Tongue twisters: she sell seahells...

Tongue twisters are another excellent activity to for a lively English class. They are an enjoyable way of improving phonetic awareness while having fun. This was the very first activity I created for this class based on the fairly well known tongue twister: She sells seashells on/by/at the seashore.

Firstly, we started forming a train and imitating its sound using the sounds we produce in English for S and SH. S-SH-SH-SH-SH  S-SH-SH-SH-SH  S-SH-SH-SH-SH S-SH-SH-SH-SH  S-SH-SH-SH-SH

Once we gain familiarity with the sound we change to a different pattern, that of the tongue twister itself
SH-S-S-SH-S-SH    SH-S-S-SH-S-SH     SH-S-S-SH-S-SH   SH-S-S-SH-S-SH.

After playing for a while with the sequence we are ready to attempt the tongue twister.

The following pictures can be used if we want to paint a few shells as a post-activity.

As a general consideration when using tongue twisters, we must try to make them challenging, but not frustrating. For instance, in the picture you have an extended version which is slightly more difficult and can be used once the children domain the previous one.

An example of progressive level in a tongue twister:

Easy
Three Swedish witches
watch three Swiss watches.
Which Swedish witch
watch which Swiss watch?

Medium
Three Swedish switched witches
watch three Swiss Swatch watches.
Which Swedish switched  witch
watch which Swiss Swatch  watch?

Hard
Three Swedish switched witches
watch three Swiss Swatch watch switches
Which Swedish switched  witch
watch which Swiss Swatch  watch switch?

And as a final thought: is this or or is this not a much nicer way of learning English phonetics?


If you liked it, the British council offers a selection of them to be used in your class.
And her you have a few more.