Tongue twisters are considered basic exercises for learning a foreign language, but are also useful for reducing a particular accent and improving general pronunciation. Dictation lessons are usually boring, which makes them less productive on students and makes them quickly demotivated. The use of tongue twisters during these lessons provides a comical and amusing test that will make students more motivated to participate in activities aimed at improving pronunciation.
Basic principles of a language pronunciation
If you want to reduce a certain accent in any language, it is essential to initially master the pronunciation of words. Dictation lessons are an important part of this and help you to gain a thorough understanding of the basic principles of pronunciation of a language. These include:
- Articulation: Speak the words that correctly represent the ideas a person wants to convey to the listener.
- Intonation: The tone in which certain words are spoken can affect the way these words appear. You communicate not only the meaning of a word but also a certain attitude and other implicit messages that you wish to convey. Thus, a single word can be conveyed in different ways, positive, sarcastic, indifferent, insecure, depending on the tone in which it is spoken.
- Accent Emphasis: This indicates certain emphases with which a word is pronounced that can vary the meaning of that word. Each culture or language has its own accents or emphases, making it important to use them correctly to avoid miscommunication.
Current pronunciation exercises
Read out loud
Reading texts aloud allows the student to evaluate their progress as well as notice and correct mistakes. It may seem obvious, but it is the best way to familiarize yourself with the sounds of a foreign language.
Intonation of sentences
Phrases marked with intonation arcs help the student to become familiar with the way different phrases are used in everyday conversation. In addition to arcs, pause marks by commas and other punctuation marks can also work very efficiently.
Statement
Familiarity with syllable distribution, stress patterns, and pronouncing particularly difficult words can help reduce accent in a foreign language.
Tongue twisters
The use of tongue twisters provides the opportunity for both young and older students to quickly improve pronunciation skills in terms of emphasis, intonation and articulation. Moreover, these make the learning process very pleasant.
What are tongue twisters?
Tongue twisters are a group of words that may or may not make up a completely correct sentence and are often used to practice pronunciation of very similar words. Usually it concerns alliterations or alliterative words, a group of words with the same letters and sounds, usually at the beginning of the words. Tongue twisters are meant to improve the flexibility of the tongue by saying those words very quickly and repeatedly one after the other.
Tongue twisters are usually short sentences that discuss fun situations often found in children’s books or poetry. Due to their comic character, they are ideal to use as a learning tool. Some examples of tongue twisters:
- Seven Zaventem fools will swim without swimming trunks for six summer Sundays. Heavy Julien’s late sister said: “Such a bitch! They are definitely crazy! They will sink!
- Hissing hissing creeping snakes that hiss and hiss and sneak off, they hiss and hiss but together it remains a drowsy snake!
- The stagecoach driver polishes the stagecoach with stagecoach cleaner on a stagecoach cleaning cloth.
- Fishermen who fish for fish and fishermen who fish for fish that often catch flounder. The fish that the fishing fishermen fish for, fishermen who fish find annoying and rotten!
These groups of words describe comical situations and use words that are not otherwise used in normal conversation or sentence structure. These can be used as a daily exercise and should be spoken at least five times in a row at a fast pace.