The Power of Habit (For Pronunciation)
Habits - the Unlock For Consistency
The power of habit is an amazing thing. Harnessed intentionally, habits can be an effective way to gain skills and confidence relatively quickly. And the beauty about it is it becomes so engrained in you that you don't notice the amount of effort you put into the skill development.
Think about your current habits, your current skills, and your current abilities. You may take them for granted but things like riding a bike, playing a piano, and speaking a different language are amazing feats.
Riding a bike requires you to balance your entire body weight on 2 wheel contact points with the ground, simultaneously
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg made this argument. In 2011, this New York Times Best Seller convinced people of the meta behind habit formation and how to become the architect of your habits.
So why not use habit formation to optimize your English communication gains? You can already imagine its use for other habits.
Want to eat healthier - meal prep so you have consistent access to healthy, balanced foods
Want to read regularly - establish a routine before bed so you build in 30 minutes into your nightly schedule
Want to exercise more regularly - establish a certain time of day and commit to a schedule for exercise rain or shine.
Why would practicing intentional communication with the goal of improving your pronunciation be any different?
Starting today, before you read any more, commit to a number of minutes you are willing to work daily on your pronunciation.
5 minutes a day?
10 minutes a day?
15 minutes a day?
1 hour?
You decide what sounds doable for you and your life.
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Go ahead. I'll wait.
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You done? Now remember it for yourself. And don't give me any BS about why your life is too hard to meet your goal or that you were too busy or that something unexpected came up and disrupted your plan.
Let's also put it into context though. If you said 15 minutes, would you be happy with 15 minutes of exercise a day. Would that give you the results you want for a better, healthier body? If that sounds good, then great! you've picked an awesome level of commitment. If, however, you would scoff at the commitment level of 15 minutes for a better body, then maybe reconsider whether 15 minutes a day will get you the level of English communication proficiency and skill in a second language.
Hold yourself accountable and responsible for your decided level of commitment. Or, accept that you are not a person of your word.
Many times, I have this overarching question about how lofty client goals can be when their output or commitment is so little. Intentional practice with a focus on pronunciation is also a very different thing. Similar to in exercise where people advocate a mind-muscle connection, intentional practice to target the clear articulation of sounds and awareness of specific mouth cues is key.
Let's consider the following example client goal:
I want to communicate better. I am willing to practice 30 minutes a day with the intention to improve my pronunciation.
How do I define improvement? How would I improve this? What specific areas of English communication will you focus on in your 30 minutes. Surely you cannot expect 30 minutes a day with no specific areas of English for focus would miraculously improve all areas of your English.
What people are often expecting though in their goal for improvement is:
A sense of confidence in their communication, and;
The ability to effectively communicate one's message (which transcends simply speech clarity) with the correct tone and cadence.
It is also important to recognize that these are goals that transcend specific language skills too. Native English speakers can be shy, quiet, and uncertain as well - so although native English speakers' clarity is not typically an issue, effective, confident communication can still remain elusive to native English speakers and can likewise be their goa.
Putting some of this goal attainment in auto-pilot via habit formation will help make this task less daunting and allow you to implement it more regularly into your normal routine.
So, What Are Habits?
A habit is just a choice that we deliberately made at some point in time (how to eat, when to go for a jog, etc). Then, we stop thinking about, but continue doing it — often every day.
Habits are these formulas or patterns our brain automatically follows.
When I see CUE, I will do ROUTINE in order to get REWARD.
In the English pronunciation case, we want our habit to be pronouncing words a specific way.
By understanding how it happens, you can be the architect to your habits and rebuild those patterns in whichever way you choose.
Habit loops
Charles Duhigg explains that all habits follow the same, simple, three-step loop:
I. Cues
First, there is a cue. This is a trigger that tells your brain to go into autopilot mode, and which habit to follow.
Cues can be almost anything, from a visual trigger to a time of day, an emotion, a sequence of thoughts, the company of particular people, etc.
Because the goal is to be cued when using a specific sound, we want the cue to be specific letter or sound in our head when we are preparing to speak.
II. Routines
Next, there is the routine. This can be physical, mental, or emotional.
In a pronunciation case, the routine should be the particular mouth shape or specific mouth movement to achieve the target pronunciation.
