Fun with English tongue twisters

Today we are announcing Twisty Tongue, a new edutainment iOS app that puts your English pronunciation skills to the test using fun and challenging tongue twisters. We co-developed it with our partners at All Turtles.

Some background: After developing experimental courses focusing on the reading and listening sections of TOEFL and TOEIC, we started thinking about how to effectively teach the hardest language skill of all: speaking. We were off to a good start when we built the machinery to test and score English pronunciation, and got some really good results when testing it in the lab. But, we needed to make sure our users would find it useful, so we built a simple iOS app and began testing it with people speaking various native languages and dialects of English.

Next thing we know, our beta testers are telling us that the app not only gives useful feedback on pronunciation, it’s actually fun to use! Without being prompted, people started using it to compete in English pronunciation against friends and family. We heard that — and decided to put a bit more effort into this and release the app publicly. Our partners at All Turtles turned the rough prototype into a delightful game with awesome illustrations and engaging rules.

Ta-dam, please meet Twisty Tongue! You can use this app to test your skills at reading English tongue twisters aloud. The app shows you cards with funny tongue twisters — from the old classic sea shell selling lady to a bear who got himself in quite a mess — and then scores your pronunciation compared to an “average all-American” dialect as a standard.

Here is what this app already lets you do:

• Read the tongue twisters card aloud.
• Get instant feedback. Twisty Tongue does all the processing right on your phone, thus eliminating the need to send any audio data to the cloud.
• See which sounds you pronounce correctly and see which specific phonemes need additional practice. The app computes and displays a grade for each phoneme.
• Learn the correct pronunciation. The app can play tongue twister recordings in American English, so you can listen to the correct pronunciation and compare it to the recording of your voice.
• Earn stars by correctly pronouncing the phrase on each card. Stars allow you to unlock and collect additional cards. The more phrases you master, the trickier they get.
• Keep track of your progress. The app memorizes your best score for each tongue twister.
• Share your high scores and hilarious bloopers with friends on your favorite social media platforms.

Twisty Tongue is great for everyone who dares to test their English pronunciation. It’s also a fun and engaging way for EFL students to quiz themselves on English pronunciation.

Why don’t you try it and let us know what you think? Happy New School Year!

Where to get it

The app is available starting today in the App Store as a free download. Subscribe to play all 26 cards in the pack, plus all new packs when they’re released.

Cancel your subscription anytime. After the free 7-day trial, your subscription automatically renews every 6 months for $1.99, unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the trial period. Your Apple ID account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the trial period. Go to your App Store account settings to turn off auto-renew.