Use of tongue twisters in training English

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Use of tongue twisters in training English

Tatiana Yu. Neglyad,

Senior Lecturer of the Department of Language and General Humanitarian Training of Foreigners, Odessa

I. Mechnikov National University

Summary

This study is dedicated to tongue twisters in modern English. The purpose of the article is to investigate how English patter words can be used to teach English phonetics (sounds, word stress, intonation). The object of research is the phenomenon of tongue twisters in general. The subject of the research is the search and verification of effective ways of using English tongue twisters in trainings on English phonetics and oral English speech. The research material is more than a dozen original English patter words. As a result of the research, the author came to the following conclusions: 1) the use of tongue twisters in learning any language -- both native and non-native -- is very effective for training the speech organs and improving the speech apparatus; 2) the form of the tongue twister dominates its content. In general, the results of this study confirm the material nature of the word. The practical value of this work is to identify and update the ways of using English tongue twisters in the modern methodology of teaching oral English speech. The article offers specific methods of using tongue twister technique in the educational process and provides examples of exercises with the studied material.

Key words: tongue twister, phonetic training, pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress, intonation, speech apparatus.

Problem statement

Tongue twisters are a phenomenon that exists almost in every language. Tongue twisters are very popular all over the world, because they are funny and easy for remembering. There is even the international day of tongue twister that is celebrated on the second Sunday of November every year. But can tongue twisters be a subject for a serious research or they are only a childish fun? And what are their practical benefit? english tongue twister phonetics

Tongue twisters are effectively used by speech the rapists in logopaedics to cure speech defects. I believe they were created specially for children to train child's speech. Tongue twisters can be also used in psychology: “So, although you might think tongue twisters are just a pick up line, party trick or an activity for little kids they are actually used diagnostically, to test for brain damage or language impairments. In situation where you might have a bilingual person coming in with a stroke knowing if bilinguals and monolinguals have different patterns on these is good knowledge to have in order to be able to accurately diagnose their language process” [2].

Analysis of the latest research and publications

Subject of tongue twisters is quite popular in modern system of teaching languages: “Nowadays, there are a lot of strategies that can be used in learning process, the technique that the teacher used should be understandable and fun to the students, one of them is tongue twister. Tongue twister is an informal term for a word group that's hard to pronounce properly. It is a form of verbal play” [5]. From another resource: “During the selection of the material for phonetic exercises, it is important to keep in mind several points. Firstly, to avoid the monotony that appears when working with a long list of words, it is better to use a limited number of words and different types of tasks. Secondly, it is useful to focus on not more than 3-4 difficult to pronounce sounds while training hard skills. Finally, students should see the qualitative result of their work at the end of each lesson because it increases motivation. Tongue twister is a material that meets the mentioned criteria because of its form: the sounds that are difficult to pronounce are maximally concentrated in a short sentence” [6].

Aims and objectives

The purpose of the article is to investigate how English patter words can be used to teach English phonetics (sounds, word stress, intonation). The object of research is the phenomenon of tongue twisters in general. The subject of the research is the search and verification of effective ways of using English tongue twisters in trainings on English phonetics and oral English speech. The research material is more than a dozen original English patter words.

Presentation of the main material

One of the most precise definition of tongue twisters is in “Britannica”: “tongue twister, word or group of words made difficult to articulate by a close sequence of similar consonantal sounds. Tongue twisters are often passed on for generations, becoming a rich part of folklore. Two widely known English-language twisters are “She sells sea shells beside the seashore” and one beginning “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Some are more difficult to enunciate -- “The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick.”Tongue twisters have been recommended for curing hiccups and for curing lisps and other speech defects. They are also used for testing the fit of dentures and for screening applicants for broadcasting position” [3].

Tongue twisters are often used by actors, singers, politicians and other public people who need to prepare for public speeches. Tongue twisters help speech apparatus to be ready for clear speaking. They can also help students, who study foreign languages, to pronounce difficult unknown sounds. I would like to introduce some examples of English twisters and explain which English sounds we can study with their help.

