Post,

which is after - sort of before

and after my little lesson, and I think after this,

I will move on to quite different things.

But the, the concept with both Debut and Post is a week

in the life of a normal person and all the ups and downs

you have in one week, which you cannot plan.

So, that's why I wanted the song,

both in Debut and Post, to be completely different from each other and just kind of

represent that you just can't plan your life, and you're not supposed to, you're

supposed to just enjoy it to the maximum and take it as it comes, sort of thing.

BBC learning English dot com.

And with me again in the studio is teacher and teacher trainer

Richard Hallows. Hello Richard.

Hello, Callum.

Before we hear some advice from Richard on speaking better, let's listen again to Bjork.

When I did Debut, finally, after thinking about it

for about ten years, the most difficult bit was to know that

it wasn't going to be perfect because I wasn't capable

of doing all the things I wanted to do, but I just had to do it anyway,

and take the consequences, you know, and make it be a lesson.

So, when everybody really, really liked Debut,

I was like, but that's not -

I can do much better than that, you know.

So, when I did Post, for me,

it's the sort of same concept,

only I did it much better.

So, the aggressive songs are more aggressive.

The happy songs a lot,

lot more happier and the delicate songs are more delicate.

I've always thought of Debut and Post as twins.

And that's why I call them Debut, which is before, and Post,

which is after, sort of before

and after my little lesson,

and I think after this,

I will move on to some quite sort of different things,

but the, the concept with both Debut and Post is a week

in the life of a normal person and all the ups and downs

you have in one week, which you can't plan.

So, that's why I wanted the song,

both in Debut and Post, to be completely different from each other,

and just come and represent that you just,

you can't plan your life, and you're not supposed to, you're supposed

Just enjoy it to the maximum and take it as it comes, sort of thing.

So, that was Bjork, a very successful international pop star,

but is she successful in international English, Richard?

I think she is.

I think she speaks very well.

I think we can see that Bjork has lived in England.

I think this shows itself in two ways.

One when we look at her vocabulary, and also her pronunciation.

So, what is it about her vocabulary that sounds so natural to you?

Well, I think it's the way she collocates

her words very well.

Collocates? What do you mean by that?

Well, the way, the words she uses,

they go together very naturally.

We use them together in a pair or

a chunk of language.

Can you give us some examples of that?

Yeah. She talks about before

and after, and the ups and downs - goes together very strong chunk.

Or, 'take it as it comes. I think it was life:

Take life as it comes.

Take it as it comes - very nice expression there.

The concept was both Debut and Post is a week in the life of a normal person

and all the ups and downs

you have in one week, which you can't plan.

So, that's why I wanted the song

both in Debut and Post to be completely different from each other

and to represent that you just,

you can't plan your life and you're not, supposed to.

You're supposed to

just enjoy it to the maximum and take it as it comes, sort of thing.

And those are, what, what you'd call chunks.

Could you tell us a little bit more about chunks?

So, basically, when we're speaking,

we don't speak word by word by word by word.

We put these words together.

So maybe you've got, you know, two, three, four words in a chunk of language and

then we put these chunks together.

So, it helps to speak much more quickly, much more fluently, and

it's also easier to remember a chunk of language, rather than individual words.

So, speech is made up of, of chunks, rather than words, and a chunk is made up

of a group of words that sound natural together.

Bjork does this very well when she's speaking.

What's the best way to go about learning these chunks of language?

OK. Well, first of all you need to be aware that chunks exist.

OK. When you know that, I think when you're listening, when you're reading,

you'd look for chunks of language.

If you're looking something,

looking up something in your dictionary,

don't just look for the individual word,

but look at the words that go with it.

So, if I look up in a dictionary the word 'advice',

I find that word and I find the words that go with it: 'a piece of advice'.

That's my chunk of language. So, when I record that in my vocabulary book,

I write 'a piece of advice'.

It's those four words together that make up the chunk of language.

And it's easier to remember chunks of language than individual words.

Yeah. It's quicker and it's more natural.

You also mentioned Bjork's pronunciation.

What pronunciation features

would you like to highlight?

She's got some very interesting pronunciation features, some native-like

features, which again,

I think, you know, they show us that Bjork has lived in England.

The way she says 'better' - she,

she doesn't say the 't'.

She says 'better'.

And when she says 'bit'.

She doesn't say the 't'. She said 'bi'.

The most difficult bit was to know that

it wasn't going to be perfect.

So, when I did Post, for me,

it's the sort of same concept

only I did it much better.

Yes, and I think I also heard her say 'li-le' instead of 'little'.

I think you did.

I've always thought of Debut and Post as twins,

and that's why we call them

Debut, which is before, and Post, which is after, sort of before

and after my little lesson and I think after this

I will move on to quite different things.

Some people might say that

this is not a very good way of speaking.

And in fact, people want to speak like the BBC

or in a very formal kind of business, businesslike way.

But in fact, I think Bjork, you know,

she's a pop star.

She speaks as somebody in a very informal way,

in a very young kind of way of speaking, and I think

it's for our listeners to decide what kind of person they want to sound like.

So, it's perhaps not regarded by everybody

as being correct pronunciation, but it is a very common feature.

Certainly, in particular areas of England.

You'll find people saying 'better' and 'little' very much in London and around London.

It's very, very widespread around here.

Yeah, yeah.

So, for people who might want to to choose to sound

like her, a more native speaker.

What advice can you give them?

There's a very interesting theory,

where, if you choose one person that you want to sound like, and you basically

copy that person, you copy the way they,

they speak - the sounds they make the rhythm of their language,

that your, your, your pronunciation will change to be more like that person.

So, where can people find examples of native speakers

which they might want to copy?

Well, obviously, if you're not in an English speaking country,

you always have the option of the radio.

Lots of English speaking radio, including of course,

the BBC, and just tried to get as much exposure as possible to listening.

Choose one person that you enjoy listening to and that you would like

to sound like. People might even want to sound like yourself, Callum.

Or even you, Richard.

Indeed. You never know.

For today, Richard Hallows,

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you.

And now, just time to hear

today's Better Speaking tips again.

Learn new vocabulary in groups of words or chunks,

not as individual words.

If you do this, then when you're speaking, you don't have to think

of what you want to say, word by word.

You can speak in phrases and be much more fluent.

Listen to English speaking on radio or television,

so that you hear as much good English as possible.

This will improve your pronunciation as well as

your general knowledge of English.

Try to get as much exposure as possible to listening.

If you want to really improve your pronunciation,

listen to the spoken English of one particular speaker

who you want to sound like, and try to copy the way they talk.

You could choose a favourite radio or television presenter as your model.

Choose one person that you enjoy listening to and

that you would like to sound like.