Good practice is targeted and consistent. Tongue twisters are a perfect way to zero in on your own pronunciation challenges. This lesson will help you pick or create some good tongue twisters, and show you how to use them correctly for rapid improvement.
Introduction
Do you know any tongue twisters in your native language? Tell your teacher. What about in English?
We want to get them to reel off a tongue twister at breakneck speed. See how they go with the English one.
Examples:
Red lorry, yellow lorry.
He threw three free throws.
Six Czech cricket critics.
Warm Up
What are the sounds in English you need to improve? Tell your teacher.
Make a note of the difficult sounds. We will re-visit them in the practice.
If they cannot answer this, then they are not following the mastery course as designed and they will fail. Give them an extremely hard time for being lazy and making excuses! Make them go back to Lessons 3 & 4 and review their weaknesses for homework.
Your teacher will now help you make up your own tongue twister.
The point: in your native language a tongue twister is a feat of dexterity and speed. Not so if you are building up muscle memory, smoothness and correct speaking. SLOW. RIGHT. DOWN. This is the motto of the lesson:
More info and detail in the detailed notes below (click to expand).
Pick one
Help the student pick a tongue twister that is going to help them practice sounds or clusters of sounds they find difficult using the list linked above (this one: 75 tongue twisters).
Ask them to say it once.
Now you say it really slow with super clear diction and enunciation.
For someone who struggles with /ɪ/, /æ/ and /e/: Bid for a bad bed.
For someone who is working on "a" sounds: Alan ate apples.
Whatever works. It doesn't have to be complex. It just needs to include the sounds and be something they an remember. Bonus points if there is some new vocab in there as with (2) above. Make sure you practice slow and clear pronunciation. Not speed!
Practice
Go back to the list from the warm up of consonants, consonant clusters and vowel sounds you have trouble with.
Make up or find a three- or four-word tongue twister for your most challenging sounds. Practice them a few times with your teacher. Remember to be slow and smooth.
For the student to produce a list of easy-to-remember tongue twisters they can use to practice the sounds they find challenging.
To find times, places and ways that they can actively practice them every day.
The practice section here is about the following:
Reinforcing the slow and smooth approach. Speed will develop naturally.
Repetition is your friend. You are not one and done. Fight against the boredom and keep doing reps.
Hold your student to account:
They should already know the sounds they find tough without your help. If they don't, they are not taking this seriously. They will not succeed.
They need to buy into the idea that this is something that they have to put time and energy into, but all it requires is saying these out loud in the shower, on the way to the station, when they are doing the dishes. Whatever.
Remind them: they are responsible for their own success. We cannot do this for them.
If your student is higher level, give them this 5-minute video to watch for homework on 'speaking vertically'. The essential point here is to open your mouth and clearly enunciate your words.