Tongue twisters and speech verses are wonderful tools to help students improve articulation, enunciation and expression. They also help to develop focus and memory and are an excellent warm-up for the recitation of poetic and prose selections.
When verses are used for polyphonic speech exercises, they also serve a social function, helping students work together to create a unified whole. Polyphonic speech requires students to become more conscious of what classmates are speaking, and learn to speak together as with one voice.
Laying the Foundation
All through the grades, students are honing the ability to recite in unison. This becomes harder as they get older. As they develop their personalities, they have to be able to subdue their individual speech in order to speak as a class.
Note: Speech development is given particular importance in Waldorf Education. Reasons are outlined in this excellent article by Creative Speech teacher Debra Spitulnik: Developing the Art of Imagination – Why Creative Speech Formation is an Essential Part of Teacher Training.
“(…) A teacher’s voice impacts the quality of a student’s articulation, modulation, breath, and above all, engagement. Steiner emphasized the importance of surrounding children with elevated speech during the day for healthy development.”
Rudolf Steiner in The Genius of Language, GA 299:
To those who understand the Sense of speech, the world reveals itself as image.
To those who hear the Soul of speech, the world unfolds its true being.
To those that live in the Spirit depths of speech, the world bestows Wisdom’s strength.
And in his Speech and Drama course, GA 282:
“(…) children have to speak in class; good speaking is part of the instruction given at school.”
Working with Speech Exercises
Commonly used methods for practising speech exercises:
1) Divide the students into two groups. One group recites the entire verse while the other group listens. Then they switch.
2) One group recites a part of the verse, the other group repeats it. They reverse the order for the next part of the verse, switching between “call” and “response”.
3) Divide the verse into stanzas. One group recites the first stanza, the other group recites the next, and so on. Then reverse the order, so that each group gets to recite the entire verse. This variation can also be done with three or four groups.
4) Divide the verse into increasingly small parts. Groups alternate in their speaking, so that the recitation switches from one group to the next ever more quickly. Eventually, the verse can be divided into separate words that are recited in quick succession. The goal is always to create a seamless whole from its parts.
5) Use desk rows or columns to let students recite a verse progressively.
6) For a greater challenge, point to the next speaker at random, so that everyone has to be ready at any point.
Introducing Speech Rounds
When the children are old enough, one can try simple speech rounds. These work like musical rounds, one part beginning and others entering at specific points.
In the simplest type of speech round, each new group begins its part at the end of a phrase or sentence. Simple tongue twisters and verses can be recited in this way, for example:
Blackbeard brought back black bric-a-brac;
Bluebeard brought back blue bric-a-brac.
Black bric-a-brac or blue – (Blackbeard brought back …)
Which bric-a-brac suits you? (Bluebeard brought back …)
Variations
When another group enters before a phrase or sentence is completed, it creates the impression that the new line is chasing the initial line.
In the verse above, the second part can set in after “black bric-a-brac” at the end of the first line.
Alternatively, it can enter part-way through the first line, on the word “black” after “brought back”.
To intensify the sense that the lines are chasing each other, the second group begins right after “Blackbeard” on “brought”.
All variations can be done in three or four voices once the students know the verse so well that they can recite their part without being distracted by the others.
Speech rounds work well as performance pieces because most people have not encountered them before. But when performing a speech round, it is important that the verse is first recited in unison. This makes it easier for the audience to follow when multiple voices sound at the same time.
Speech Verse Accompaniments
In a speech round, everyone recites the same text. A more complex type of polyphonic speech has accompaniments – sounds, words, phrases or sentences that reinforce the original text.
This is challenging at first. But once students get used to working with them, they experience how the accompaniments reinforce the verses with greater power and meaning.
Students need to be secure with speaking in unison, and also with speech rounds, before working with accompaniments. Depending on the group of children, this can begin in the second half of third grade, but it is prudent to wait until fourth grade.
To teach this new skill, spend the time necessary for your students to learn the lines in unison. When they feel secure, accompaniments can be added to any simple verse.
Speech Verse #1
This verse can be accompanied simultaneously by a simple repetitive phrase for each line:
Down the slippery slope they slid (swish; swish)
Sitting slightly sideways (swish; swish)
Slipping swiftly see them skid (swish; swish)
On holidays and Fridays (swish; swish)
A more complex accompaniment consists of phrases that enhance the meaning of the verse:
Speech Verse #2
Down the slippery slope they slid (slip and slide)
Sitting slightly sideways (slip and slide)
Slipping swiftly see them skid (down the hill)
On holidays and Fridays (they swiftly glide)
When rehearsing or performing such a verse, one should always recite it first to establish its rhythm and its meaning. The accompaniment is then added to one or more repetitions.
Speech Verse #3
Several accompaniments create an even more complex polyphonic texture. The “Chuckling Chickens” by Molly de Havas can be enhanced in this way:
Come watch the chuckling chickens
as they search for things to eat
They chirp and chatter cheerily
and scratch about their feet
From garden patch and wayside ditch –
as much as they can catch –
They eat, and then each other chase
a choicer bit to snatch
Accompaniment #1
Brawk! Brawk-brawk-brawk
Brawk! Brawk-brawk … etc.
