A comparison of speaking rate consistency in native and non-native speakers of English

Abstract

Non-native speech differs from native speech in many ways, including overall longer durations and slower speech rates (Guion et al., 2000). Speaking rate also influences how listeners perceive speech, including perceived fluency of non-native speakers (Munro & Derwing, 1998). However, it is unclear what aspects of non-native speech and speaking rate might influence perceived fluency. It is possible that in addition to differences in mean speaking rate, there may be differences in the consistency of speaking rate within and across utterances. In the current study, we use production data to examine speaking rate in native and non-native speakers of English, and ask whether native and non-native speakers differ in the consistency of their speaking rate across and within utterances. We examined a corpus of read speech, including isolated sentences and longer narrative passages. Specifically, we test whether the overall slower speech rate of non-native speakers is coupled with an inconsistent speech rate that may result in less predictability in the produced speech signal.