Why I don't teach tongue twisters to my students (and what I do instead)

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here  from englishfulltime.com in this video I'm going  

to tell you why I do not teach tongue twisters  to my students and I don't recommend them for  

pronunciation practice now if you are new here  welcome as I said my name is Stefanie and I make  

videos content and courses for intermediate and  advanced English language learners okay so first  

of all I know a lot of people love tongue twisters  and a lot of teachers use them in their classes in  

fact I used to be one of these teachers way  back in the day when I taught private and  

group classes online I had a class where I taught  tongue twisters and I thought it was so much fun  

and anyways today I wouldn't use this methodology  with my students and so I'm going to break that  

down and explain why I know people say that tongue  twisters are really fun they're a good challenge  

and even actors and public speakers use them so  I'm gonna get into all of this and at the end  

I'm even gonna show you some material that I use  with my students and I'm going to tell you about  

what I do instead to teach pronunciation what I  believe is a better way to learn pronunciation  

okay so the first reason I don't teach tongue  twisters to my students and I don't recommend  

them for pronunciation practice is because  basic pronunciation is hard enough mastering the  

individual sounds in English learning how to say  certain words like take a word with five syllables  

and try to say it right it's not that easy and so  if you're struggling with the basics still then it  

doesn't make sense to go over the top and practice  and work on something like tongue twisters because  

this brings me to my next point tongue twisters  are difficult even for native speakers so imagine  

we're in a classroom and I'm in the front and I  say hey everybody welcome to class today we're  

going to work on improving your pronunciation  and we're going to practice saying things that  

are even difficult for me to say it's like wait  how does that help you it doesn't because if it's  

difficult for me to say it means it's going to be  really incredibly difficult for an English learner  

to say and there are other things that you can  work on that will be a much better use of your  

time it'll be much more efficient and much more  productive for you also when you are working on  

tongue twisters they make your mouth very tense  and they make your body tense and that is the  

opposite of what you want when you are working  on your pronunciation you want to be relaxed  

from head to toe tongue twisters are not natural  they just aren't and you can tell because the way  

they tie up your tongue when you're speaking  but basically the words are placed in such an  

unnatural way it's like it makes you mess up it  makes me mess up and I don't like working with  

any kind of material in my courses or my programs  that is not natural normal everyday type English  

like if you can't use it for the real world  I see no point in studying it or practicing  

it there's got to be some way that it's useful  in the real world and that way when whatever  

you're doing in the classroom will also benefit  you outside the classroom tongue twisters are  

very isolated it's like if you want to do it for  fun I think great go ahead but when it comes to  

actually working on your pronunciation there are  much better methods and I'll talk about those at  

the end so next tongue twisters because they're  so difficult they can easily trigger feelings of  

frustration overwhelm and defeat in students and  that is the opposite of what I as a teacher want  

to foster in my students students will have those  feelings anyways with things that are much easier  

so might as well help them overcome those things  that are much easier so they can quickly get  

to the confidence quickly get to the feelings of  success and feel like they have achieved something  

next yes actors and public speakers use tongue  twisters but they do not use them in the way that  

language learners have been using tongue twisters  or trying to use tongue twisters when you are a  

an actor or a public speaker you're using the  tongue twister to warm up your voice okay you  

not to practice pronunciation to simply warm up  your voice and to warm up your tongue warm up  

your lips and you're practicing your diction and  your enunciation and you're making sure that your  

words are very clear and you're articulating words  very very clearly and precisely that you already  

know how to say perfectly you can say these  words absolutely perfectly okay every single  

time they're not difficult for you but they're put  in word orders that are more difficult so that you  

can focus on your diction so you can focus on your  enunciation so you can focus on your articulation  

right that's the purpose of tongue twisters as  it relates to public speaking and actors which  

is something that is totally different when you  are are learning a language you're not working on  

your enunciation and your diction when you're  still working on your pronunciation it's like  

you got to work on your pronunciation first then  you can strengthen your articulation then you can  

work on your diction and your enunciation and  all that other stuff but first you got to get  

the pronunciation down so that point of like hey  even actors and public speakers use it it's like  

yes but they use it for this reason not for that  reason so finally I will admit tongue twisters can  

be very fun very fun if you enjoy them but for me  it's more like it helps give you a good laugh it  

helps you lighten up loosen up not take yourself  so seriously it's almost like you're supposed to  

fail you're supposed to fail and laugh at it so  you can just loosen up and move on to something  

else but yes you can work on it work on it work on  it get good etc but when it comes to pronunciation  

