How do Chinese tongue twisters compare to English ones for pronunciation training

Chinese tongue twisters and English tongue twisters both serve the purpose of pronunciation training, but they differ in linguistic features and phonetic challenges due to the distinct phonetic structures of each language.

Chinese Tongue Twisters for Pronunciation Training

• Chinese tongue twisters focus heavily on tonal distinctions as Mandarin Chinese and many other Chinese dialects are tonal languages. Mastery of tones is crucial for meaning, so tongue twisters often incorporate complex tonal patterns to help learners practice tone production with clarity and accuracy.
• They emphasize articulation of specific consonants and vowels that might be challenging for non-native speakers, combined with the tonal variations.
• Training using Chinese tongue twisters can involve visualization of tongue motions and tone practice, sometimes supported by ultrasound imaging or phonetic models to assist with accurate pronunciation. ^{1, 2}
• Chinese tongue twisters are used not only for the improvement of articulation but also to train pitch and tone awareness, which is a core element of Chinese pronunciation. ^{3, 4}

English Tongue Twisters for Pronunciation Training

• English tongue twisters focus on challenging the articulatory muscles to improve the pronunciation of difficult consonant clusters, vowel sounds, and rhythmic patterns.
• They often make use of alliteration, rhyme, and phonetic stylistic devices to increase the difficulty and engage the learner in repeated sound patterns for fluency and clarity. ⁵
• English tongue twisters improve the clarity of consonants (like fricatives and plosives), vowel length, and the natural rhythm and intonation of English speech. ^{6, 7}
• The exercises help learners develop smooth transitions between sounds, which contributes to overall improved intelligibility and naturalness in speech. ^{8, 9}

Comparison

In summary, Chinese tongue twisters are particularly tailored to train tonal pronunciation and pitch control alongside articulation, which is essential in Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. English tongue twisters primarily focus on challenging articulation clarity, sound transitions, and rhythmic fluency. Both are effective tools in their linguistic context for pronunciation training but target different speech features intrinsic to their respective languages. ^{2, 7, 1, 3, 5, 6}

References

• A Database of Chinese Phonemes Based on Three-Dimensional Tongue Models and Ultrasound Images

• Evaluating Effectiveness of Articulation Practice with Tongue-twister Movement Distance Using Ultrasound.

• Pitch-Aware RNN-T for Mandarin Chinese Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis

• The Study of Perceptual Training of Chinese Mandarin Tones for Monolingual Speakers of English Using Adaptive Computer Based Training Software

• PHONETIC STYLISTIC DEVICES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS IN ENGLISH TONGUE-TWISTERS

• WAYS OF TRAINING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION THROUGH TONGUE TWISTERS: EXPERIENCE OF POLTAVA UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND TRADE

• THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TONGUE TWISTERS TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO PRONOUNCE FRICATIVE CONSONANTS AND LONG VOWELS

• TONGUE TWISTERS IN PRONUNCIATION CLASS

• Teaching Students Pronunciation Skills through Tongue Twister Exercises

• Think Before You Speak——The Construction of English Language Thinking With the Help of Tongue Twisters In College English Class Teaching

• Pronunciation Training through Sensing of Tongue and Lip Motion via Smartphone

• TONGUE-TWISTER AS A METHOD OF STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION TRAINING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY (INITIAL STAGE OF TRAINING)

• THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING TONGUE TWISTER TECHNIQUETO TEACH PRONUNCIATION TO EFL STUDENTS (Quasi Experimental at the Eleventh Grade of SMKN 1 Mojoanyar MojokertoIn Academic Year of 2017/2018)

• Correcting Chinese Spelling Errors with Phonetic Pre-training

• Improving TTS for Shanghainese: Addressing Tone Sandhi via Word Segmentation

• An experimental analysis of the effectiveness and sustainability of a Chinese tutoring package.

• Liuzijue Qigong: A Voice Training Method For Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis Patients

• PANCETTA: Phoneme Aware Neural Completion to Elicit Tongue Twisters Automatically

• TwistList: Resources and Baselines for Tongue Twister Generation

• Combining instruction and immersion to improve pronunciation: The case of Chinese students learning bahasa Indonesia

• A tutoring package to teach pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese characters.

• Speech Production Development in Mandarin-Speaking Children: A Case of Lingual Stop Consonants

• Learning English in China: A Tablet-Based App Using the Voices of Native Speakers

• The Negative Transfer of Sichuan Dialect to the Study of English Pronunciation—Error Analysis on the Supra-segmental Phonemes

• Generating tonal distinctions in Mandarin Chinese using an electrolarynx with preprogrammed tone patterns

• Using Toongue Twister Technique to Improve Students’ Pronunciation Ability