Every year, the National Tongue Twister Contest is held by the Logic Puzzle Museum in Wisconsin. Kids and adults compete from all across the country to say dozens of puzzling tongue twisters as quickly as they can. Practice these tricky tongue twisters with your students and help them with their pronunciation skills!

Type: Listening and Speaking

Level: Upper Intermediate

Lesson Aims: Learners will develop listening skills and practice pronunciation of alliterative and sounds in the context of tongue twisters.

Approximate Timing: 45 min.

Note to the Teacher: This lesson centers around NPR coverage of the National Tongue Twister Contest (next year’s is 2/24/18) and an interview with two of the 2013 winners. There is pronunciation practice with the winning tongue twisters, plus some others. Feel free to add your favorites! The productive task asks students to try writing their own English tongue twisters and seeing whose in the toughest.

Download the lesson materials and lesson plan here: Tongue-Tying Tongue Twisters

Photo Credits: lassedesignen – Fotolia.com, LOLCat