Accompaniment #2
Pick a little, peck a little, pick a little, peck a little
Pick, pick, pick – got to peck a little bit … etc.
And at the end of the poem, one child can crow like a rooster.
Speech for the Temperaments
With older students, you can create even more complexity by adding thematic accompaniments that either reinforce the original verse or stand in contrast to it.
The following tongue twister is first recited as a round, and then three different accompaniments are added successively.
Of these, the first corresponds to the melancholic woodchuck, the next to a sanguine woodchuck, and the third to the choleric parent woodchuck who draws out the word “chuck” to rally the chicks.
(A phlegmatic woodchuck would not be keen to work so hard and is therefore not included.)
Speech Verse #4
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
It would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could
If a woodchuck could chuck wood!
Melancholic accompaniment:
Oh, how I’m getting tired
Tired of chucking wood
Oh, how I’m getting tired
Of chucking so much wood
Sanguine accompaniment:
I like chucking wood
Chucking wood all day!
I like chucking wood
‘Cos chucking wood’s not work, it’s play!
Choleric accompaniment:
Chu-uck that wood!
Come and chuck some wood!
Chu-uck that wood!
Come on, kids, let’s chuck some wood!
The Quodlibet
Quodlibets are an even more challenging variation of polyphonic speech. The term is Latin and means “what(ever) pleases”.
A musical quodlibet combines several different melodies. For instance, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Frere Jacques” and “Three Blind Mice” can be sung together because they have a similar rhythmic structure and their melodies blend harmoniously.
A spoken quodlibet consists of different verses recited either concurrently or as a round. This creates a dense texture that makes the individual parts difficult to follow.
Because there is so much interference or distraction from other lines, students are only ready to work on quodlibets when they can easily hold their own part while listening to different words.
Exploring Quodlibets
Quodlibets are not just speech exercises; they also strengthen the students’ mental capacities by making them focus on their words without getting distracted by what their classmates are reciting.
They can be created with different levels of difficulty. For instance, students can progress from reciting quodlibets whose parts share a common rhythmic structure to using parts that have conflicting rhythms, or even working with prose.
All of these require even more attention and memory, but when they have learnt to recite a quodlibet successfully, your students will feel a great sense of accomplishment.
Many simple verses that have similar rhythmic structures can be combined to create quodlibets. You will find it gratifying to discover those that go well together, often with humorous results.
To build confidence, let each group recite their part and then switch them round.
Two groups can speak “Cheap Sea Trips” and “Glue Gun Glue” first concurrently, both parts beginning at the same time:
I do like cheap sea trips (Go and get the glue-gun glue)
Cheap sea trips on ships (Glue-gun glue to use)
I like to be on the deep blue sea (Glue-gun glue must first get hot)
When the ship she rolls and dips (For glue-gun glue to ooze)
Then recite them staggered, like a round:
I do like cheap sea trips
Cheap sea trips on ships (I do like cheap sea trips)
I like to be on the deep blue sea (Cheap sea trips on ships)
When the ship she rolls and dips (I like to be on the deep blue sea …)
And:
Go and get the glue-gun glue
Glue-gun glue to use (I do like cheap sea trips)
Glue-gun glue must first get hot (Cheap sea trips on ships)
For glue-gun glue to ooze (I like to be on the deep blue sea …)
Three or more verses can be matched, demanding even greater focus. You may want your students to try this once they have mastered simpler arrangements.
But this is a challenging exercise, and it is important not to proceed so quickly that students feel lost and get frustrated.
Polyphonic Speech
Throughout the grades, polyphonic speech provides many opportunities for bringing a dynamic and creative element into your speech work with students.
Whether it is call and response, speech rounds, verses with accompaniments, or quodlibets – students are seen to become enthusiastic because polyphonic speech is so challenging and so much fun.
It allows students to express their individuality while working together with their classmates to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Working with polyphonic speech results in greater respect for and appreciation of others, and it can even bring about greater social harmony.
Let this article inspire you to try what I have described, and to create your own speech exercises to suit the character of your class.
I hope that your students too will experience the social benefits from working together in such a way.
Roberto Trostli has been active in Waldorf education since 1981 as a class teacher, high school teacher, adult educator, lecturer, and author. His latest book is published by Waldorf Publications:
“Roberto Trostli’s For the Love of Language: Recitation the Waldorf Way is a two-volume manual offering a comprehensive approach to speech and recitation in the Waldorf classroom. Volume I (Grades 1-4) and Volume II (Grades 5-8) are filled with carefully curated poetry, tongue twisters, songs, quodlibets, and uplifting literature designed to cultivate clear, expressive speech and a strong inner life in students. With detailed guidance for teachers, these manuals support the development of confident, articulate young people and provide a robust foundation in speech arts. Ideal for Waldorf educators and parents alike, each book is a unique blend of inspiration, technique, and practical tools for the classroom.”
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