Tongue Twisters

As  I was searching around on the web for a good warm up activity to do for all my classes this past week I came across a list of tongue twisters, and I was struck by an idea. Tongue Twisters are excellent in aiding non English speakers with their pronunciation of the sounds that are repeated throughout the sentence.  I immediately printed off the list, and came up with this idea: each student is to pick a tongue twister from the list; they get 5 minutes to practice and learn it now, and then as they leave for the day they will have to recite their tongue twister to me.  I thought it was a great idea and was excited to try it out. Well, it was a hit all around.  The kids loved getting the list, and they especially loved hearing me say all of them extremely fast (I did Peter Piper and How much wood would a woodchuck chuck so well I actually got applauded).  These were some of the favorites off of the list:

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
Madame Minnie made a mound of many melon.
The red bug bled on the black bug's bed.
Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers
What noise annoys an oyster? A noisy noise annoys an oyster.

I had a few brave students who tried the infamous Peter Piper and How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, but I think I heard the ones above the most.  The activity was so well received that even a week later two Terminale (High School Seniors) were coming up to me and repeating the sentence to make sure they still had it right!

Of course, since I was testing their English pronunciation the kids all thought it would be great to give me a list French tongue twisters that I could practice my pronunciation with (I was sort of hoping for this reaction, because I plan to do this activity when I'm back teaching stateside).  Any of my former WCHS Frenchies take a look at "ces virelangues" and try them out!

Les chaussettes de l'archi duchesse sont-elles seche? Archi seche? (this one is super difficult!)
Un chasseur sachent chasser sans son chien et un bon chasseu!
Je veux et j'exige d'exquises excuses.
Agathe attaque tac! Attaque Agathe!
Panier, piano ( apparently this one is very difficult for them. I said it so many times and so fast that I was once again rewarded with rounds of applause)
Trois trres gros, gras, grand rats gris grattent.

After this blog post I'll be taking a 2 week hiatus....we have upcoming winter holidays and I will be away the whole time traveling and exploring Europe! You can look forward to blogs about the following places:

Prague!
Brugges!
Antwerp!
Brussels (maybe)!
Dunkerque!
Mont St. Michel!

Stay tuned!