Tongue twisters in english : a psycholinguistic investigation of the relationship between language production of Saudi ESL and verbal working memory

Abstract EN

This study explores the production-working memory relationship through English tongue twisters used by learners of English as a second language.

By the recalling of a sequence of phonologically listed formal and informal production of English tongue twisters, errors are interpreted as occurring at all the phonological and sub-phonological levels.

The use of speech error analyses in the context of verbal working memory tasks (tongue twisters) could reveal important insight into people's performance.

The study aims at examining the existence of some phonological processes underlying segmental change such as addition, movement and substitution, and sequential change such as metathesis, assimilation and blending.

The study is done on two types of tongue twisters, formal and informal.

This could help reveal if verbal working memory performance could be triggered by mental processes or mental strategies.

Forty speakers of English as a second language participate in this study at King Abdulaziz University/English department whose ages range from 19 to 22.

Surprisingly enough, the results of the study have shown that formal production of English tongue twister orders elicits more errors than informal production of English tongue twister orders.

Thus, there could be a correlation between consciousness and the frequency of phonological errors in speech