Students can train pronunciation of English vowels, for example, long [ i: ] and short [ i ]: Pete bit each bit of meat.

There are some English twisters with diphthongs. For example, diphthong [ ei ]:

I have got a date

At a quarter to eight;

I'll see you at the gate,

So don't be late.

And, of course, some examples that can train consonants. Sound [ b ]:

Black background, brown background.

There are the tongue twisters, that can help to train several sounds, for example, [ k ] and [ p ]: Give papa a cup of proper coffee.

In a copper coffee cup.

It is interesting to notice there are much more tongue twisters that can help to train consonant sounds than vowel in English speech. Especially, there are plenty of wonderful examples, that can help to study some important combinations of English consonant sounds. For example, [ l ] & [ v ]:

Seventy-seven benevolent elephants.

And a quite difficult combination [ l ] & [ r ]:

A loyal warrior will rarely worry. Why we rule.

Students can try consonant combination [ s ] & [ st ] that is actual for English language:

A pessimistic pest exists. Amidst us.

Students also can train even the pronunciation of some words, for example, [ can ]:

Can you can a can as. A canner can can a can?

And some interesting combinations of words, for example, 'wood' & 'chuck':

How much wood

Would a woodchuck chuck,

If a woodchuck

Could chuck wood?

We can use tongue twisters in different levels of studying English. Beginners usually learn the simple ones, for example, training generally sound [ d ]:

Drew Dodd's dad's dog's dead.

For intermediate levels we have to study more difficult tongue twisters. For higher levels we can also teach intonation of English phrases with tongue twisters examples because intonation is a very important part of English phonetics system. Word stress is quite important for good pronunciation too. We need to pay attention to correct word stress in tongue twisters.

There are the next stages in work with tongue twisters in lessons:

1. In class a teacher writes a tongue twister on the blackboard and underlines the letters that mark the learning sounds to pay attention to them. For example, the tongue twister mentioned in “Britannica” as a quite difficult:

The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick.

Here the teacher can underline the letters “s, x, k, ck” that mark the most important for this tongue twister sounds [s] and [k] and their combination [ks]. It will be better if at first students try to pronounce these sounds separately, without a context.

2. Then we need to do listening.The teacher read the tongue twister or turn on an audiotrack with the tongue twister that was pronounced by native speakers. The students listen to this track several times very attentively and pay attention to word stress and intonation with teacher's help.

3. After the listening the all students repeat this tongue twister together with the teacher. If a tongue twister is very long or difficult to pronounce, the teacher can divide this twister in several parts and work with each part separately. Let's turn back to the example from “Britannica”. We can divide this tongue twister in 2 parts because it is not so long, but difficult: The sixth sheik's... // ...sixth sheep's sick. Now we have the most difficult word “sixth” in each part, so it is more convenient to work with. When the students are good at pronunciation for each part they can try to pronounce the tongue twister in full.

4. Then start an individual work. Every student repeats the tongue twister by turn. They can also to pronounce every part of the tongue twister separately and after that they try to say all this one. Now the teacher can hear and correct mistakes in pronunciation for everybody.

5. When the students understand their mistakes they can correct them and try to repeat the tongue twister more and more fluently time by time. If a student can pronounce the tongue twister fluently enough it means he mastered the learning sounds. It is important to pronounce tongue twisters quite fluently because that is also a very effective training for their speech apparatus.

It is very useful to learn tongue twisters by heart after the lesson as a homework. We can find some interesting examples that look like a poetry and are suitable for remembering:

Peter Piper picked

A pack of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers

Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked

A peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers

Peter Piper picked?

Another interesting question: is it worth to translate tongue twisters? We can choose any of them as an example:

Frivolously fanciful Fannie

Fried fresh fish furiously.

If we translate this tongue twister word for word, many questions will appear. Why Fannie fried fish furiously even if the fish was fresh? How could Fannie do it frivolously and furiously at the same time and why? May be because she was fanciful? It seems that this tongue twister does not have any sense. We can try to understand another one:

She saw Sharif's shoes

On the sofa.

