My phonetic log

[Ольга]

You know, I communicated with one British guy from Coventry and he understood me well.
Well, maybe he pretended to understand me? I communicated with him for about 6 months.
This is my spontaneous speaking (very slow and stupid)

This is a lot better than your first example. I am able to understand what you are saying, and I'm sure the guy from Coventry did too when you were talking with him.

So, I should not push too hard. When I pronounce lazily, everybody understands me. When I try hard - nobody does.

[jeff_lindqvist]

This is my spontaneous speaking

This was a lot easier to understand (I listened to samples here and there throughout the clip). By the way, here's an option if you just want to record audio:
http://vocaroo.com/

[aokoye]

You know, I communicated with one British guy from Coventry and he understood me well.
Well, maybe he pretended to understand me? I communicated with him for about 6 months.
This is my spontaneous speaking (very slow and stupid)

I only listened to the first five minutes of this one but it is significantly better than the first one. There's still room for improvement, but I can understand you in this one (I didn't look at the pictures as I didn't want that to aid in my ability). The feedback that is easiest for me to give would be to work on your word final [s]. Most of the time in the first five minutes you didn't correctly pronounce it (or pronounce it at all). You did well with the voiced version ([z]) but had a lot more trouble with [s].

I still think you really need to work with someone who is going to a. be brutal (but in a kind way) about your pronunciation while actually knowing something about phonetics and b. who has experience teaching people pronunciation. Yes I could understand most of what you said, and there's still a really big gulf between your spoken communication and your written communication.

[Hundetier]

Hello Olga, I try to get rid of my very bad pronunciation by working with "English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate" (ISBN 978-0521185141). This self-study book explains the correct pronunciation of minimal pairs and sounds, as well as the correct stress and intonation. On the accompanying CD there are many examples for practice (speaking and listening comprehension).
When I first used this book some years ago, it helped me a lot with understanding "real world english". I was told afterwards that I can be understood now without too much effort (at school my teachers used to call me a hopeless case). But I still have trouble with forming some sounds and I want to improve my speaking, so I started over last week. My goal is to get a decent accent, I can't bear my own one.
I'll follow your efforts and try the tips given here.

edit: CD, not DVD

[Ольга]

This is my spontaneous speaking

This was a lot easier to understand (I listened to samples here and there throughout the clip). By the way, here's an option if you just want to record audio:
http://vocaroo.com/

My mic is of very bad quality, that's why I have to use the web camera, in order to record the clear sound (inside of my webcam is very good mic).

[Ольга]

Hello Olga, I try to get rid of my very bad pronunciation by working with "English Pronunciation in Use Intermediate" (ISBN 978-0521185141). This self-study book explains the correct pronunciation of minimal pairs and sounds, as well as the correct stress and intonation. On the accompanying DVD there are many examples for practice (speaking and listening comprehension).
When I first used this book some years ago, it helped me a lot with understanding "real world english". I was told afterwards that I can be understood now without too much effort (at school my teachers used to call me a hopeless case). But I still have trouble with forming some sounds and I want to improve my speaking, so I started over last week. My goal is to get a decent accent, I can't bear my own one.
I'll follow your efforts and try the tips given here.

Thank you! I will try.

[reineke]

Much better but you have a lot of room for improvement . Perhaps you were trying too hard to sound British in the other one.

"Spikkin'" vs speaking... I think you need to listen more. Practice every day.

[arthaey]

In addition to just asking here on the forum, you can find language exchange partners at ConversationExchnage.com.

As for your pronunciation, I agree with the advice you've been given so far. If you are at all interested in learning about phonetics from an academic linguistic point of view, I highly recommend spending the initial effort to learn about the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the sounds they describe. Then use the technical descriptions of English sounds to help your pronunciation:

• Russian Wikipedia page on the IPA
• English discussion about the IPA

I hope that helps! I know how frustrating it can be to have your written skills be so far ahead of your spoken skills. Luckily, it's something that can be fixed by practicing speaking.

[aokoye]

In addition to the links that arthaey listed, the University of Iowa also has a helpful site for the sounds some dialects of American English that you can find here.

[Ольга]

My attempt # 2.