III. Rewards
Finally, there is the reward. This helps incentivize your brain to strengthen this particular habit loop. Rewards can be anything from food or drugs that result in physical sensations, to emotional payoffs, such as the feelings of pride that accompany praise or self-congratulation.
In the case for pronunciation, we want a feeling of pride, self-congratulation or successful communication to be the payoff. We want it to be a memorable moment.
When you go into autopilot and the habit is started, the brain stops fully or actively participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. This is how it works efficiently. However, it also means that unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new routines — the pattern will unfold automatically.
When you apply this to communication, that means that unless you fight the habit of your normal pronunciation of English words, you will automatically speak the way you normally speak - with your native language bias.
Habits never really disappear. These brain pathways still exist in your mind and your brain can't tell the difference between habits you want and habits you don't want. So if you have an unwanted one, it’s always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.
At this time, your automatic routines decide for you to pronounce the words the way you always have - using non-native English speech patterns, emphasizing parts of the word or pronouncing the word using the incorrect sound. Your job is to create a new habit - a habit that helps your English communication.
Habits Are All Around Us
Why do you brush your teeth when you wake up? Why do you open the door with your dominant hand? Why do you put on your pants with the same leg first every time? Habits exist all around us - They are the unthinking choices and invisible decisions that govern our divided attention — and just by shining the spotlight on them again, we begin the process of creating new habits.
When you first start working on your English pronunciation, you will not be aware of what your mistakes are, what your mispronunciations are normally or what words to be vigilant around.
As you become more conscious of your speech patterns, you will notice what has changed, what things you need to work on, and what can be improved.
Keystone Habits
Some habits are more important than others in shaping our lives.
Charles Duhigg calls them ‘keystone habits’, and they can influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate.
Keystone habits teach us that success doesn’t depend on getting every single thing right, but instead relies on identifying a few key priorities. They are the limiting step in our chemical reaction.
The habits that matter most are the ones that, when they start to shift, have a domino effect on other patterns. For example, a common personal keystone habit for many people is regular exercise. Once people get that, sleeping better, eating healthier, drinking less, etc. fall in line.
For speech, it is more important to emphasize and overarticulate words than to sound "natural" if the goal is clear communication.
It is more important to pronounce the high-frequency words you use correctly than to know how to pronounce EVERY single English word.
Your goal is to communicate clearly. Not win a pronunciation spelling bee.
Go out of your way to practice your word. Get into the habit of seeking opportunity to use your practiced word.
I think the anxiety behind and pressure to perform is a HUGE barrier to people practicing and using words they are uncomfortable with.
The more you treat it like a special situation or high-performance, high-stress situation, the harder it becomes to perform.
We want you to be comfortable. You want to use the word easily, often, and casually. The less it feels like a performance and more like an everyday habit, the more easily you can apply it.
Focusing on these specific habits will help overcome the anxiety of performance and make subsequent English communication goals much more attainable.
How to create new habits.
So you want to be the architect of a new habit.
Put together a cue, a routine, and a reward, and then cultivate a craving that drives the loop.
To create a new communication habit, you need to choose a simple cue (e.g. A regular phrase you say at work 'Good Morning. How may I help you?), and a clear reward (e.g. the satisfaction of communicating clearly).
I never claimed to be good at drawing.
It's only when your brain starts expecting the reward — craving the endorphins associated with the sense of accomplishment and successful pronunciation — will it become automatic to speak this way.
The cue, in addition to triggering a routine, must also trigger a craving for the reward to come — it must be a functional word that you want to and need to use.
The Golden Rule of Habit Change
We know that a habit cannot be eliminated. They live on in your neural pathways, perhaps weakened but not gone. Instead, a new or stronger neural connection must exist to replace it.
To change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.
Use the same cue.
Provide the same reward.
Change the routine.
Almost any behaviour can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same.
But this isn’t always enough.
For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible. In many cases, this belief only emerges with the help of a support person or group (e.g. a loved one, a consultant, a teacher). Think of it like joining a workout class or hiring a personal trainer.
How to change your habits
Remember: All habits follow the loop of (A) cue, (B) routine, and (C) reward.
