Native Rates of Speech: Considerations for Intelligibility Training When Working with L2 Speakers

With the influx of English second language learners (L2) seeking American English speech-language instruction, the importance of intelligibility training for L2 has increased. Slowing a speaker\u27s American English (AE) articulation rate as a means of increasing the accuracy of articulatory placement for the speaker, and decreasing the listener effort for the listener, may be one way to enhance communication exchanges. However, if this feels unnatural to the L2 speaker, because his or her native language (L1) articulation rate is more rapid than AE, then the challenge of habituating a decrease in AE articulation rate may be great. The reason for this continued research is to offer quantifiable measurements of syllables spoken per second (SPS) for native speakers of four different languages: American English (AE), Korean, Arabic, and Tamil. Recorded participants spoke a narrative in their native language, and 60 seconds of each speech sample was analyzed. The Tamil native-speaking participants exhibited the greatest SP S within this study, followed by Arabic, Korean, and AE. Results from this study may be used as an informational tool to advise L2s who possess the assessed native languages that their habitual articulatory speech rates are significantly faster than AE speech rates