But was she so sure

Those were

Sharif's shoes she saw?

There are many questions too. Why are somebody's shoes on the sofa? This is not wright place for shoes, is it? Is it so important whose shoes are there? Why did she need to be so sure? You can make certain that the second tongue twister is also nonsense.

In spite of absence of any sense tongue twisters are the great examples of folklore. They reflect culture, history and mentality of the people. For example, we can see the famous and special English humour in English tongue twisters. But their form is usually more important than their content. This is the main peculiarity of tongue twisters in any language. According to this article almost the third part of English twisters has the form of question in the end. It is also a sign of the domination of the form over content because in English language question changes the word order in sentence and that is very important for tongue twister's form. Therefore it is not necessary to translate tongue twisters verbatim though it can be sometimes interesting. We need adequate translation or we can translate only key words. For example, students often want to understand the next famous tongue twister mentioned in “Britannica”:

She sells sea shells

At the sea shore,

The shells she sells

Are the sea shore shells,

I'm sure.

This is an amazing example of the beautiful sound form. There are not any special sense, just a “sea theme” well knowing for Britons. But we can “hear” sea surf and sounds of waves in this fine combination of the English sounds.

Conclusions. Finally, it is necessary to say that the subject of this research is the phenomenon of tongue twisters in general. More than a dozen original English twisters were studied as the objects of this article. Two main peculiarities of tongue twisters were found as a result. Firstly, tongue twister exercises are very effective in learning languages. These exercises are good training for speech apparatus. They also can improve anybody's speech and help to speak fluently and clearly. Secondly, the form of tongue twisters is usually more important and more interesting than their content. It is clear, if analyze sounds, word order and, especially, meaning of the English tongue twisters. Generally these results points to material origin of word.

Domination of the form over content makes tongue twisters very useful in practice. These are not just a fine part of folklore or entertainment for children. Tongue twisters are widely used in logopaedics, psychology and also in studying phonetics. I consider tongue twisters can be a perspective subject for some researchers in psycholinguistics. Particularly in the English language we can use tongue twisters almost in all aspects of learning phonetics: sounds, word stress, intonation because the form of English twisters is completely adapted to English phonetic system. There is also rich variety of them, so learning of tongue twisters is a universal method that can be used in any level of teaching language.

References (I)

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3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15^th ed. : in 32 vol. Jacobs Sparks, K. (ed). Chicago : Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2010. 32640 p.

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References (II)

1. Cambridge Core blog, available at : http://www.cambridge.org>blog/

2. Colby : Web site of Colby College, available at : http://web.colby.edu>2014/11/24/

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010), 15^th ed. : in 32 vol. Jacobs Sparks, K. (ed), Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, 32640 p.

4. EngVid : Free English Video Lessons, available at : http://www.engvid.com>50-t,ts/

5. Juniarti, N. T., Amzah, Magdahalena (2020),“Using tongue twister technique to improve students' pronunciation ability”, Inspiring : English Education Journal, State of Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Parepare, Indonesia, Parepare, Vol. 3, No 1, March, pp. 49-57. Available at : chrome-extension://mhjfbmdgcfjbbpaeojofohoefgiehjai/index.html/

6. Korolkova, Ya. V., Slabukho, O. A., Vydrina, V. V., Zheleznyakova, A. N., Liyan Zhang (2015), “Effective Techniques for Working with the Tongue Twister in the Elementary Level of Training Russian as a Foreign Language”, Procedia -- Social and Behavioral Sciences, International Conference for International Education and Cross-cultural Communication. Problems and Solutions (IECC-2015), 09-11 June 2015, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Elsevier Ltd. Publishers, Vol. 215, pp. 102-106. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.581.

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10. Zhabo, N., Avdonina, M., Stepanov, Ie., Ulyumdzhieva, V., Notina, E. (2017), “Multimedia project “culture and traditions of the countries of the target language””, Proceedings of the 9th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN17), 3-5^th of July, 2017, Spain, Publisher IATED, Barcelona, pp. 79847989. DOI : 10.21125/edulearn.2017.0460.

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