How to improve pronunciation and get rid of accent

Everyone who learns a foreign language and uses it for live communication wants to speak with a minimal accent or better without it. At a minimum, so that the interlocutor understands you without problems. The pronunciation of individual words, stress, intonation - all this is not as easy as it seems at first glance. A strong accent can also spoil the impression of you. How can I radically improve my pronunciation without expensive classes with a native speaker, linguistic laboratories and special programs? And how to make the process fun?

The most important factor for improving pronunciation is feedback or a side view. While you think you are speaking correctly, the other person hears you in a completely different way. What can you do about it? Record your pronunciation. This way you can analyze and correct your mistakes.

To speak correctly, we need a sample. Of course, you can take BBC or CNN as an example, but it will be too boring. But what if you try to imitate the correct speech of your favorite movie stars? What about Leonardo DiCaprio, Doctors House or Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory?

First we decide who we will imitate. It is desirable that the actor has a similar timbre to you - it will be easier. It is also better to find out who this actor is by origin: if the goal is to improve American English, you should not take a native of Australia or Britain.

We need only two programs: a video player, for example, VLC or MPC Home Cinema and a program for recording voice Audacity.

• So, run the selected file in the video player. We listen to the phrase, several times.
• Open Audacity, click on the record and repeat what we heard. We listen to what happened on the record. Compare with the original. It is very convenient to use shortcuts: R for recording, space stop and playback.
• When it seems to you that it’s not bad, go to the next phrase. Repeat until ready.

By the way, a similar method is used by Hollywood actors when they need to imitate an accent for a role. I do not promise any magical results, like Tim Ferris, for example, but with persistent and lengthy activities in this vein, you can almost completely get rid of the accent.

Update
The comments mentioned the Englishcentral.com online service , which works on a similar basis. Of course, there are no series or films there. If anyone used, share your opinion.