How to effectively use tongue twisters in Spanish pronunciation training

Effective use of tongue twisters in Spanish pronunciation training involves several strategies to maximize their benefits for learners, according to recent research and teaching practices. ^{1, 2, 3}

Benefits of Tongue Twisters in Spanish Pronunciation

Tongue twisters help improve segmental and prosodic features of pronunciation, increase pronunciation accuracy, and develop articulation skills. They also make the learning process more engaging and motivate students to practice more consistently. ^{4, 5, 1}

Practical Strategies for Implementation

1. Begin with familiar sounds: Use tongue twisters that emphasize problematic sounds or phonemes for learners, such as trills, sibilants, or vowels. This ensures targeted practice where it is most needed. ^{3, 6}

2. Progress from receptive to reproductive exercises: First focus on listening and comprehension exercises with tongue twisters, then move to pronunciation and repetition to reinforce articulation. ¹

3. Incorporate phonetic stylistic devices: Use tongue twisters rich in alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm to enhance phonetic awareness and improve fluency. ⁷

4. Use visual feedback tools: Integrate real-time visual feedback, such as ultrasound imaging or electromagnetic articulography, to help learners see correct tongue positioning and movement. ^{8, 9}

5. Combine with contextual activities: Embed tongue twisters into communicative tasks or conversational practice to promote functional fluency in real-life contexts. ^{6, 3}

6. Regular practice and gradual increase in difficulty: Schedule frequent sessions with increasingly complex tongue twisters to build endurance and mastery over difficult sounds. ^{10, 3}

Tips for Effective Use

• Provide clear pronunciation models and attentive feedback during practice.
• Encourage learners to focus on correct tongue placement and airflow.
• Use gamified activities or competitions to motivate sustained practice.
• Record and analyze pronunciation progress over time.

In conclusion, integrating tongue twisters systematically into Spanish pronunciation training, focusing on phonetic detail, visual aids, and contextual usage, can significantly enhance learners’ articulation and overall intelligibility in Spanish communication.

References

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

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

• Therapeutic strategies for tongue musculature: a systematic literature review

• 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)

• THE USE OF TONGUE TWISTER TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION

• Evidence-Based Design Principles for Spanish Pronunciation Teaching

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

• Visual Feedback of Tongue Movement for Novel Speech Sound Learning

• Powerful and Effective Pronunciation Instruction: How Can We Achieve It?

• A holographic mobile-based application for practicing pronunciation of basic English vocabulary for Spanish speaking children

• TONGUE TWISTERS IN PRONUNCIATION CLASS

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

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

• Teaching Students Pronunciation Skills through Tongue Twister Exercises

• Colour Reading Speech Kit (Tubana Kit) as a Therapy Tool for Students with Special Needs at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seremban 2, Seremban, Negeri Sembilan

• A study on teaching English pronunciation in primary schools in Italy

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

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

• TwistList: Resources and Baselines for Tongue Twister Generation

• Commentary: Evidence-Based Principles for Pronunciation Teaching & ESL Immersion and Pronunciation Development

• Tonguescape: Exploring Language Models Understanding of Vowel Articulation

• Segmental speech error data elicited at prosodically-defined locations in tongue twisters

• Bilinguals’ twisted tongues: Frequency lag or interference?

• Improving L2 pronunciation inside and outside the classroom

• Neurolinguistic Programming and Regular Verbs Past Tense Pronunciation Teaching

• Brain imaging of tongue-twister sentence comprehension: Twisting the tongue and the brain