In order to improve pronunciation, learners
may need to build up unused muscles in their mouths and build the habit of
making sounds correctly. Tongue twisters in which difficult sounds are repeated
or contrasted are the calisthenics of pronunciation practice.
Directions: Choose the
tongue twisters which practice the sounds you are working on. Repeat them three
to five times daily. Start saying them slowly and as your pronunciation
improves, say them more quickly.
Examples
1)
The
rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
2)
Madame
Minnie made a mound of many melons.
3)
Nimble
Lily never learns. Little Nina knows now.
4)
The
red bug bled on the black bug’s bed.
5)
Rubber
Baby Buggy Bumpers. (Say 3 times quickly. This is a good one to board and with
the class to intro this activity)
6)
What
noise annoys an oyster? A noisy noise annoys an oyster?
7)
She
sells seashells at the sea-shore. Are the seashells she sells, seashells for
sure?
8)
Silly
Sally is shaking some sugar on her shiny shoes.
9)
The
rat ran through the river with a lump of raw liver.
10) They think that this Thursday is the 30th.
11) Jolly General Jimmy Jones joked with
Japanese John.
12) How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a
woodchuck could chuck wood? A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could
chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
13) The zoo’s zebras swam through the zebra
zone.
14) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where
is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? Don’t
dilly dally in Denver or disdain your daily duty. (2 times quickly)
15) Little Luke lost a lot of labeled letters.
If Little Luke lost a lot of labeled letters, where are the
labeled letters Little Luke lost?
The Other Tongue Twister
16
Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks
with picks and sticks.
|
17
I wish to wish the wish you wish to
wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you
wish to wish.
|
19
There was a fisherman named Fisher
who fished for some fish in a fissure.
Till a fish with a grin,
pulled the fisherman in.
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.
|
21
To sit in solemn silence in a dull,
dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
A dull, dark dock, a life-long lock,
A short, sharp shock, a big black block!
To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison,
And awaiting the sensation
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
by W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and
Sullivan from The Mikado
|
22
Picky people pick Peter Pan
Peanut-Butter, 'tis the peanut-butter picky people pick.
from a commercial
|
For more tongue twister, click
here
agape – with mouth open OR love
