She Sells Seashells
Tongue twisters
by Claire Law
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To consider the importance of laughter for our well-being.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (She Sells Seashells) and the means to display them.
- Have available the YouTube video ‘Singing in rain diction coach’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 1.04 minutes long and is available at: https://youtu.be/YZwZO40r4X0
- Have available a printout of the Betty Botter tongue twister that appears on Slide 2 of the PowerPoint.
- You will also need two sets of headphones or ear defenders. If these are not available, arrange for the volunteers to be taken to a different room during the ‘Assembly’, Step 4.
- Optional: you may wish to have a prize available for the winner of the tongue twister competition in the ‘Assembly’, Step 5.
Assembly
- Show Slide 1.
Welcome the students to the assembly. - Tell the students that you need two volunteers for today’s assembly. Explain that you need the volunteers to come to the front and read out a short poem. Then, you will ask the rest of the students to judge who read it most clearly.
Optional: describe the prize that is available, if using. - Select two volunteers. If the students are reluctant, select some willing staff members.
Explain that the students will need to listen carefully to each volunteer’s reading and assess how clearly they communicate. After the volunteers have finished their readings, there will be a vote on the clearest version.
To make the competition fair, each volunteer will wear headphones (or be taken to another room) while the other one reads. - Position the second volunteer out of sight of the screen and ask them to put on the headphones (or leave the room).
Ask the first volunteer to step forward, and then give them the printout of the Betty Botter tongue twister.
Show Slide 2.
When the first volunteer has finished their reading, repeat the process with the second volunteer. - Ask the students who they think read the tongue twister most clearly. Who had clear, precise diction and pronounced each word accurately?
Ask the students to raise their hands to vote, and then declare a winner. - Explain that what we have just heard is an example of a tongue twister. In some parts of the world, people will be celebrating International Tongue Twister Day on 13 November! Although the day is not widely celebrated in the UK, we are going to take the opportunity to think about tongue twisters, and hopefully have a bit of fun as we do so.
- So, what is a tongue twister?
Explain that a tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to pronounce clearly. The students may know some of the more famous ones, such as ‘She sells seashells’, ‘Red lorry, yellow lorry’ and ‘How much wood would a woodchuck chuck’. - Tongue twisters can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency.
Let’s watch a short clip from the classic film Singin’ in the Rain, where we see tongue twisters being used to help someone to pronounce their words clearly.
Show the YouTube video ‘Singing in rain diction coach’ (1.04 minutes long). - In this scene, we heard two different tongue twisters, both being used to support the clear pronunciation of British English.
In fact, tongue twisters are a great way to practise sounds when speaking a foreign language. Many languages have their own tongue twisters:
- in Spanish, they are known as trabalenguas, which translates literally as ‘tangled-up tongues’
- in German, the term is Zungenbrecher, or ‘tongue crusher’
There is even an equivalent for tongue twisters in British Sign Language. Phrases that are hard to sign are called ‘finger-fumblers’. - Ask the students to get ready for a challenge. Tell them that we are now going to play around with the two tongue twisters that we heard in the video.
The first one is about rolling your Rs.
Show Slide 3.
Ask the students to try saying the tongue twister on the slide to the person sitting next to them. - Show Slide 4.
Now ask the students to try saying the tongue twister on this slide. Point out that it is less well-known, and quite tricky. - Ask the students which of them managed to say either of the tongue twisters without laughing. Suggest that there probably weren’t many of them.
When we try to say tongue twisters with others, it is hard not to laugh at the silly sounds that we make, and the humorous mispronunciations. - For a final bit of fun, let’s try one more.
Show Slide 5.
What’s this?
Click to reveal the text.
It’s an Irish wristwatch. Try saying it six times!
Time for reflection
So, as well as helping us with our pronunciation and language skills, tongue twisters are a great way to have a bit of a laugh. And laughter is really important for our well-being and mental health.
When we feel happy, we are more productive. A study by researchers at the University of Warwick in 2009 found that happiness made employees around 12 per cent more productive. By contrast, feeling like we have no one to share a joke with can affect our productivity as well as our mental and physical health. Feeling disconnected induces stress, increasing inflammation in our body and damaging our blood vessels.
When we share a laugh with someone, we connect with them in a powerful way. Laughter feels good, so when we share it, it acts like social glue, uniting us and making us feel in sync with others. Laughter also releases endorphins, which make us feel good and help us to manage stress. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase ‘laughter is the best medicine’. In that context, tongue twisters can be a kind of medicine too, because they get us connected and laughing.
The Bible mentions laughter in various passages.
Show Slide 6 and read out the two Bible quotations.
Laughter has an important place in our lives. Tongue twisters are a great way to enjoy laughter without being mean, cruel or unkind.
As we come towards a time of prayer, let’s take a few moments to notice how we feel right now.
- How has the silliness and laughter of the tongue twisters left us feeling?
- How relaxed and at ease do our bodies feel?
Let’s take a moment to relax and be still.
Prayer
Dear God,
We have played around and had fun with the gift of language today.
We’ve connected with words, and with each other.
We’ve been in touch with our creativity and a sense of joyfulness.
Help us to remember that it is good to make time to laugh,
And good to use our language and creativity to connect with others.
As we do so, please fill us with joy and happiness, and help us to share positivity with others.
Amen.