Currently, your English pronunciation is based on current habit loops. Once you have identified the habit loops of a particular behavior, particular sound, or particular word, you can look for ways to
To understand your own habits, you need to identify the components of your habit loops. Once you’ve diagnosed the habit loop of a particular behaviour, you can look for ways to supplant old patterns with new routines.
There are four steps to doing this:
Identify the routine
Experiment with rewards
Isolate the cue
Have a plan
Step 1: Identify the (B) routine
With most habits, the routine is the most obvious aspect: It’s the behaviour you want to change.
Example: Every word I pronounce that starts with "S", I pronounce a vowel first (e.g. "eschool" for "school").
In this scenario, the routine is that when you leave the house, you tell your family, "Bye! I'm going to school now!" before you head out in the morning. Once you’ve figured out the routine, you must isolate the cue. Opening the door? Putting your shoes on? Stepping outside? Saying, "Goodbye"?
And what’s the reward? The correct English pronunciation? Being understood by your family?
In order to figure this out, you need to experiment.
Step 2: Experiment with (C) rewards
Most pronunciation habits are obvious in retrospect, but incredibly hard to see when we are under their sway. We're simply pronouncing words the way we always have.
To figure out which specific pronunciations or sounds drive particular mispronunciations, you can track it with a list. This can take days, weeks, or longer. Write down the words you are mispronouncing and look for common patterns. It could be a specific sound, letter, but it is important to be reflective, honest, and open to analyzing your speech. Once you figure out what sound needs to change, try to change it.
During this period don’t feel pressure to make lasting change — think of yourself as a scientist collecting data. You want to experiment with different mouth shapes, different ways to say the word, the phrase, the paragraph. Ask a close native English speaker their opinion. Get feedback.
This sentiment of taking control and experimenting with or exploring your control over language is the secret to improving your communication. People who know how to change the way they say something are aware of what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it makes them a more effective communicator.
At the end of the day, your speech habits are simply habits because of your first language. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing bad about it. It is simply a habit. And you can change these habits.
When it comes to communication, the reward is often the same — being understood, not having to repeat yourself, saying what you wanted to say.
By experimenting with different routines (or mouth shapes), you can isolate what is the pronunciation habit, which is essential in redesigning the loop.
Focus on your sense of happiness correctly pronouncing the English word you practiced - the sense of joy, resolve, and success with making an association with correct pronunciation. Many times, for my clients, it is in the form of a Eureka moment or revolution based on an association with a rhyming word. This will give you the endorphin rush to want to crave this feeling again.
Step 3: Isolate the (A) Cue
Unlike other habits, the cue for speech is often something you can control. In other habits, the reason why it’s so hard to identify cues that trigger our habits is because there is too much information bombarding us as our behaviours unfold.
Why do I feel the need to get up from my desk and snack at the vending machine at 2pm? Is it the time? Is it the desire to stretch and take a break?
When it comes to communication, I can pick specific cues or specific phrases to connect my pronunciation habits to.
E.g. Whenever I say, "Good Morning!" I need to make sure I make the [ŋ] sound in morning
To identify a cue amid the noise, we can identify categories of behaviours ahead of time to scrutinize in order to see patterns.
Pick your go-to phrase or automatic phrases you say to ensure you use your new habit daily.
Good morning! Welcome to MacDonald's.
Good morning. How are you doing today?
Have a good morning!
Imagine how many times a person may say these phrases at work. This is how you develop an attention to detail and harness the power of habit.
Step 4: Have a plan
Once you’ve figured out your habit loop — you’ve identified the reward driving your behaviour, the cue to trigger it, and the routine itself — you can start to shift the behaviour.
Remember the habit formula: When I notice (A) CUE, I will do (B) ROUTINE in order to get (C) REWARD.
To re-engineer the formula, you just need to start making choices again. Break the original habit loop by changing it up. The easiest way to do this is to make a plan.
Obviously, changing some habits is more difficult than this, but the framework is a good place to start.
Once you understand how a habit operates — once you diagnose the cue, routine and rewards — you gain power over it.
So What Next?
What do you want to do about your pronunciation? Only you know how much time you were willing to commit earlier on. How much of that was BS?
I challenge you today to pick a sound or pronunciation you want to turn into a habit. It could be a word you know. It could be a sound. It could be a phrase. Pick one thing to work on every day for the next week.
Best of Luck!!
