Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Been There, Taught That]

In my experience, tongue twisters hold a lot of interest value for older students, especially if the teacher can impress by being able to say them and they are still easy enough for the students to master. You could very easily expand to a competion-and-prize-type situation.

I'd be interested to find out what others have done with them. Does anyone have a good tongue twister? that you have used, are using or someone else could use?

Edit: Okay, let's not say 'older students' in general, but those at a certain level of proficiency.

[cruisemonkey]

I use tongue twisters for teaching pronunciation of letters and to introduce new vocabulary.

Do the first sentence of a TT as a 'hangman' and when a kid inevitably puts up his/her hand and says "eff-uh/ess-uh/vwee" etc., stop and say "No... it's 'V', not vwee... vvvveeee... top teeth to bottom lip... vvvveeee... everybody... vvvveeee." Have the whole class practice and repeat several times before laughing maniacally while writing a 'V' on the board under the hangman and telling them "Ha ha, no 'V'." The kids love it!

[moosehead]

tongue twisters are excellent ice breakers for a new class - so much so in fact, i regularly use them

rubber baby buggy bumpers - that's my favorite

since you asked - how do you use them? i go over them in class and explain how they are exercises for the tongue and mouth muscles (which they are used in speech therapy sometimes for this purpose)

we say it sloooowwwwly first - really slow, ok?

then i explain the idea is to say it faster and faster - 5 times total - last time very very fast - and do it myself to demonstrate

then i pick the best students after the whole class has tried and got a good laugh - and we have a little competition - it always works very well

suzy sells seashells by the seashore is another one -

but i've found them on the web too - just do a google search

have fun! good thread topic by the way!

[moosehead]

one thing i want to point out - you said in your topic "tempted" to use this - as if you weren't sure - ? am not sure why you feel this way unless it's just a confidence thing

basically in teaching ESL whatever you can use to motivate your students, encourage them to pay attention, break up the boredom, etc etc etc go for it - and have fun doing it - teaching doesn't have to always be by the book, or what someone else does - develop your own style and find what works for you in the classroom - ok?

[VanIslander]

i adapt a few classics:

Team A: "Peter Piper picked a pot of pickled peppers."
Team B: "People pick peppers to pickle?"
Team A: "Peter picks peppers to put in pots."

Students love being on team b, in part because it's shorter but also for the energy and humour of saying it with a scrunched-up facial expression, following my lead.

Team A: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?"
Team B: "Why would a woodchuck chuck wood?"
Team A: "Why wouldn't a woodchuck chuck wood!"


The toughest tongue-twister for them: "lest we rest on our laurels"

[Easter Clark]

Here is an excellent website for teaching pronunciation. I have used this for ages 14-adult with a high rate of success! There are several complete lessons to choose from (including "P and F"). You can use the entire lesson, including worksheets and listening activities, opportunities for the students to record their voices--ideal for a lab setting--as well as video explanations on a few units (good for 2 + hours) or choose what you need--in your case, tongue twisters. It's terrific in classrooms with mixed nationalities because everyone gets to have their day in the sun!

One idea at the university level is to have the students record themselves reading the tongue twisters (either with audacity or ppt) and email the file(s) to you. Each word counts as one point. This works great as a speaking test!

[nomad-ish]

i use them during my camps and time the kids... some of the tongue twisters are easier than others, so we do it a second time and i let the kids change their TT with another.

the kids have a lot of fun, especially being timed, and they're constantly comparing their times on the board. i'm sure it could help pronunciation too, but i use it more as a fun activity.

i'm really fast at the fuzzy wuzzy TT, so i usually do that first to impress the kids i work with MS kids by the way

[GreenlightmeansGO]

I had some success with a class (only tried it once thus far), using 'red lorry, yellow lorry' to work on r and l. I started off with 'l' and 'r' heavy sentences, had them practice them and think about their pronunciation before going for the fun bit.

I hope they took something from that lesson.

[Easter Clark]

Some great tips here. I forgot to add: Be sure to ask them for tongue twisters in their own language--it'll put the shoe on the other foot, teach you something new, and will help them to lower their guard and have more fun!

[bbonthec]

I use tongue twisters in class all the time. The kids love them, and it makes them focus on pronunciation while speaking fast. A great tool!

The hardest (and shortest!) tongue twister in the world: "Good blood, bad blood."

Try learning a few Korean tongue twisters. The kids who are stubborn about attempting an English tongue twister will give it a shot if they hear you rattle off a tongue twister they know in Korean. They'll wanna 'save face', and it turns into a challenge for them.

[moosehead]

[Kenny Kimchee]

From this learner's perspective, tongue twisters are shite. Sure, as a teacher I thought they were a great idea, but that changed once I was on the other end of them.

My Korean tutor gave us some Korean tongue twisters a few weeks ago. I thought a) my pronunciation sucks b) this is frustrating c) this makes no sense and has no educational value.

As a teacher, I'll never use them again.

[ultra]

I am a pheasant plucker and a pheasant plucker's son

I'll keep on plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucking is done

[ceesgetdegrees]

Betty botter bought some butter,
but, she said "this butters bitter,
if i put it in my batter, it will make
my batter bitter, but a bit of better
butter's, bound to make my batter
better". So, she bought a bit of
butter, better than the bitter butter
and the buter wasn't bitter, so t'was
better Betty botter, bought a bit
of better butter.

Do timed races of this with prizes. The kids get quite into it. I'm at about 6 seconds fwiw.

[thegadfly]

Baloney-slicing contest...Tim is the heavy favorite...the crowd chants:

If it is thin, Tim will win....

Meh, I use them as a pronunciation diagnostic, including the non-tongue twister above... "eepuh eet eesuh teen/seen, teem wheel ween." We'll practice one or more, depending on the severity of the pronunciation problem -- the woodchucks get a workout with initial "w," Tim gets his for short "i," initial "w," "th/s/z/j," and syllabification....

She sells and rubber baby don't have sounds that usually give my students trouble -- the r/l thing CAN be a problem, but my students usually get it without too much drill (I have a minilesson to address the r/l thing, whereas the tongue twisters ARE the minilesson for some of the other sounds).