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

63,939 views ・ 2022-11-11

The English Coach


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here  from englishfulltime.com in this video I'm going  
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to tell you why I do not teach tongue twisters  to my students and I don't recommend them for  
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pronunciation practice now if you are new here  welcome as I said my name is Stefanie and I make  
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videos content and courses for intermediate and  advanced English language learners okay so first  
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of all I know a lot of people love tongue twisters  and a lot of teachers use them in their classes in  
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fact I used to be one of these teachers way  back in the day when I taught private and  
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group classes online I had a class where I taught  tongue twisters and I thought it was so much fun  
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and anyways today I wouldn't use this methodology  with my students and so I'm going to break that  
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down and explain why I know people say that tongue  twisters are really fun they're a good challenge  
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and even actors and public speakers use them so  I'm gonna get into all of this and at the end  
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I'm even gonna show you some material that I use  with my students and I'm going to tell you about  
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what I do instead to teach pronunciation what I  believe is a better way to learn pronunciation  
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okay so the first reason I don't teach tongue  twisters to my students and I don't recommend  
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them for pronunciation practice is because  basic pronunciation is hard enough mastering the  
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individual sounds in English learning how to say  certain words like take a word with five syllables  
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and try to say it right it's not that easy and so  if you're struggling with the basics still then it  
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doesn't make sense to go over the top and practice  and work on something like tongue twisters because  
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this brings me to my next point tongue twisters  are difficult even for native speakers so imagine  
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we're in a classroom and I'm in the front and I  say hey everybody welcome to class today we're  
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going to work on improving your pronunciation  and we're going to practice saying things that  
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are even difficult for me to say it's like wait  how does that help you it doesn't because if it's  
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difficult for me to say it means it's going to be  really incredibly difficult for an English learner  
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to say and there are other things that you can  work on that will be a much better use of your  
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time it'll be much more efficient and much more  productive for you also when you are working on  
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tongue twisters they make your mouth very tense  and they make your body tense and that is the  
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opposite of what you want when you are working  on your pronunciation you want to be relaxed  
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from head to toe tongue twisters are not natural  they just aren't and you can tell because the way  
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they tie up your tongue when you're speaking  but basically the words are placed in such an  
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unnatural way it's like it makes you mess up it  makes me mess up and I don't like working with  
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any kind of material in my courses or my programs  that is not natural normal everyday type English  
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like if you can't use it for the real world  I see no point in studying it or practicing  
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it there's got to be some way that it's useful  in the real world and that way when whatever  
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you're doing in the classroom will also benefit  you outside the classroom tongue twisters are  
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very isolated it's like if you want to do it for  fun I think great go ahead but when it comes to  
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actually working on your pronunciation there are  much better methods and I'll talk about those at  
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the end so next tongue twisters because they're  so difficult they can easily trigger feelings of  
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frustration overwhelm and defeat in students and  that is the opposite of what I as a teacher want  
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to foster in my students students will have those  feelings anyways with things that are much easier  
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so might as well help them overcome those things  that are much easier so they can quickly get  
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to the confidence quickly get to the feelings of  success and feel like they have achieved something  
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next yes actors and public speakers use tongue  twisters but they do not use them in the way that  
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language learners have been using tongue twisters  or trying to use tongue twisters when you are a  
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an actor or a public speaker you're using the  tongue twister to warm up your voice okay you  
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not to practice pronunciation to simply warm up  your voice and to warm up your tongue warm up  
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your lips and you're practicing your diction and  your enunciation and you're making sure that your  
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words are very clear and you're articulating words  very very clearly and precisely that you already  
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know how to say perfectly you can say these  words absolutely perfectly okay every single  
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time they're not difficult for you but they're put  in word orders that are more difficult so that you  
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can focus on your diction so you can focus on your  enunciation so you can focus on your articulation  
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right that's the purpose of tongue twisters as  it relates to public speaking and actors which  
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is something that is totally different when you  are are learning a language you're not working on  
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your enunciation and your diction when you're  still working on your pronunciation it's like  
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you got to work on your pronunciation first then  you can strengthen your articulation then you can  
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work on your diction and your enunciation and  all that other stuff but first you got to get  
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the pronunciation down so that point of like hey  even actors and public speakers use it it's like  
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yes but they use it for this reason not for that  reason so finally I will admit tongue twisters can  
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be very fun very fun if you enjoy them but for me  it's more like it helps give you a good laugh it  
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helps you lighten up loosen up not take yourself  so seriously it's almost like you're supposed to  
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fail you're supposed to fail and laugh at it so  you can just loosen up and move on to something  
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else but yes you can work on it work on it work on  it get good etc but when it comes to pronunciation  
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I would say tongue twisters are not what you need  they can be fun they can be funny they perhaps can  
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be helpful but it's not what you need and there  are better easier much more productive ways to  
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work on your pronunciation and so I'm going to  talk to you about those now and this is what I do  
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with my students so when I teach pronunciation for  me I am building skills in my students the first  
