The Temporal Characteristics of Teenagers in Spontaneous and Rhetorical Speeches

Abstract

The researchers refer to tempo categories as the speech rate and the articulation rate. Both of them are influenced by different factors, like the age, the type and the style of the speech. The effect of the age on speech tempo has already proved and the results showed significant differences among the people with various age including the teenagers whose both speech and articulation rate was the highest. It is still a question what is the speech tempo of teenagers in the various speech genres like and how it is characterized by types of pauses in these communication situations which require different cognitive activities and skills. In this paper speech rate, articulation rate, types and the duration of pauses of teenager speakers’ were analyzed in two communication situations: narrative and rhetorical speeches. Results show that the style of various examined genres of speech have different effect on temporal parameters of teenagers’s speech both regarding the talking rates, articulation rates and also the frequency, types and the duration of pauses.