I think rate of speech is one of those things that gets some attention at certain points in one’s studies (especially the beginning), but easily gets forgotten under mountains of vocabulary, tsunamis of pronunciation, and avalanches of grammar.
Here’s a You Can Learn Chinese podcast from last month where we discuss how rate of speech stays relevant at different stages of one’s studies:
- Teachers’ rate of speech (super important in the beginning)
- Dangers of not adapting to a natural rate of speech in one’s studies
- Looking for the right rate of speech for input
- Keeping goals in mind
- Using software to adjust rate of speech for listening materials
- Speaking faster vs. correct tones
- Perceived fluency gains with speaking more quickly?
