Too fast? Too slow? Just right!

6 exercises to develop an effective flexible speaking rate

Do you, or do you have students who, habitually talk too quickly? (Very common.) Or too slowly? (Much less common.)

The solution to either speaking too fast or too slowly is not a regular steady pace in the middle ground. That would rapidly become tedious to listen to too. Rather it is to vary speaking rate: to match it to meet the needs of the audience and what is being spoken about, the content.

While that’s all very well in theory, in practice it can be challenging to change a habitual speech rate.

So, how do you do that?

Here are 6 easily implemented suggestions to help develop an effective, flexible speaking rate, along with notes on how speech rate is interpreted by listeners.

Happy teaching, happy speaking,

Susan

PS. If you know Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy ‘To be or Not be’ you’ll appreciate John Bluff’s delightful parody: To Unsubscribe to Marketing Emails, or Not to Unsubscribe to Marketing Emails, That Is the Question. It truly is a gem!

PPS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!