Improving accent

[Dylan95]

I've been able to speak Russian at a B2 level for just over a year now. While my vocab and grammar has gradually improved over this time, I'm not sure about my accent (I haven't noticed any improvements) It's nothing terrible, it doesn't interfere with anyone's ability to understand me, but it's still very much there.

What methods have people used to achieve a more native-like accent?

One thing my Russian friends have noticed is that while my accent is very little and sometimes (rarely) unnoticeable when I pronounce lone words, when I speak in full sentences, it becomes unavoidably noticeable. What is the cause of this and how can I fix this?

[AndyMeg]

Flow and intonation vary between lone words and whole phrases/sentences (and they are also context-dependent. For example, saying the same phrase/sentence will have a different flow and intonation depending on if you are happy, sad or angry).

Shadowing native conversations (from TV-dramas, movies, interviews, or other sources) could be a big help to improve your accent. Try to imitate everything, from the speed to the intonation and the pauses. It has helped me a lot with japanese.

You can also record yourself trying to imitate native conversations and then compare it to the original. Then try again and check again. Continue until you make no obvious mistakes and you get as close to the target native as you can.

[Jim]

Not sure if it will help you, but sometimes I use the voice recognition function on my iPhone to try to improve my accent. Pick a difficult phrase and see whether it recognises what you are saying. Not sue whether it will work for Russian, but I've tried it with French and very briefly with Polish and it worked quite well for me.

[tarvos]

Flow and intonation can't just be studied by imitation - to improve flow and pronunciation you need to work with phonetics closely. Find a teacher specialised in this (there will be a few) and you'll start to notice improvement when working on it.

I've done intonation work for Spanish and Czech and it's worked miracles - my Spanish intonation, for example, is very good and my Czech improved LOADS.