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thing we have to do is work on the sounds the  individual sounds because those are the building  
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blocks of the language you have to learn the  sounds masterthe sounds once you have the sounds  
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down you move to small words and you practice the  sounds in small words that are word pairs that are  
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very similar like man men cap cup cop you have to  be able to say all of these words that are very  
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similar differently now that is a challenge that  is a tongue twister for many students and yet it's  
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simple basic English it's not high level anything  that's my point when I say you don't have to make  
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it harder than it already is because basic English  already is hard for most students so you go from  
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sounds to short words to longer words why longer  words because then you need to practice the word  
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stress reducing certain syllables inside the word  stressing other syllables getting the stress in  
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the correct place working on the rhythm inside  of the words so you go from sounds to small words  
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to big words and then to phrases because you have  to practice connecting your speech reducing words  
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in between words working on the rhythm and then  adding in that intonation so you can work on the  
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pitch as well and how you communicate with your  pitch and then after you have all those pieces  
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in place you are ready to really study content  in depth and to do monologues to shadow entire  
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paragraphs or to shadow dialogues and do all  these things you will have everything in place  
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because you will have built up to it so that is  what makes the most sense to me that is what I do  
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with my students knowing everything that I know  now about studying languages teaching languages  
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I find this to be the most effective and the most  productive thing to do with students it's like you  
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start small and you build and make it bigger and  harder and more of a challenge but the crazy thing  
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is even starting small you're already starting  with the challenge because some students just  
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making the distinction between the ɪ and the i  sound is a challenge or the æ and the ɛ sound  
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that's a challenge or the ʊ and the ʌ sound that's  a challenge right so start small then build on top  
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of every skill every new skill and soon you will  be able to speak clearly you will have control of  
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your mouth control of the sounds that come out of  it control of your words you will be able to speak  
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with natural English rhythm etc all without ever  needing to practice or study a tongue twister okay  
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so with all of that said the closest I've ever  come to creating anything tongue twister like with  
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my students is through original short stories that  I make for them and I'm actually going to show you  
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part of one today so for my students that struggle  with the th sound I wrote a story for them  
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four paragraphs I'm going to share one paragraph  with you but everything about the story is natural  
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the way that it's written the phrases I use the  words that I use the structure the word order  
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it's all 100% natural English you'll be able to  practice your rhythm your intonation the sounds  
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etc but in a natural way not in an unnatural  way so the story is called day at the theater  
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I will show you the first paragraph and inside  this little paragraph I used the th sound 40  
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times in the words and I did this on purpose  because this material here for my students is  
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to help them drill the th sound but drill it in  a natural way so I'll read it and I want you to  
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know that this is not a tongue twister for native  speakers I had other native English speakers read  
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this and they were able to fly through it you'll  see how I read it they were able to read through  
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it just fine because it's not a tongue twister  it just has sort of an abnormal amount of the th  
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sound in it but there's nothing that should mess  up your tongue beyond the th sound if you're  
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struggling with it okay so day at the theater that  day Ethan thought the weather would be anything  
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but life-threatening the weatherman said it's just  gonna be a thunderstorm he thought that's nothing  
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so rather than be bothered by the thick clouds  gathering beneath the sun he jumped in his 1973  
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Thunderbird and enthusiastically drove to the  theater for their bi-monthly throwback Thursday  
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movie marathon this time they were showing The  Godfather Gone With the Wind and some pathetic  
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thriller about a psychopath okay so did you see  how easily I read through that I didn't stumble  
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over anything if you struggle with a sound  in English doing something like this would  
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be really effective for you working with natural  sentences naturally structured paragraphs stories  
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e tc or phrases if you don't even have to do  this much you can just choose a phrase like  
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thought the weather thought the weather thought  the weather yeah I thought the weather would be  
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better today he thought the weather would  be colder he thought the weather would be  
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whatever right that's a phrase that you could  practice here and then turn around and use in  
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weather in weather in real life another one is  that's nothing that's nothing or rather than be  
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bothered rather than be bothered rather than be  bothered right you have the th there three times  
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go to the theater for their bi-monthly go to the  theater for their bi-monthly throwback Thursday  
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throwback Thursday movie marathon The Godfather  Gone With the Wind right pathetic thriller so you  
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can take out individual phrases that are all  totally natural and you can use this to drill  
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sounds to work on sounds this is what I mean it's  like the language itself is enough of a tongue  
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twister for language learners we don't have to  go out of our way to make it more difficult than  
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it has to be I think that is my main point with  all of this okay so that's it let me know what  
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you think I would love to hear your thoughts on  this in the comments in my next video I'm actually  
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going to be doing tongue twisters because I just  thought hey it would be super fun to do them to  
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show you how difficult they are and we can laugh  together you can try them with me and I'm not  
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gonna be perfect at them it's not gonna be like  oh I'm gonna teach you pronunciation with these  
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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 if you are not subscribed to the channel  please subscribe turn on the notifications  
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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
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