Take Your Tongue to the Gym - Exercises for Accent Reduction
Learning a second or third language is a massive accomplishment. Not only do you have to learn to comprehend a totally new language, you need to learn to use over 100 muscles in your mouth, face, and throat to make completely new sounds. Training those muscles is one of the most important steps in reducing your accent to make your speech clearer and smoother. Below, we’ll look at fifteen tongue exercises to help make your English sound more natural.
Why Exercise My Tongue?
Every language has a unique set of phonemes or small sounds that are combined to create words. As babies, we intuitively learn to produce the phonemes of our native language as a natural part of learning to speak. When we learn a new language as adults, however, we have to overcome decades of muscle memory that we may not even realize we’d developed to form completely new phonemes that may not exist in our native language.
While listening to native speakers and practicing speaking can help develop these new muscle patterns, focusing on training our speech muscles to move in new ways can help make your speech more fluent faster. Tongue exercises work similarly to a soccer player doing lunges at the gym; they may not lunge their way across the pitch, but the work they do at the gym to improve their stability and strengthen their hamstrings will show in their playing.
During accent reduction lessons, we encourage students to practice the following tongue exercises which are specifically tailored towards the English language. While it’s not required, doing these exercises in front of a mirror can be extremely helpful.
External Tongue Exercises
Hold each of these positions for five seconds and repeat five times
Forward: Stick your tongue straight out as far as you can.
Nose: Lift your tongue as far as you can towards the tip of your nose.
Chin: Stretch your tongue as far as you can down towards your chin.
Left: Stick your tongue out and stretch it to the left as though trying to lick your left cheek.
Right: Stick your tongue out and stretch it to the right as though trying to lick your left cheek.
Clockwise circle: Starting with your tongue stretched towards your nose, rotate your tongue in a clockwise circle five times, moving down towards your chin and then back up to your nose.
Counterclockwise circle: Starting with your tongue stretched towards your nose, rotate your tongue in a counterclockwise circle five times, moving down towards your chin and then back up to your nose.
Internal Tongue Exercises
With the exception of the final exercise, these exercises can be done with your mouth closed. However, many students find it easier to do these exercises with their mouth open in front of a mirror. Hold each position for five seconds and repeat five times.
Curl up: Stick your tongue between your teeth and stretch it up over the front of your upper row of teeth.
Curl down: Stick your tongue between your teeth and stretch it down over the front of your bottom row of teeth.
Tongue tip to upper teeth: Touch the tip of your tongue to the bottom edge of your upper row of teeth.
Tongue tip to lower teeth: Touch the tip of your tongue to the top edge of your bottom row of teeth.
Tongue tip to upper gum line: Touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your upper teeth where they meet your gums.
Tongue tip to lower gum line: Touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your lower teeth where they meet your gums.
Tongue tip to alveolar ridge: The alveolar ridge is the ridge of bone just above your gum line that contains the sockets that hold your teeth. Touch the tip of your tongue to alveolar ridge at the back of your upper teeth.
Tongue tip to hard palate: Your hard palate is the boney part of the roof of your mouth. Curl your tongue up and touch the tip to your hard palate.
Tongue tip to soft palate: Your soft palate is the soft, fleshy part of the roof of your mouth behind your hard palate (towards your throat). Curl your tongue up and back and touch the tip to your soft palate.
Draw your tongue back slowly: Begin with your mouth open, the tip of your tongue resting against the back of your bottom teeth. Keeping your tongue lowered, slowly draw it back towards your throat. Slowly saying the word “eye” can be helpful in performing this movement. Repeat ten times.
Book a Lesson Today to Take Your Tongue Gym to the Next Level
Give these exercises and let us know how they went! If you want to take the next step in your accent reduction journey, you can schedule a coaching session with Zelda by clicking this link. Congrats on your language learning success and remember to love your voice!
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