If you want to speak louder without hurting your vocal chords I’m going to teach you how in this lesson! If you’re ready, let's get started!

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PART I

Breathe

Breathe in through your nose, out through your nose

Breathe in for 6 breaths hold for 4 out for 8 

When you take slow deep breaths and extend your exhale you’re actually taking in more oxygen than if you were to take shallow quick breaths. Getting oxygen to the lungs is important. Slowing your breathing will also lower your heart rate and that will give you a calming effect overall. 

Stretch

Open your rib cage and expand this area. You want to think about making room. So if you have good posture, you’ll already be one step ahead. It’s important to adopt an open posture and stance so that you’re not constricting air flow and sound waves. 

Visualize

Visualize your diaphragm expanding

Feel your breath all around your core, not your chest. You want to imagine the breath coming from your upper stomach as opposed to your chest. It might be helpful to do some yoga breathing because you might have an easier time with the visualization. 

Open your mouth

Face yoga is another way for you to create space in the mouth. In American English we open our mouths quite big to pronounce the words. Just look at Americans speaking English and you’ll see we move our mouths a lot, creating shape and space to vocalize the words and emit sound. Try it, it’s fun!

Say this phrase a few times: After having an apple I feel amazing and awesome.

You may have noticed that I chose the low front vowel /ae/ as is “after” “having” “an” “apple” to illustrate this widening of the mouth :)  

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Now that we’re breathing properly and preparing our facial and diaphragm muscles we can practice with our voice.

PART II

Contrast

Choose a sentence and say it in a soft spoken way and in a loud way, do this to feel the difference

Hand on Upper Stomach

Every time you speak you should be moving your upper stomach where your diaphragm is; if it’s not moving you’re not using the diaphragm and your voice is not going to be as loud as it could, if it’s moving you’re using your power house 

Lower Your Voice

If your voice is too high it will strain your vocal chords

You don’t want to feel tension in your neck because that means your vocal chords are working too hard. Instead lower your voice and engage your diaphragm. That’s where the power is going to come from. Speaking loudly does not mean shouting. There’s a clear difference. 

Enunciate

Try to pronounce the words as clearly as possible. Don’t speak too fast that you’re garbling the words or mumbling because that distorts the message. Instead you want to sound out the words with as clear pronunciation as you can muster. Try to adopt a natural pace. Don’t go to slow, either, because you’ll lose the connected speech and we don’t want to sound like robot. Enunciating allows you more control over your voice and that way you can increase your volume more effectively.

Practice

Practice makes progress.

When you practice try to think about lowering your voice so that you’re generating power to speak. And remember that the power of your voice comes from your diaphragm. It all begins with breathing properly (through your nose and out through your nose) and making sure you’ve prepped and primed your muscles. The more you practice, the better you’ll become at breathing from and speaking from your diaphragm. And when you do, you’ll definitely be speaking more loudly.

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It would be helpful to practice these techniques in front of your mirror. And when you’re feeling extra confident, video record yourself so that you can see your body language and hear your voice. I encourage you to do this a few times a month and see how far you’ve come. Don’t expect to increase your volume on the first go, as it can take practice. That’s ok! Just keep it consistent and be patient. You’ll get there :) 

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Alright Advanced English learners. Hope you enjoyed this lesson. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already and be sure to share this lesson with someone you think would benefit from it. I’ll see you in your next lesson where we’ll continue advancing your English. 

Until then, keep up the awesome work.

About the Author and the Explearning Academy:

Mary Daphne is an expert in communication, executive skills and professional development. She is the founder of the Explearning Academy, a platform dedicated to helping individuals enhance their social fluency, boost their careers, and elevate their social game. Through immersive group coaching programs like the Executive Communication Lab and self-guided journeys, participants gain the social superpowers and career catapults they've been searching for. If you're ready to take your negotiation skills to the next level and connect with like-minded individuals, visit academy.explearning.co and explore the various plans available. Join the Explearning Academy community and unlock your full potential.

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