I would say tongue twisters are not what you need  they can be fun they can be funny they perhaps can  

be helpful but it's not what you need and there  are better easier much more productive ways to  

work on your pronunciation and so I'm going to  talk to you about those now and this is what I do  

with my students so when I teach pronunciation for  me I am building skills in my students the first  

thing we have to do is work on the sounds the  individual sounds because those are the building  

blocks of the language you have to learn the  sounds masterthe sounds once you have the sounds  

down you move to small words and you practice the  sounds in small words that are word pairs that are  

very similar like man men cap cup cop you have to  be able to say all of these words that are very  

similar differently now that is a challenge that  is a tongue twister for many students and yet it's  

simple basic English it's not high level anything  that's my point when I say you don't have to make  

it harder than it already is because basic English  already is hard for most students so you go from  

sounds to short words to longer words why longer  words because then you need to practice the word  

stress reducing certain syllables inside the word  stressing other syllables getting the stress in  

the correct place working on the rhythm inside  of the words so you go from sounds to small words  

to big words and then to phrases because you have  to practice connecting your speech reducing words  

in between words working on the rhythm and then  adding in that intonation so you can work on the  

pitch as well and how you communicate with your  pitch and then after you have all those pieces  

in place you are ready to really study content  in depth and to do monologues to shadow entire  

paragraphs or to shadow dialogues and do all  these things you will have everything in place  

because you will have built up to it so that is  what makes the most sense to me that is what I do  

with my students knowing everything that I know  now about studying languages teaching languages  

I find this to be the most effective and the most  productive thing to do with students it's like you  

start small and you build and make it bigger and  harder and more of a challenge but the crazy thing  

is even starting small you're already starting  with the challenge because some students just  

making the distinction between the ɪ and the i  sound is a challenge or the æ and the ɛ sound  

that's a challenge or the ʊ and the ʌ sound that's  a challenge right so start small then build on top  

of every skill every new skill and soon you will  be able to speak clearly you will have control of  

your mouth control of the sounds that come out of  it control of your words you will be able to speak  

with natural English rhythm etc all without ever  needing to practice or study a tongue twister okay  

so with all of that said the closest I've ever  come to creating anything tongue twister like with  

my students is through original short stories that  I make for them and I'm actually going to show you  

part of one today so for my students that struggle  with the th sound I wrote a story for them  

four paragraphs I'm going to share one paragraph  with you but everything about the story is natural  

the way that it's written the phrases I use the  words that I use the structure the word order  

it's all 100% natural English you'll be able to  practice your rhythm your intonation the sounds  

etc but in a natural way not in an unnatural  way so the story is called day at the theater  

I will show you the first paragraph and inside  this little paragraph I used the th sound 40  

times in the words and I did this on purpose  because this material here for my students is  

to help them drill the th sound but drill it in  a natural way so I'll read it and I want you to  

know that this is not a tongue twister for native  speakers I had other native English speakers read  

this and they were able to fly through it you'll  see how I read it they were able to read through  

it just fine because it's not a tongue twister  it just has sort of an abnormal amount of the th  

sound in it but there's nothing that should mess  up your tongue beyond the th sound if you're  

struggling with it okay so day at the theater that  day Ethan thought the weather would be anything  

but life-threatening the weatherman said it's just  gonna be a thunderstorm he thought that's nothing  

so rather than be bothered by the thick clouds  gathering beneath the sun he jumped in his 1973  

Thunderbird and enthusiastically drove to the  theater for their bi-monthly throwback Thursday  

movie marathon this time they were showing The  Godfather Gone With the Wind and some pathetic  

thriller about a psychopath okay so did you see  how easily I read through that I didn't stumble  

over anything if you struggle with a sound  in English doing something like this would  

be really effective for you working with natural  sentences naturally structured paragraphs stories  

e tc or phrases if you don't even have to do  this much you can just choose a phrase like  

thought the weather thought the weather thought  the weather yeah I thought the weather would be  

better today he thought the weather would  be colder he thought the weather would be  

whatever right that's a phrase that you could  practice here and then turn around and use in  

weather in weather in real life another one is  that's nothing that's nothing or rather than be  

bothered rather than be bothered rather than be  bothered right you have the th there three times  

go to the theater for their bi-monthly go to the  theater for their bi-monthly throwback Thursday  

throwback Thursday movie marathon The Godfather  Gone With the Wind right pathetic thriller so you  

can take out individual phrases that are all  totally natural and you can use this to drill  

sounds to work on sounds this is what I mean it's  like the language itself is enough of a tongue  

twister for language learners we don't have to  go out of our way to make it more difficult than  

it has to be I think that is my main point with  all of this okay so that's it let me know what  

you think I would love to hear your thoughts on  this in the comments in my next video I'm actually  

going to be doing tongue twisters because I just  thought hey it would be super fun to do them to  

show you how difficult they are and we can laugh  together you can try them with me and I'm not  

gonna be perfect at them it's not gonna be like  oh I'm gonna teach you pronunciation with these  

tongue twisters no we're just gonna do it for  fun so that's what we will do in the next video  

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so you don't miss any classes with me and I  can't wait to see you in the next video bye